Low-carb diets are incredibly healthy.
They have been shown to cause much greater weight loss than the standard “low-fat” diet, at least in the short-term (1, 2, 3).
They also lead to improvements in many health markers, such as blood triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, insulin sensitivity and others (4, 5,6).
Despite low-carb diets being high in fat, they usually don’t cause an increase in LDL (the “bad”) cholesterol – on average (7, 8).
However, just because there is no effect seen in a large group, there is a lot of room for individual variability.
Many physicians who treat their patients with low-carb diets note that some of them develop very high LDL levels.
This involves a major increase in both LDL “cholesterol” and LDL particle number (or Apolipoprotein B). This may be a major concern, and should definitely not be ignored.
Some have claimed that this may be caused by the high butter content that is typical on a low-carb diet.
Interestingly, a common belief these days is that low-carb diets should be very highin butter, and that people should even add it to their coffee.
I used to believe that butter (especially grass-fed) was healthy and that eating plenty of it was fine. However, new evidence has made me reconsider my position.
Is Saturated Fat Bad For You?
For many decades, saturated fat has been believed to be a major driver of heart disease.
Because of this, most dietary guidelines still recommend that people reduce their saturated fat intake.
However, several recent studies have found that there really is no association between saturated fat intake and heart disease.
For example, two massive review studies, one from 2011 with 347,747 participants and the other from 2014 with 643,226 participants, found no link between saturated fat consumption and heart disease risk (9, 10).
A recent review of randomized controlled trials also found no link. However, they did find a small reduction in cardiovascular events (but not heart attacks or death) when saturated fats were replaced with polyunsaturated fats (11).
Overall, the evidence seems pretty clear that saturated fat is not bad. Focusing on it is a waste of time, at best.
However, there’s nothing particularly “good” about it either. It is just neutral. There is certainly no scientifically valid reason to encourage people to eat a lot of it.
Bottom Line: New studies show that saturated fat does not increase the risk of heart attacks or death. It has mostly neutral effects on health.
High-Fat Dairy Products Seem to be Healthy
Despite having been demonized in the past, high-fat dairy products seem to be very healthy.
They are loaded with high quality protein, calcium, vitamin B12 and various other important nutrients.
There is actually no clear relationship between high-fat dairy consumption and heart disease. Some studies show an increased risk, others a decreased risk, while others show no effect whatsoever (12, 13).
This may depend on the way the dairy cows were fed. In countries where cows are largely grass-fed, consuming high-fat dairy products is linked to a reduced risk of heart disease (14, 15, 16).
The association is often very powerful, with high-fat dairy eaters having a 69% lower risk of heart disease in one study (17).
This may be caused by other beneficial nutrients that tend to be found in higher amounts in dairy products from grass-fed cows. This includes vitamin K2, CLA, omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants (18, 19, 20, 21, 22).
But even if “high-fat dairy” as a whole is beneficial, it doesn’t mean that this applies toall the individual high-fat dairy products.
As it turns out, butter may have different effects on heart disease risk factors than the others
Bottom Line: There is no evidence that high-fat dairy products cause heart disease. They are even linked to reduced heart disease risk in countries where cows are largely grass-fed.
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