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Author: Sayer Ji
Date: 02 AUG 2025
Reposted with permission from Sayer Ji's Substack
In the early 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi boldly declared that even milk was an unnecessary crutch in the human diet. A devout vegetarian, he sought to prove that a pure plant-based regime could sustain optimal health. For years Gandhi abstained from all animal products, going so far as to call the widespread belief in milk's benefits "a pure superstition."¹
Yet in 1918, amid a severe bout of dysentery and life-threatening weakness, Gandhi faced a harsh realization: his health was failing without the nourishment of dairy. Doctors implored him to break his vow for the sake of survival. Torn between principle and peril, Gandhi at last consented to sip goat's milk – a compromise that technically honored his vow to avoid cow or buffalo milk.² Almost instantly, his strength began to return.
Humbled and enlightened, the great leader later issued a "grave warning" to his followers about excluding dairy: he admitted that no plant food he tried could match the "light and nourishing diet" of milk for the sick or weak.³ Gandhi even challenged anyone to name a vegetable substitute for milk that was "equally nourishing and digestible" – a challenge unmet to this day.⁴
Gandhi's reluctant return to dairy fat serves as a powerful narrative anchor for our journey into the science and history of butter. His experience encapsulates a paradox: On one hand, butter (and its close cousin, ghee) has been revered as a nutrient-dense healing food across cultures for millennia. On the other, in recent decades butter was maligned as a dangerous indulgence, a casualty of the war on saturated fat.
Today, cutting-edge research is redeeming butter's reputation and revealing that this ancestral staple – far from clogging our arteries – may actually nourish our metabolism, protect our hearts, and even support brain health. This butter revival is emblematic of a broader health renaissance – a return to traditional wisdom validated by modern science. Using Gandhi's story as a guidepost, let's explore why butter has endured as a beloved health-giving food and how modern science vindicates the traditional wisdom behind it.
Gandhi's dramatic dietary U-turn was not merely a personal anecdote; it highlighted a truth long known to traditional societies. Butter has been treasured across generations – not just for its rich flavor, but for its life-sustaining qualities.
In India, for example, clarified butter (ghee) is more than a cooking fat; it's a sacred substance. Ayurveda, the 3,000-year-old holistic medical system, deems ghee one of the most precious and therapeutically potent foods, believed to build ojas (vital energy) and bolster both mental and physical strength.⁵ An extensive review of ancient Ayurvedic texts found over 700 passages praising ghee's health benefits – from improving digestion to enhancing cognitive function – often describing it as "the best of all fats."⁶
Similarly, in European history, butter was a symbol of prosperity and nutrition; traditional farming communities instinctively valued the butter churn as a source of strength, long before vitamins were identified.
Butter's exalted status in traditional diets makes the 20th-century vilification of animal fats all the more perplexing. How did a food prized since antiquity suddenly become a pariah? The answer lies in a confluence of early nutrition science, erroneous hypotheses, and corporate interests that together framed butter as dietary enemy number one. To understand how we got butter so wrong, we must revisit the flawed lipid hypothesis of heart disease and the "mad men" era of big edible oil.
No discussion of butter's fall from grace can omit Ancel Keys and the rise of the diet-heart hypothesis. In the 1950s, Keys – an influential physiologist with a forceful personality – proposed that saturated fats (like those in butter, eggs, and meat) were the primary drivers of high cholesterol and, by extension, heart attacks.⁷ This idea, though based on thin and cherry-picked evidence, caught on like wildfire. Keys aggressively promoted his theory by publishing no fewer than 20 papers in 1957-58 and leveraging his sway with organizations like the American Heart Association (AHA).⁸
In 1961, despite no new definitive evidence, the AHA – spurred by Keys' leadership on its Nutrition Committee – issued the first official advice to replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils as a measure against heart disease.⁹ This singular recommendation ("cut back on butter, eat margarine and corn oil instead") became arguably the most influential nutrition policy ever published, ultimately adopted by the U.S. government and echoed in dietary guidelines worldwide.¹⁰
What most consumers didn't know was that the AHA's zeal for promoting vegetable oils wasn't purely altruistic. In 1948, the organization had received a $1.7 million donation from Procter & Gamble, maker of Crisco hydrogenated oil – a sum that transformed the AHA from a small niche group into a national powerhouse.¹¹ That windfall (worth ~$20 million today) came via a P&G-sponsored radio contest and effectively hitched the Heart Association's wagon to Big Oil's star.¹² As one dietary historian dryly noted, "vegetable oils such as Crisco have reaped the benefits ever since," with Americans increasing their consumption of industrial seed oils by ~90% between 1970 and 2014 under the AHA's guidance.¹³ In hindsight, a conflict of interest is apparent: the AHA's early embrace of polyunsaturated oils aligned neatly with its benefactor's business interests.
