Butter ban 'would save lives'

Here's a quick little article, says what it says in the title really. I'm not too sure that a 'butter ban' alone would really change mortality figures if saturated fat is a major factor in cardiovascular disease, as is believed by most of the medical profession. A serious reduction in all things that contained saturated fats, & a focus on more animal-free products would be a quick, easy way to lower overall saturated fat intake (things like having healthier options for school meals, hospitals & other Government run operations & more money put into promoting options that lower saturated intake) & a move to encourage more exercise would be some good steps. But there you go ,obviously they do think it would help & I suppose to make such a claim you'd hope they had some research to back it up (as it implies from the quotes - 82% reduction by simply swapping out butter, if they could prove that, then you think everyone would drop the butter!). Anyway I thought it was interesting enough to put up. I bung the whole article below for you to read if you don't want to click as it's pretty short.

Quote :

Butter ban 'would save lives'

18/01/10, 12:01 am
Press Assoc.


Butter should be banned in a bid to save thousands of lives, a leading heart surgeon claimed.

Shyam Kolvekar, of the University College London Hospital, is leading a campaign to reduce saturated fat in diets after treating patients as young as 33 for heart bypass operations.

As the Food Standards Agency launches the second stage of a campaign to boost awareness of the dangers of saturated fat, Mr Kolvekar said reducing intake in line with Government recommendations could prevent at least 3,500 deaths per year.

He said: "By the time I see people it's usually too late, but the frustrating thing is that often the need for heart surgery could have been prevented by following a healthier, lower sat fat diet. Simple food swaps can make a big difference.

"In reality people don't stick to complicated diets. By banning butter and replacing it with a healthy spread the average daily sat fat intake would be reduced.

"This would save thousands of lives each year and help to protect them from cardiovascular disease - the UK's biggest killer."

GP Sarah Jarvis supported his comments, adding: "My patients are often simply not aware of how much saturated fat they're eating and the damage this causes until it's too late.

"Simple food swaps every day can help dramatically. A great example is North Karelia in Finland, where there has been an 82% reduction in heart disease amongst men over the last 40 years.

"This has been directly linked to a decrease in butter consumption."

A "healthy spread". What would that be? I eat Earth Balance but it is still saturated fat. All 'spreads' are saturated fat are they not? Last I heard the jury was still out on whether or not coconut oil, etc was actually healthier for you....

It's been a couple of years since I researched it though. Has there been any new news?

No coconut oil is still an unknown, as a plant-based saturate it's not even certain it affects the body the same way as a saturate from an animal source? Plus points, if you are on a plant-based diet & you have some coconut oil, it's unlikely to have an adverse effect unless you eat a lot. There has been over 100 years of anecdotal evidence that coconut fat may aid in strength gains, these references are to be found in the pre-steroid days & so pretty much date back to pre-1950's, the likes of Joseph Hise & co who did a lot to bring in flat footed squatting to the US & experimented in different foods & training protocols. On the negative side, it 'could' add to your cardiovascular issues, or even cause them if you eat enough to trigger an issue, some people may be especially sensitive to stuff like saturates, or eat a lot, but obviously before you have an issue it's hard to know if you are one of those at risk people. I'd look for family issues, medical issues or general weight issues, if you have any of those I'd steer clear of both coconut & palm oil as much as you can, just to be safe, for everyone else I'd say you can have a bit & it won't do any harm as you will be having much less than the average meat eater.
I've read research leaning both for & against coconut oil so it's still not clear cut.

'Spreads' can be made from legumes (houmous, fake cheese spreads, tofu based patés etc etc). If you're talking about a butter copy, I don't use anything like that myself so I'm not sure, I suspect it's certainly possible & has probably been done already. I usually just dump whatever spread I'm going be using on, I don't use a butter substitute or margarine or anything, when I thought about it I never saw the point of it?

I like to use Earth Balance on toast as I really like the taste. Also occasionally I'll make toast with hummus or almond butter but it doesn't taste as good. What do you use for spreads?

...I wonder though what would just putting olive, etc oil on toast taste like? Maybe no different really... Thinking about it makes Earth Balance not sound as good.

I use a selection of stuff (I don't have everything in at one time), peanut butter, tahini, houmous (especially avocado houmous!), provamel soya plain (an organic soya spread that's low fat/high protein), various nut butter (varies I try to change them), yeast extract, fake cheese spreads, yeast based paté, tofu based paté, probably a few others, I have tried out coconut fat spread on & then toasted when I was experimenting with a real bulking plan I had in place, it made a kind of fried bread I suppose, I'd spread both sides, then grill like toast, I've done the same with olive oil & garlic to make a kind of garlic toast, both tasted ok (oh yea & some soy sauce added too if I remember rightly), I've even used tomato paste as a spread in the past, then dumped a little chopped mushroom, soya sauce & stuff to make a kind of toasty fake pizza kind of thing (OK not really a pizza at all, but that's what I called it).
I don't actually eat wheat style bread that often, maybe once a month I get a fresh baked loaf from infinity foods. I do better on other types of loaves like rye bread & other breads not made from wheat (I'll be trying out buckwheat on my next visit to my health food store since I found out a bit more about buckwheat).

I think olive oil spread on toast might work, not sure about sandwiches if they've got to stand as it might soak in & make things a little soggy? I think no spread based on a fat could be anything other than a saturate if it is natural, you'd have to use a fibre type food source (like a legume) that was kind of bulky if you wanted a spread that had a decent consistency for a sandwich you were going to carry about for a bit I think. I don't think a little saturate fat will hurt a person if you only use it for for a few bits of bread (you can spread it really thin if you're especially worried). I've not come across your medical condition before do you have to be especially careful of cardiovascular disease, are you particularly vulnerable, or need to take special precautions?

Yes, they say to watch extra careful about cholesterol and high blood pressure. The doctor was saying if my BP was even 140 systolic he was going to prescribe me a beta blocker (but then you know how doctors like to push drugs...). Anyway my BP is (did I already mention this? I think I did.) is around 105/70 and my cholesterol is on the edge of being considered too low. But other than just being vegan I've not worried about such things really. Used to go pretty heavy on the coconut milk with smoothies.

If your cholesterol was borderline low when you were having the coconut milk then you're probably ok to have some now & again, obviously I'd keep intake on the low side, just to be safe & any changes in cholesterol levels & I'd cut it out, at least until it stabilised again...but I'm sure you've probably worked that out for yourself && I'm just stating the obvious