Eating just a little less butter each day drastically reduces YOUR heart attack risk, says major Harvard study

CUTTING back even slightly on butter, cheese and red meat is enough to ward off heart disease, a major study shows.

Scientists say ditching one per cent of daily saturated fat can cut risk by eight per cent.

The findings suggest massive changes to diet are not needed to protect the heart — and dispel recent studies suggesting that butter and other saturated fats do not increase cardiovascular risk.

The Harvard team studied more than 100,000 US men and women from the mid-1980s onwards.
Those eating the least fat had the lowest heart disease rates but even small cuts in intake saw a big improvement.

Professor Tom Sanders of King’s College London said the findings were important.

He urged the public to eat chicken, lean meat, fish and vegetable oils — and to cut down on cakes, biscuits and pastry. Heart disease kills one in six British men and one in ten women.

The British Heart Foundation’s Tracy Parker said: “Most people eat too much saturated fat. Easy, small changes will help improve our heart health.”

But the National Obesity Forum said the study did not prove that butter was bad.