Some people swear by buttered toast in the morning or baking with butter. Don't talk to them about other breakfast foods or sunflower oil. Unfortunately, like many of life's pleasures, butter is bad for you, at least when consumed in excess.
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LDL: the bad cholesterol
There are good and bad cholesterol. And as you have surely guessed, butter contains a lot of the one you should avoid: LDL cholesterol.
Its effects? In the long term, when this 'bad cholesterol' oxidises, it deposits on the walls of the arteries, and deteriorates and clogs them, which can lead to a cascade of health problems: clots, strokes, heart attacks...
HDL: the good cholesterol
That said, butter does not only contain bad things. Paradoxically, it also contains HDL cholesterol, which helps 'prevent the formation of atherosclerosis plaques on the artery walls.'
These lipoproteins are present in sunflower oil, soybean oil, and walnut oil, and they are part of the 'good cholesterol' team. If you want to ban butter from your diet or simply reduce its use, there are several ways to replace it.
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But may be not with margarine, whichis usually sold as the healthier alternative to butter. According to Yuka (yes, the app hated by industrialists):
Replacing butter with margarine is pointless unless you're vegan or lactose intolerant. Rather than eliminating butter and replacing it with margarine, it's better to make sure we reduce our consumption of industrial products like cookies and ready-made meals that often hide saturated fats and trans-fatty acids, and are very high in sugars.
This article was translated from Gentside FR.
