Butter Might Be Healthier Than Vegetable Oil

Even people who know next to nothing about nutrition can typically tell you two things: Fruits and vegetables = good. Fat = bad. While the produce thing is on the money (as long as you pick the cleanest ones), the newest science suggests that fat's bad reputation is unwarranted — even though scientists are still trying to figure out exactly which fats you should eat to fend off disease and live close to ~forever~. 

A new review​ of data collected years ago in a rigorous, five-year study shakes things up even more: In the study, 9,570​ participants replaced saturated fats in their diets with corn oil, a vegetable oil that contains high levels of omega-6 fatty acids aka linoleic acid. (Refresher: Saturated fat is the kind found in all things delicious, like butter, meat, and cheese — but it tends to be demonized for containing dietary cholesterol thought to increase blood cholesterol and thus contribute to heart disease.)

While forgoing saturated fat did decrease study participants' bad cholesterol levels as expected, this didn't appear to reduce their risk of heart disease and actually led to a higher risk of death. Researchers don't know exactly why, according to study co-author Daisy Zamora, a research scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But they think it has something to do with the way the blood cholesterol was lowered — which involved eating extra linoleic acid, which can cause inflammation that may overshadow any benefits of lowering one's cholesterol. 

No one is suggesting that all oils suck, or that eating butter by the pound will prolong your life. Instead, researchers think that the linoleic acid found in corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, and soybean oil may be linked to chronic pain and other conditions — but more research is needed to really understand its effects, according to Zamora​.  

On the other hand, Zamora adds, oils made from fruits such as olives, avocado, and coconut, as well as canola oil contain much less linoleic acid.

​TL;DR? Vegetable oil only sounds way healthier than butter, and it may not benefit your health in the long run. If your goal is to eat all the good things but still stay healthy forever, olive, avocado, coconut, and canola oils appear to be much healthier than vegetable oils made from corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, and soybean, which don't appear to be much better, overall, than good ol' butter. 

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