Figure: After decades of vilifying butter and other natural fats, mainstream nutrition began reversing course in the 2010s. A 2014 Time magazine cover captured this shift with the bold headline "Eat Butter", highlighting new scientific reviews that found no link between butter intake and heart disease.¹⁴ This moment symbolized the broader "war on fat" winding down, as researchers acknowledged that natural saturated fats were never the chief culprit behind heart disease. (Cover image © Time, June 23, 2014)
The demonization of butter was sustained for decades by what we now recognize as a simplistic and flawed hypothesis. Yes, saturated fat can raise LDL cholesterol modestly, but the original "cholesterol = heart attack" equation turned out to be woefully incomplete.
Starting in the 1960s, large randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of evidence) put the diet-heart hypothesis to the test. In these trials, tens of thousands of participants replaced saturated fats (like butter) with polyunsaturated vegetable oils to see if heart attacks would decline. The results were eye-opening: the swaps did lower blood cholesterol levels – in one meta-analysis, by an impressive 14% on average.¹⁵ However, this cholesterol drop did not translate into fewer heart attacks or longer lives. As a 2016 review in the British Medical Journal bluntly concluded, the big diet-heart trials "showed no mortality benefit" at all, and some even suggested higher death rates in the low-saturated fat groups.¹⁶
In the Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73), for example, the vegetable oil group saw cholesterol plummet, but for every 30 mg/dL drop in cholesterol, risk of death increased by 22% (a paradoxical finding the original investigators chose not to publish at the time).¹⁷ Meanwhile, the Sydney Diet Heart Study (1966-73) revealed a grim outcome: men with heart disease told to use safflower oil had a 62% higher risk of death than those who stuck with butter and the like.¹⁸ In the researchers' own words, "substituting dietary linoleic acid (omega-6 from safflower oil) in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease."¹⁹
How did such contrary evidence get buried for so long? It turns out that once Keys' hypothesis took hold, a mix of bias and industry influence led to decades of selective reporting. Trials that failed to show benefits of low-fat diets often went unpublished or were glossed over, while supportive data (even if weak) were trumpeted.²⁰ Only in the 2000s and 2010s did independent researchers dig up the forgotten results and re-analyze them, forcing a reckoning.
By 2020, a plethora of large reviews had concluded that saturated fat consumption has no significant effect on cardiovascular mortality or total mortality.¹ In plain terms, the evidence simply doesn't support the long-standing 10% limit on saturated fats in dietary guidelines.²² It took the scientific community far too long to formally recognize what many traditional-food enthusiasts had suspected: natural fats like butter were never the poison they were made out to be.
What, then, makes butter a healthful food? To answer that, we must look at butter's biochemical composition – a unique matrix of fatty acids and micronutrients that can have surprising benefits for metabolism, the cardiovascular system, and even the brain. Butter is often simplistically described as "a saturated fat," but in reality it contains a spectrum of fatty acids, including a range of short- and medium-chain fats that set it apart from the long-chain fats dominating industrial seed oils. It also carries fat-soluble vitamins and other bioactive substances that are scarce in modern diets, especially vegan diets.
View the GreenMedInfo.com Butter Research database.
Before diving into butter's specific compounds, let's look at what peer-reviewed research reveals about butter's therapeutic effects:
1. Cardiovascular Protection: Despite decades of warnings, butter consumption shows cardioprotective effects in clinical trials. A 2021 study found that butter (along with olive oil) actually improved endothelial function in type 1 diabetics – the very population most at risk for cardiovascular complications.⁵² This challenges the notion that butter damages blood vessels.
