Now butter is NOT bad for you – and has little or no link to heart disease

BUTTER has been wrongly “demonised” and is not bad for you, leading nutritionists say.

A review found the dairy product has little or no link to heart disease and may actually reduce the risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

Government nutritional guidelines suggest reducing the intake of saturated fat and ditching butter for “low fat spread”.

Experts have also long suggested cutting back may reduce deaths from heart attacks.

But a review of nine studies published between 2005 and 2015 found no link between butter consumption and cardiovascular disease or strokes.

Researchers found every daily serving of 14g – roughly one tablespoon – even reduced the risk of type-2 diabetes by 4 per cent.

They note the bread and potatoes the butter is typically served on could be more harmful than the spread itself.

But they warn margarines containing healthy oils – such as olive oil – are still likely to be a better option than butter.

Dariush Mozaffarian, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University, United States, said: “Our results suggest that butter should neither be demonised nor considered ‘back’ as a route to good health.”

He analysed studies covering 636,151 people from 15 countries and followed them for a total of 6.5million person years.