Experts: Butter for children and healthy people, margarine for those at risk of heart attack
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Healthy people can use butter, but people with elevated cholesterol and at risk of heart attack should avoid it - argued in an interview with PAP Prof. Elżbieta Bartnikowska of the Department of Nutrition, Warsaw University of Life Sciences.
The expert argues that the dispute about what should be spread on bread - butter or margarine - has a long tradition. It began in the prewar years, when the production of margarine increased. Its name comes from the Greek word "margaritari", meaning pearl, because initially it looked like mother of pearl.
Prof. Elżbieta Bartnikowska believes that the error in all discussions lies in the fact that there is no clear answer to the question what to use: butter or margarine. "It depends on whose diet we design" - she said. She gave an example of the overweight or obese, who should stay on a weight reducing diet. "Usually, they are advised to discontinue spreads, because it is the easiest way to reduce the supply of energy" - she added.
According to the expert, butter may be used by healthy persons, because then the diet is more varied. "This is one of the ways to prevent shortages of essential fatty acids intake" - she said.
Butter contains large amounts of medium chain fatty acids, better utilized by the body than long chain fatty acid esters. It also contains vitamins A and E and linoleic acid. "That is why butter is more recommended in the nutrition of children and the elderly" - emphasised Prof. Bartnikowska.
Butter is also recommended for people with impaired absorption of fats, e.g. with damage to the intestinal villi, so-called short bowel syndrome, cholestasis, and in cancer patients with inflammatory bowel disease after irradiation.
"Reducing the consumption of butter is recommended in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis in patients with elevated plasma cholesterol" - added Prof. Bartnikowska.
Prof. Wiktor Szostak from the Food and Nutrition Institute in Warsaw warned that the presence of cholesterol in atherosclerotic lesions was determined already in 1847. After World War II, Framingham studies have shown that elevated blood cholesterol increases the risk of coronary heart disease.
"This was is also checked on the example of the African Bantu tribes. Africans who were vegetarians had low cholesterol, but when they started eating butter, its level in the blood increased. After stopping to eat butter, cholesterol levels fell again" - said Prof. Szostak.
The expert admitted that the choice of fatty acids is only one of many dietary components that affect the risk of cardiovascular disease. "Diet in its entirety plays a role in the development of atherosclerosis" - he added.
According to Prof. Szostak, fat milk and even sour cream are probably less harmful than thought. This is due to the fact that these products contain phospholipid membranes surrounding milk fat. "Recently published research shows that this fat in their environment does not raise levels of bad LDL cholesterol" - explained the specialist.
These phospholipid shells of milk fat is not present in butter, because during production the membranes are ruptured and mostly separated with the buttermilk. "It\'s very likely, but this hypothesis still needs confirmation in further studies" - emphasised Prof. Szostak.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Zbigniew Wojtasiński
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