2. Anti-Allergic and Immune-Modulating Properties: Butter enriched with CLA and vaccenic acid has been shown to attenuate allergic airway disease in animal studies, suggesting butter may help modulate overactive immune responses.⁵³ Additionally, vaccenic acid from butter favorably alters immune function, particularly in metabolic syndrome.⁵⁴
3. Metabolic Benefits: Multiple studies demonstrate butter's positive metabolic effects:
40% reduction in triglycerides from vaccenic acid supplementation⁵⁵
Reduced liver fat production and improved lipid metabolism⁵⁶
No adverse effects on cholesterol ratios – ghee actually raised beneficial HDL cholesterol in human trials⁵⁷
4. Tissue Regeneration: Traditional formulations containing ghee have demonstrated enhanced wound healing and tissue regeneration in clinical studies, validating ancient Ayurvedic practices.⁵⁸ This suggests butter's nutrients support cellular repair processes.
5. Diabetes Protection: As mentioned earlier, the trans-palmitoleic acid in butter is associated with up to 60% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes – a finding so significant that Harvard researchers patented its potential therapeutic use.³⁰
Butter is about 11-15% short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which have distinctly different metabolic effects than the long-chain fats in meats or seed oils. A signature component is butyric acid (a 4-carbon SCFA), which actually gives butter its name (from butyros, Greek for butter). Remarkably, butter is the richest dietary source of butyrate – it contains about 3–4% butyric acid by weight, mostly as part of a triglyceride called tributyrin.²³
Butyrate is a small fat with outsized importance: in the gut, it's a preferred fuel for the cells lining the colon and has potent anti-inflammatory effects. Even more fascinating is butyrate's potential neuroprotective role. Neuroscientists have found that butyrate acts as a histone deacetylase inhibitor, essentially influencing gene expression in ways that protect brain cells and improve neuronal resilience.²⁴ Pharmacological doses of butyrate have shown "profoundly beneficial effects on brain disorders ranging from neurodegenerative diseases to psychological disorders," according to a 2016 review in Neuroscience Letters.²⁵
While most butyrate in our bodies is produced by healthy gut bacteria fermenting fiber, consuming butter provides butyrate directly – potentially supporting gut health and, by extension, the gut-brain axis. Butter's short-chain fats are also rapidly absorbed and burned for energy, tending not to be stored as body fat. This is one reason high-quality butter (especially from grass-fed cows) is often included in ketogenic and other low-carb diets: it provides quick energy that can be converted into ketones, fueling the brain while maintaining stable blood sugar.
There's another obvious but often overlooked benefit of butter: it's profoundly satiating. Unlike the refined grains that replaced fats in our "healthy" low-fat diets, butter signals genuine satisfaction to your brain and body. A pat of butter on your vegetables or melted into your morning eggs provides lasting fullness, whereas a bowl of cereal or slice of toast – despite having similar or even more calories – leaves you hungry again within hours. This isn't a character flaw or lack of willpower; it's biology. Grains spike blood sugar and insulin, leading to a crash that triggers renewed hunger. Butter, by contrast, provides steady energy without the rollercoaster – one reason why people who add healthy fats back into their diets often find that ceaseless, nagging hunger simply disappears. When French women famously stay slim while eating butter-rich croissants, it's not despite the butter – it's partly because of it. Fat satisfies in a way that carbohydrates simply cannot.
Butter is a natural multivitamin. Traditional peoples didn't know about vitamins, but they knew that butter from cows grazing on rapidly growing green pasture was a deeply nourishing substance, even curative for illness. We now understand that such butter is rich in vitamin A (as retinol, the ready-to-use form), vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K2. A single tablespoon of butter provides about 10% of the daily value of vitamin A,²⁶ crucial for immune function, vision, and skin health. Butter's vitamin D content is modest, but every bit helps given widespread D deficiency. Additionally, food derived vitamins are qualitatively superior in therapeutic properties to semi- and synthetic vitamins, which form the basis for almost all food additives and supplements on the market today.
