Butter Leads To Lower Blood Fats Than Olive Oil

High blood fat levels normally raise the cholesterol values in the blood, which in turn elevates the risk of atherosclerosis and heart attack. Now a new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that butter leads to considerably less elevation of blood fats after a meal compared with olive oil and a new type of canola and flaxseed oil. The difference was clear above all in men, whereas in women it was more marginal.

The main explanation for the relatively low increase of blood fat levels with butter is that about 20 percent of the fat in butter consists of short and medium-length fatty acids. These are used directly as energy and therefore never affect the blood fat level to any great extent. Health care uses these fatty acids with patients who have difficulty taking up nutrition in other words, they are good fatty acids.

“A further explanation, which we are speculating about, is that intestinal cells prefer to store butter fat rather than long-chain fatty acids from vegetable oils. However, butter leads to a slightly higher content of free fatty acids in the blood, which is a burden on the body,” explains Julia Svensson, a doctoral candidate in Biotechnology and Nutrition at Lund University.

The greater difference in men is due to, among other things, hormones, the size of fat stores, and fundamental differences in metabolism between men and women, which was previously known. This situation complicates the testing of women, since they need to be tested during the same period in the menstruation cycle each time in order to yield reliable results. Read more

High Levels Of Type Of Cholesterol Not Routinely Screened Linked To Heart Attacks

A genetic analysis from three studies of people living in Denmark found that those who had higher levels of a cholesterol known as lipoprotein (a) due to genetic reasons were at higher risk of heart attack. The researchers suggested that although their findings were strong enough to support the idea that higher levels of lipoprotein (a) due to genetic reasons very probably cause higher risk of heart attack, only randomized clinical trials that show fewer heart attacks occur when lipoprotein (a) is reduced through therapy can prove it.

The study was the work of Dr Pia R Kamstrup, of Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital in Herlev, Denmark, and colleagues, and is published in the 10 June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA.

Despite the fact that statins are now routinely used to lower levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad” cholesterol), myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack) remains a leading cause of illness and death, wrote the authors.

There is a need to identify other risk factors as targets for treatment they said. Lipoprotein (a), a cholesterol that is not included in routine cholesterol screening, has been suggested as a potential candidate, but there is not enough evidence of how closely it is linked to heart attack risk. Read more