Banning butter 'would reduce cardiovascular disease'
A leading heart surgeon has called for butter to be banned in order to reduce incidences of cardiovascular disease, which remains the single biggest killer in the UK.
Each year over 300,000 people in Britain die from heart disease – which could be lowered if the amount of saturated fat people eat is reduced, said Dr Shyam Kolvekar, a consultant at University College London Hospitals.
According to the specialist, butter is one of the main culprits of clogged arteries, which play a major role in the development of heart conditions, and replacing the substance with a healthy spread could help to reduce a woman's daily saturated fat intake by 40 per cent.
Many experts agreed with Dr Kolvekar's recommendations, including June Davison, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation.
Although she stopped short of recommending an outright ban on butter, she did suggest that people who eat a lot of the substance should think about converting to a spread which is lower in saturated fat and is olive oil based or high in polyunsaturates and monounsaturates.
"Probably the best thing to do is encourage people to get used to reading food labels and getting used to knowing what is a high amount of saturated fat and what is a low amount of saturated fat," she said.
Ms Davison pointed out that there are many consequences of having too much saturated fat, such as an increase the risk of fatty deposits developing on the coronary arteries, which supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle.
According to the specialist, eating less cheese and red meat or replacing them with half-fat cheese and white meat is also beneficial to a person's heart health.
Posted by Louise Jones
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