Is Butter Actually Bad for You? The Fat We Were Told to Fear

Butter sat at the center of nearly every kitchen for thousands of years. Then within a few decades, people were afraid to eat it.

I'm a first-time homesteader following in the footsteps of my great-grandparents, and butter is now a daily staple in my kitchen after years of believing it was unhealthy. The shift in how I see it didn't come from a study. It came from paying attention.

My great-grandmother milked her own cow and churned her own butter. By the time I was a teenager, my friends and I were chasing low-fat labels and avoiding the same food our ancestors had prized for generations.

Margarine showed up in a spray bottle in my house once, and my body knew within one bite that something was off. That memory stuck for a reason.

The story of butter isn't really about dairy. It's about how trusted foods get replaced, how marketing rewrites memory, and what happens to a family kitchen when you stop asking where the food came from.

You’ll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[1:44] I was a teenager raised on low-fat diets and taught to fear butter

[4:56] The “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter” memory that revealed the deception

[11:32] What Weston A. Price discovered about traditional cultures and animal fats

[13:47] Why vitamins A, E, and K2 found in butter make it essential 

[14:57] How margarine and factory food replaced the farm in the 20th century

[18:19] The mystery-funded studies that convinced doctors saturated fat causes heart disease

[20:37] Why heart disease skyrocketed after butter and lard left the kitchen

[22:16] Question everything and put butter back at the center of your kitchen

Related Gubba Homestead Episodes:

The Truth About Milk: What Changed and Why It Matters
These Secrets Hidden in Mainstream History Reveal A Dark Pattern
The Hidden Benefits of Dandelions & Why No One Knows About Them

Hello, and welcome back to the Gubba Homestead Podcast. I'm Gubba, a first-time homesteader following in the footsteps of my homesteading forebears. I discuss everything from homesteading to prepping and everything in between. Today we're talking about the fat we were taught to fear: butter.

Before we get into that, I want to thank the sponsor of my podcast, which is my small skincare business, Arvoti. It started with one tallow balm for my dad suffering from eczema, and now I get to help thousands of people with their skincare issues.

If you want to upgrade your skincare routine, you can check out my small-batch made tallow balms, cleansers, serums, and goat milk soaps at arvoti.com.

There is something so cozy and comforting watching a pat of butter slowly melt into a warm slice of homemade sourdough bread. On my homestead, I've come to see butter differently than I was taught growing up, because I remember hearing that it was unhealthy, something that clogged your arteries, something to avoid if you wanted to take care of your health.

That reaction was never questioned. It was simply accepted, passed down like common sense. Yet the more time I've spent living closer to the land, making food from scratch, studying traditional cultures, raising animals, and paying attention to the foods that have nourished people for generations, the more I've realized that what we were taught about butter doesn't quite add up.

Because when a food has been valued this consistently, this widely, and for this long across completely different cultures and civilizations, you have to wonder if it was prized for a reason—and whether the problem is the food itself or the way we've been conditioned to see it. How did one of the oldest foods in human history somehow become something people were afraid to put on their toast?

Butter Was Once Just... Food

If you walked into your great-grandmother's kitchen a hundred years ago, chances are you would have found butter somewhere in plain sight.
Not hidden in the back of the refrigerator. Not replaced with a "healthier alternative." Not treated as an indulgence to be consumed sparingly. It sat on the table, rested in a crock on the counter, melted into vegetables, spread across homemade bread, and found its way into nearly every meal prepared in the home.

Butter was simply food.

For generations, nobody thought much about it. Farmers churned it. Families ate it. Children grew up on it. It was one of the most ordinary foods in existence.
Yet if you fast-forward to the late twentieth century, something remarkable happened.

Butter became controversial.

A food consumed by countless generations suddenly found itself blamed for some of society's biggest health concerns. Grocery store shelves filled with substitutes. Television commercials promoted alternatives. Doctors recommended replacing it. Schools removed it. Restaurants swapped it. Entire generations grew up hearing that butter was something to avoid.
Somewhere along the way, one of the oldest foods in human history became the fat we were taught to fear.

The question is: how did that happen?

And perhaps more importantly, what did people see in butter for thousands of years that made them value it so highly in the first place?

The History of Butter: Why Humans Have Valued It for Thousands of Years

To answer that question, we have to go back much further than the invention of margarine or modern dietary guidelines.

We have to go back to a time when food wasn't manufactured in factories. When people lived much closer to the land. When survival depended on recognizing which foods truly nourished the body.

Butter has been part of human history for thousands of years. Historians believe people began making butter shortly after domesticating milk-producing animals. Long before modern refrigeration, butter provided a practical way to preserve valuable nutrients from milk. Cream that might otherwise spoil could be transformed into something that lasted longer and traveled farther.

Ancient cultures from Europe to Asia to the Middle East all developed their own forms of butter. In some places it was used for cooking. In others it was traded as a valuable commodity. In many regions it became a symbol of abundance because only families with healthy livestock and sufficient milk production could afford to make it regularly.