Perhaps most significant is vitamin K2 (menaquinone), a nutrient almost exclusively found in animal fats and fermented foods. Grass-fed butter is an especially good source of K2 and has long been touted in the holistic nutrition world (Weston A. Price's "Activator X" is thought to have been K2 in high-vitamin butter oil). Why care about K2? This underappreciated vitamin directs calcium to the right places (bones and teeth) and keeps it out of the wrong places (arteries and soft tissues). High K2 intake has been linked to lower risk of artery calcification and heart disease in epidemiological studies.²⁷ There is even compelling evidence that it may contribute to decalcifying soft tissue deposits, along with arterial calcifications.
Vegans can obtain K1 from leafy greens, but converting it to K2 is inefficient. Thus, butter provides a form of K2 that is extremely difficult to get on a plant-based diet – one reason some vegans develop K2 deficiency issues over time. As one nutrition author quipped, "butter makes your bones strong and arteries flexible" – largely thanks to K2.
Butter from grass-fed ruminants contains small but significant amounts of special fatty acids like CLA, vaccenic acid, and trans-palmitoleic acid that have garnered attention for their health benefits. CLA, for example, is a naturally occurring omega-6 derivative that has shown anti-cancer and metabolism-improving effects in animal studies.²⁸ Grass-fed dairy can contain 300-500% more CLA than grain-fed, and research suggests CLA may help reduce body fat and fight malignancies (though human trials are still limited).²⁹ View the CLA database on Greenmedinfo.com for more information.
Vaccenic acid (an omega-7 trans fat, named after cows Bos taurus) is another intriguing fat in butter; our bodies can convert vaccenic acid into CLA, and in mice it has demonstrated anti-atherogenic effects, meaning it can reduce plaque formation in arteries. View the vaccenic acid database on Greenmedinfo.com.
Perhaps the most remarkable of these fatty acids is trans-palmitoleic acid (trans-C16:1n7), a mouthful of a molecule that is garnering fame as a biomarker for dairy intake. Found almost exclusively in ruminant fat, trans-palmitoleate has been associated with improved metabolic health in multiple studies. Harvard researchers analyzing data from thousands of U.S. adults discovered that people with higher circulating levels of trans-palmitoleic acid had significantly lower odds of developing type 2 diabetes – by as much as 60% – and also tended to have trimmer waistlines, higher HDL ("good") cholesterol, lower triglycerides, less insulin resistance and less systemic inflammation.³⁰ In fact, trans-palmitoleate was so promising that those researchers filed a patent application for its potential use in diabetes prevention.³¹
One striking finding: in that cohort, adults with the highest dairy fat biomarkers had roughly half the risk of new-onset diabetes compared to those with the lowest, despite no differences in overall diet or lifestyle.³² It appears that something inherent in dairy fat confers a protective effect – a direct challenge to the old dogma that "full-fat dairy causes diabetes or heart disease." On the contrary, these unique fats may be part of why full-fat dairy consumption is often associated with better metabolic outcomes, including lower rates of obesity and diabetes, in observational studies.³³
Taken together, the components of butter paint a very different picture than the one-dimensional "artery-clogging saturated fat" narrative. Butter is a matrix of bioactive nutrients that work synergistically in the body. When you spread true butter (especially from grass-fed cows) on your vegetables or melt it into stews, you're adding much more than calories; you're adding compounds that can quell inflammation, feed the gut-brain axis, boost absorption of nutrients(butter's fat helps you absorb fat-soluble vitamins from other foods), and provide enduring energy. Notably, none of these benefits apply to margarine or refined plant oils – which leads us to the cautionary tale of what replaced butter during its exile.
When public health authorities shunned butter, the idea was that man-made substitutes would be better for us. Unfortunately, that cure turned out to be worse than the disease. Hydrogenated oils (think Crisco shortening and the original stick margarines) and industrial seed oils (corn, soybean, cottonseed, safflower, etc.) became the go-to fats for home cooks and food manufacturers alike in the late 20th century. We now have decades of data on these fats – and the verdict is chilling.
Unlike butter, which had been nourishing humans for ages, partially hydrogenated oils introduced trans-fatty acids into the food supply at unprecedented levels. These trans fats are formed when liquid vegetable oil is chemically altered to be solid at room temperature. They gave margarine the texture of butter, but our bodies paid the price.