For farming families, butter represented far more than flavor. It represented stored nutrition. It represented food security. It represented the work of healthy animals grazing on healthy land.

If you study old homesteads and traditional farms, you'll quickly discover how important butter once was. Families often churned it weekly. Children helped with the process. Cream was carefully collected and saved. Butter was wrapped, stored, traded, and shared.

Nobody needed a scientific study to convince them butter had value. They could see the value every day. It came from their animals. It sustained their families. It helped them get through long winters.

Why Traditional Cultures Prized Butter

One of the things that fascinates me about traditional foods is how often they appear across completely different cultures. People separated by oceans, languages, and centuries frequently arrived at similar conclusions about which foods deserved a place on the table.

Butter is one of those foods.

Again and again we find cultures that prized it. Not because they had access to modern laboratories, but because generations of observation taught them that certain foods seemed especially nourishing.

Many traditional societies reserved their most nutrient-dense foods for growing children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and those recovering from illness. Butter often appeared among these prized foods.

Years ago, dentist and researcher Weston A. Price traveled the world studying traditional populations that had remained largely untouched by industrialized diets. One of the things he repeatedly observed was the value many cultures placed on animal fats, including butter from grazing animals. Communities that lived very differently from one another often shared a similar respect for foods rich in nutrients.

Why Butter Was Considered One of Nature's Most Nourishing Foods

Today we understand some of the reasons butter was so highly valued.

In many traditional farming communities, butter wasn't merely a condiment sitting on the table. It was considered one of the most valuable foods a family could produce. When cows grazed on lush spring pastures, the cream often developed a rich golden color that farmers associated with quality. Long before anyone understood vitamins or nutritional science, people noticed that healthy animals grazing on healthy land seemed to produce richer milk, richer cream, and richer butter.

Traditional cultures frequently reserved their most nourishing foods for those who needed them most. Growing children, expectant mothers, nursing mothers, and those recovering from illness were often given special foods believed to promote strength and vitality. Across many cultures, butter appeared among these highly valued foods.

If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Before supplements existed, food was the supplement. There was no multivitamin sitting on the kitchen shelf. There were no fortified breakfast cereals or protein bars promising better health. Families depended on nutrient-dense foods produced from healthy soil, healthy plants, and healthy animals.

Butter represented something much larger than flavor. It represented abundance. It represented fertility. It represented the remarkable ability of a family farm to transform grass growing in a pasture into nourishment for the household. Every pat of butter was the end result of sunlight, rainfall, healthy soil, healthy animals, and the labor required to care for them all.

What Nutrients Are Found in Butter?

Butter contains vitamin A, which plays important roles in vision, immune health, and skin health. It contains vitamin E and naturally occurring fatty acids. It also contains vitamin K2, particularly when derived from animals consuming pasture-based diets. Vitamin K2 helps direct calcium to the places it belongs, such as bones and teeth.

Butter also contains a compound called butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that researchers continue to study for its potential role in supporting digestive health. Perhaps equally important, butter helps the body absorb fat-soluble nutrients from other foods. When vegetables are consumed with a source of fat, the body is often better able to utilize certain nutrients they contain.

Of course, our ancestors didn't know the names of these vitamins. They didn't talk about fat-soluble nutrients or biochemical pathways. What they knew was much simpler. They knew butter was nourishing. They knew it satisfied hunger. They knew it helped sustain them through hard work, harsh winters, and growing seasons.

Then something changed.

How Butter Became the Fat We Were Told to Fear

The twentieth century brought incredible advances in science, medicine, transportation, and food production. Many of these developments improved life in meaningful ways. But they also dramatically changed the relationship people had with food.

For the first time in history, large food companies could manufacture products on an enormous scale. Industrial seed oils became increasingly common. Food scientists developed new products. Marketing agencies discovered they could shape public perception.

And somewhere in the middle of all of this emerged one of the most successful food replacements ever created.

Margarine.

It's interesting to think about how unusual this moment was in human history. For thousands of years, people had eaten butter. Entire civilizations had relied upon it. Then suddenly people were being asked to trust a product that had existed for only a tiny fraction of that time.

Yet the timing was perfect.

The twentieth century was an age captivated by innovation. Plastic was replacing natural materials. Processed foods were replacing home cooking. Convenience was replacing labor. New was often assumed to be better simply because it was new.

In that environment, margarine fit perfectly into the story society wanted to tell itself. It wasn't just another food product. It represented modernity. It represented science. It represented progress. Whether or not it was actually superior became almost secondary to what it symbolized.

The old food came from a farm. The new food came from a factory. And for many people, the factory seemed more trustworthy than the farm.

Butter vs. Margarine: How a Cheaper Substitute Became the Healthier Choice

The story of margarine is fascinating because it wasn't originally invented to outperform butter. It was invented as a cheaper substitute.