By the 1990s and 2000s, study after study was confirming that trans fats are uniquely harmful. Even in relatively small amounts, trans-fatty acids wreak havoc on our cardiovascular system and metabolism. A 2009 Atherosclerosis review concluded that "hydrogenated trans fats have a number of serious negative health effects," including raising LDL cholesterol, lowering HDL, triggering inflammation, and damaging the endothelial cells that line our arteries.³⁴ Unlike natural saturated fats, which tend to raise both "bad" and "good" cholesterol modestly, trans fats raise the bad and lower the good, an awful double-whammy.
Epidemiological analyses have shown that people with higher trans fat intakes have significantly greater risk of heart disease. For example, women consuming the most trans fat had a 30%+ higher risk of coronary heart disease in one long-term study.³⁵ Other research linked trans fats to systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and even higher risk of diabetes and certain cancers. As one medical journal plainly stated, "There is definitive evidence from multiple randomized trials that trans-fatty acids have adverse health effects."³⁶
It's telling that as the truth came out, public policy eventually did a 180°: trans fats, once the darlings of "heart-healthy" cooking, have now been banned or strictly limited in many countries. In the US, the FDA removed partially hydrogenated oils from the list of Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) ingredients in 2015, leading to near-elimination of dietary trans fats in recent years.
Industrial seed oils that aren't hydrogenated (so, mostly trans-fat free) might seem safer by comparison, but they come with their own set of concerns. These oils – extracted at high temperatures from soybeans, rapeseed (canola), corn, sunflower seeds, etc., often using chemical solvents – are extremely high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially linoleic acid. While a certain amount of omega-6 is essential in the diet, the modern Western diet often contains omega-6 to omega-3 ratios of 10:1 or higher, versus the 1:1 to 4:1 ratio believed to be optimal (and even this is considered be a radical departure from ancestral diets where omega-3 fatty acids in animal form (i.e. DHA/EPA) were much higher). One thing is for certain, excess omega-6, particularly when not balanced by omega-3s, can tip the body toward a pro-inflammatory state.
Even more troubling, when these oils are used for frying or processed into packaged foods, they can oxidize and form toxic oxidation products. Scientists have implicated oxidized omega-6 fats in everything from endothelial dysfunction to liver damage. The clinical trial evidence on replacing saturated fat with omega-6 oils has already shown us that it doesn't confer the expected heart benefits. Recall the Sydney study above – more omega-6 led to worse outcomes.³⁷ Similarly, in the re-analysis of the Minnesota experiment, participants who achieved the largest cholesterol reductions (by eating corn oil in place of butter) had higher mortality, suggesting that something about aggressively lowering cholesterol via high-PUFA intake was counterproductive.³⁸ Researchers have hypothesized that while omega-6 oils do lower LDL cholesterol, they may also make LDL particles more vulnerable to oxidation (which is a key step in plaque formation).³⁹
The bottom line: Just swapping butter for corn or soybean oil cannot be assumed to improve health – and may well undermine it. From a historical perspective, it's sobering to realize that when we told everyone to replace butter with margarine and shortening, we inadvertently pushed them toward ingredients that had never been part of the human diet before. The spike in heart disease in the mid-20th century correlates with many factors (smoking, sugar, etc.), but certainly the displacement of traditional fats by novel industrial fats is a suspect. Indeed, as trans fat intake plummeted over the last decade, population-level heart attack rates have shown additional declines. We may have finally slain that particular demon.
For ethical vegans, avoiding butter is often a matter of principle – no animal foods, period. It is not this article's purpose to challenge anyone's ethical stance. However, when it comes to health arguments against butter, it's important to separate ideology from science. Vegans often claim that "anything nutritionally needed from butter can be obtained from plants." Is that true? The evidence suggests otherwise, and even Gandhi's story speaks to the irreplaceable qualities of dairy fat. Let's address a few common points:
We've seen that dietary cholesterol in foods like butter has minimal impact on blood cholesterol in most people (so much so that the U.S. Dietary Guidelines dropped its cholesterol limit in 2015). As for saturated fat, the relationship with heart disease is far more nuanced than once thought. Large analyses find no significant association between butter intake and cardiovascular disease.⁴⁰ In fact, a 2016 systematic review encompassing over 636,000 people found that butter consumption was not linked to heart disease or stroke, and was even slightly protective against type 2 diabetes.⁴¹
One reason might be butter's effect on the size and type of cholesterol particles. Unlike trans fats, which unequivocally worsen the cholesterol profile, dairy fats often raise HDL and can shift LDL towards a less harmful, larger subtype.An Indian clinical trial, for example, found that a diet including generous amounts of ghee (clarified butter) did not adversely affect serum lipids and actually increased HDL ("good") cholesterol.⁴² The authors noted no significant change in the total cholesterol/HDL ratio – a key marker of cardiac risk – in the ghee group.
So the simplistic view of "butter => saturated fat => heart attack" is outdated. If one replaces butter with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, there might be some cardiovascular benefit (olive oil has its own unique advantages). But replacing butter with processed margarine or omega-6 oils is clearly a downgrade for health.
This is a tricky one. Certain nutrients can be obtained elsewhere – for instance, beta-carotene in carrots can convert to vitamin A. But conversion rates vary (and can be near zero for some individuals due to genetics or gut issues), whereas butter provides preformed vitamin A that is 100% bioavailable.⁴³ Vitamin D can be made from sun exposure, but many people are deficient, and few plant foods contain it.
The really challenging nutrients are Vitamin K2, CLA, and trans-palmitoleic acid – none of which have meaningful amounts in a standard vegan diet. Vitamin K2 (the MK-4 and MK-7 forms) is present in natto (fermented soy), some sauerkraut, and a few other fermented veggies, but levels are modest unless one eats these foods in large quantities regularly. Butter, especially from grass-fed cows, offers a convenient source of K2 that has been linked to better arterial and bone health.⁴⁴
CLA is found predominantly in the fat of ruminant animals; a vegan might get a tiny dose from mushrooms or seaweed, but nowhere near the amounts studied for health effects. As for trans-palmitoleic acid, it is essentially absent in plant foods. The only notable sources are dairy fat and, to a lesser extent, meat from ruminants. Yet this odd fat is associated with markedly lower metabolic risk in humans.⁴⁵ Researchers believe it may directly improve insulin signaling or reduce ectopic fat deposition, which could explain why dairy consumers often have better weight and blood sugar outcomes.⁴⁶
But there's an even deeper reason why animal products like butter may be irreplaceable: the emerging science of dietary microRNAs (miRNAs) in exosomes. These are tiny gene-regulatory molecules packaged in microscopic vesicles that survive digestion and can alter gene expression in our bodies. Recent research reveals that we don't just absorb nutrients from food – we absorb genetic instructions that can turn our genes on or off. This represents a paradigm shift from the old model of nutrition to what some call "the new biology" – where diet doesn't just fuel us but actively regulates our genetic expression, much like a conductor directing an orchestra.⁴⁷
Here's where it gets fascinating: through millions of years of co-evolution with domesticated animals, our bodies may have become dependent on the specific miRNAs found in dairy and other animal products. These cross-species messengers could be performing essential regulatory functions that we're only beginning to understand. When we consume butter, we're not just getting fats and vitamins – we're potentially receiving ancestral genetic signals that have been fine-tuning human metabolism since the dawn of animal husbandry. This aligns with the ancestral nutrition template: the foods that sustained our ancestors for millennia likely contain bioactive compounds our bodies expect and require for optimal function.⁴⁸
If this hypothesis proves correct, it would mean that no amount of plant foods or synthetic supplements could replicate the complete biological information package found in traditional animal foods like butter. You can manufacture vitamin K2 in a lab, but you can't recreate the complex symphony of regulatory RNAs that evolved specifically within the human-ruminant relationship. This may explain why, despite our best efforts at fortification and supplementation, vegan diets often fail to support optimal health in the long term – they're missing not just nutrients, but an entire layer of genetic communication.
In short, butter provides niche nutrients that plants do not, and potentially crucial genetic regulatory elements that can't be synthesized. Modern vegans can and do supplement many missing pieces (B12, algae-based omega-3, vitamin D, etc.), but replicating the full package of a food like butter is not straightforward – and may be fundamentally impossible.
For those looking to go deeper down this fascinating rabbit hole, Udo Erasmus’ book Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill is a must read.