Over time, however, it evolved into something much larger. It became a symbol of modernity. A symbol of progress. A symbol of science improving upon nature.

Advertisements often portrayed butter as old-fashioned and margarine as advanced. Families were encouraged to believe they were embracing the future by replacing traditional foods with scientifically engineered alternatives.

The messaging was powerful.

Modern people didn't churn butter. Modern people bought margarine. Modern people trusted the experts. And many did.

Did Butter Really Cause Heart Disease?

Another major shift was taking place around this time.

Researchers were searching for explanations for increasing rates of heart disease. Several theories emerged, but one gained particular influence: the idea that saturated fat and cholesterol were major drivers of cardiovascular disease.

As this theory gained traction, butter found itself squarely in the spotlight.

Public health recommendations increasingly encouraged people to reduce saturated fat consumption. Food manufacturers responded. Grocery stores adapted. Schools changed menus. Restaurants adjusted recipes.

Suddenly, butter wasn't simply a food.

It was a suspect.

Entire generations grew up hearing that butter clogged arteries, damaged health, and should be replaced whenever possible.

What's remarkable is how quickly public perception changed. For thousands of years, butter had simply been food. Within a few decades, many people became genuinely afraid of it.

The butter itself hadn't changed. And stories are powerful. They shape how we think. They shape how we shop. They shape what we place on our tables.

The Story Didn't End There

For many years, questioning the narrative surrounding butter was almost unthinkable. The science seemed settled. The recommendations seemed clear. The alternatives seemed superior.

Yet as often happens in science, the story continued to evolve.

Researchers kept studying nutrition.

Many of the margarine products that had replaced butter contained artificial trans fats. For years these fats were considered acceptable and even desirable. Later, research linked them to adverse health outcomes, leading many health organizations and regulatory agencies to recommend their removal from the food supply.

Suddenly, the replacement wasn't looking quite as perfect as it once had.
The story became more complicated. And people began looking at traditional foods with fresh eyes.

Why Butter Is Making a Comeback

Over the past several decades, many individuals have returned to foods their grandparents would immediately recognize. Farmers markets have grown. Homesteading has experienced a resurgence. More people are baking bread, raising animals, gardening, and asking questions about where their food comes from.

Butter has quietly returned to many kitchens. The same food that sat on farmhouse tables generations ago still exists today.

And perhaps that's what makes the story of butter so interesting. It isn't really a story about dairy.

It's a story about how cultural attitudes change, how ordinary things can become controversial, and about how quickly a society can begin viewing something differently.

What Butter Has Come to Mean on My Homestead

In many ways, butter reminds me of other things we've discussed on this podcast. Again and again, we find things that were once considered normal suddenly labeled outdated, dangerous, unnecessary, or inferior.

Because once you start paying attention, you begin to notice a pattern.

The old ways aren't always abandoned because they stopped working.

Sometimes they are abandoned because we stop valuing them.

That doesn't mean every traditional practice is automatically better, nor does it mean every modern innovation is automatically worse. But I do think it's worth asking questions. It's worth understanding where our beliefs came from. It's worth looking at history before accepting the idea that thousands of years of human experience were simply wrong.

The Bottom Line on Butter

The next time you spread butter across a warm piece of sourdough bread, I hope you'll pause for a moment.

Because there is a story sitting on that butter knife.

A story of farmers and families.

Of cows grazing in green pastures.

Of generations who considered butter one of the most nourishing foods they could provide.

A story of scientists, marketers, industries, and changing ideas.

A story of how a food treasured for thousands of years became something many people feared.

And perhaps the most interesting question isn't whether butter is good or bad.

Perhaps the more interesting question is this:

Why did a food that nourished generations become the fat we were taught to fear?

Frequently Asked Questions About Butter

Is butter actually healthy?

Butter contains naturally occurring fats along with nutrients like vitamins A, E, and small amounts of vitamin K2, particularly from pasture-raised animals. Like many traditional foods, butter can be enjoyed as part of an overall balanced diet.

Is butter better than margarine?

Butter and margarine are very different foods with different histories and ingredients. Butter is made from cream, while traditional margarine was developed as a manufactured substitute. Today, many people choose butter because it is a minimally processed, traditional food.

Does grass-fed butter contain more nutrients?

Butter from pasture-raised animals often contains higher levels of certain nutrients, including vitamin K2 and beta-carotene, which contributes to its richer golden color.

Why did butter become controversial?

Beginning in the mid-20th century, concerns about saturated fat and cholesterol led to public health recommendations encouraging people to replace butter with alternatives like margarine. Over time, additional research complicated that narrative, especially as the health effects of artificial trans fats became better understood.

Why are more people eating butter again?

Many people have become increasingly interested in traditional foods, minimally processed ingredients, homesteading, and understanding where their food comes from. Butter has naturally become part of that broader movement back toward recognizable, whole foods.