It's true that some studies years ago linked high-fat dairy to certain cancers (like prostate cancer), but newer research has questioned those associations or found them confounded by other factors (e.g., high dairy intake might accompany high calcium which can in excess affect prostate cancer risk, but the data are mixed). On the other hand, CLA in butter has demonstrated anti-cancer properties in lab studies,⁵⁹ and some population studies actually tie full-fat dairy to lower risks of colorectal cancer and even reduced infertility in women (possibly due to hormonal benefits of fats).
It is probably misleading to claim butter is a cancer-fighting superfood – it's not a cure-all – but the point is that moderate butter consumption in the context of a healthy diet has not been shown to increase cancer risk, and in some cases correlates with lower risk compared to low-fat dairy. The biggest risk factors for our modern chronic diseases remain the obvious ones: smoking, excess refined sugars and starches, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress. Butter, when used sanely, doesn't make that list of villains. In fact, replacing some refined carbs with natural fats like butter can improve blood triglycerides, lower blood sugar spikes, and control hunger – all beneficial for metabolic disease prevention.
It's worth circling back to Gandhi here. Gandhi's ethical stance against dairy was born of compassion, influenced by witnessing the cruel practices in commercial dairies of his time.⁶⁰ But when confronted with the realities of human physiology, he adjusted his approach. After recovering on goat's milk, Gandhi candidly wrote that while he wished humans could thrive without exploiting animals, one must "not hold life cheaper than dietetic principles." He urged those who had joined him in eschewing milk to resume it if their health suffered, conceding that especially for the weak or sick, no medicine or plant food could substitute the revitalizing nourishment of dairy.⁶¹
In one poignant reflection, Gandhi noted that even the strongest man is weaned off his mother's milk only when ready, and questioned whether it was wise to stubbornly avoid such a "sustaining and precious food" later in life. This does not mean everyone must consume dairy to be healthy – many individuals live well without it. But it underscores the idea that animal fats have been an integral part of human nutrition for ages and provide certain advantages that are hard to replicate. A respectful dialogue about butter and health can acknowledge the ethical viewpoint of veganism while also recognizing that from a purely nutritional science perspective, dairy fat offers unique benefits that merit consideration.
In recent years, the nutrition pendulum has swung back toward embracing traditional fats. The slogan "Eat Butter" – splashed on that memorable 2014 Time cover – captured a public reawakening to what our ancestors knew intuitively. Butter, when coming from healthy, pasture-raised animals, is a wholesome, nutrient-rich food. It is not a poison to be feared, but rather a source of metabolic fuel, fat-soluble nutrition, and culinary joy. Modern science has vindicated many of butter's supposed "flaws" (such as saturated fat content) as oversimplified or mischaracterized, while highlighting specific positives like butyrate for gut/brain health, CLA for immunity and weight modulation, and vitamin K2 for cardiovascular and skeletal strength. Importantly, the crusade against butter inadvertently led us to consume far worse alternatives – trans-fat laden margarines and excessive omega-6 oils – which are now recognized as genuine health hazards.
Of course, balance and food quality matter. The aim is not to dump copious amounts of butter in every meal, nor to suggest that adding butter alone will fix a poor diet. Rather, the takeaway is one of empowerment through accurate nutrition science: we can discard the old fear-mongering and enjoy butter in moderation as part of an overall wholesome diet – especially if it's from grass-fed sources – without guilt and likely with benefit.
The humble butter churn connects us to our heritage, when foods were farmed and prepared with care, and butter's golden glow graced family tables to everyone's delight. We lost some of that wisdom in the fat-phobic late 20th century, but we are regaining it now. In Gandhi's final approach to diet, he chose a path of moderation and personalization – remaining largely vegetarian, but permitting himself and others the flexibility to include nutrient-dense animal foods like dairy when needed for health. In much the same way, we can honor the ethical and environmental dimensions of our food choices while also listening to our biology and the lessons of both history and science.
Butter, it turns out, was not the enemy we were told it was. And for many, it can be a valuable ally in the pursuit of metabolic well-being, heart health, and even a happy mind. So go ahead and savor that pat of butter on your steamed vegetables or morning toast – your ancestors would approve, and your body just might too.
