# Butter

Category: Foods & Substances

Also known as: butterfat

Butter is a highly protective saturated fat that Ray Peat considered the safest of all oils to consume, despite containing approximately 3% polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). This small PUFA fraction is partially converted by the cow's rumen bacteria into naturally occurring…

9 passages · 1 author · 1997–2021 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/butter

## Synthesis

**Butter** is a highly protective saturated fat that Ray Peat considered *the safest of all oils to consume*, despite containing approximately 3% polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). [Source 1, 5] This small PUFA fraction is partially converted by the cow's rumen bacteria into **naturally occurring trans fatty acids**, which Peat distinguished sharply from industrially produced trans fats; the natural isomers in butter are chemically different and act as protectors against the toxic effects of polyunsaturated fats. [Source 1] Peat argued that butter's combination of minimal toxic oils and abundant protective factors makes it superior even to olive oil, which he limited to minor flavoring use due to its 8–12% PUFA content. [Source 1, 3, 5]

Peat identified butter as a primary **anti-stress** and **anti-inflammatory** food, whose main function in context is to calm the excitatory stress systems. [Source 4] Mechanistically, butter turns off the release of adrenaline, ACTH, and cortisol, whereas polyunsaturated fats like corn oil activate these stress mediators and the excitotoxic histamine pathways that can kill brain cells. [Source 6] This calming effect is tied to butter's saturated fat content, particularly stearic acid, which Peat noted is protective against the neurological damage promoted by unsaturated fats. [Source 6] He cited the research of Nanji's group, which demonstrated that saturated fats like butter could cure the liver disease, hepatitis, and cirrhosis caused by the interaction of polyunsaturated fats with alcohol, showing that *alcohol is relatively harmless on a diet practically free of unsaturated fat*. [Source 2, 9] This protective action applies identically to the arteries, which Peat stated are the first tissues injured by oxidized unsaturated fats, not by the saturated fats in butter. [Source 7]

Regarding body composition, Peat held that butter is *less fattening than unsaturated oils*, with the proportion of saturated to polyunsaturated fats in the diet being more critical than the total fat quantity. [Source 3, 8] He pointed to epidemiological observations, such as the lean, healthy populations in Finland where butterfat consumption is high, contrasting them with populations on starch-based, vegetable-oil-rich diets. [Source 3] While acknowledging that one can gain weight on butter, Peat explained that when balanced with adequate calcium, sodium, and anti-stress proteins like **casein** and **gelatin**, butter's anti-stress properties become anti-obesity in effect. [Source 4] He also noted that butter naturally contains vitamin A, vitamin D, and beneficial hormones, and contains significantly less cholesterol per calorie than lean chicken breast. [Source 8]

The widespread belief that butter clogs arteries and causes heart disease was, in Peat's view, the result of *50 years of propaganda from the seed oil industry*. [Source 7] He explained that when the paint industry shifted to petroleum-based oils, the seed oil industry needed a new market and orchestrated a campaign against tropical and animal fats to sell corn and soy oil to humans. [Source 7] In contrast, animal studies showed that high saturated fat diets greatly extended the lives of animals prone to heart disease, while adding polyunsaturated fats shortened their lives, and that saturated fat diets delayed the development of breast cancer. [Source 6] Peat also noted that the **saturation index** of tissues consistently showed that people with cancer had much higher concentrations of polyunsaturated fats in their tumors and bodies than healthy individuals. [Source 6]

## People also ask

### How does butter reduce stress hormones?

Peat argued that butter's saturated fat content turns off the release of adrenaline, ACTH, and cortisol, calming the excitatory stress systems, whereas polyunsaturated fats activate these stress mediators.

### Why did Peat consider butter safer than olive oil?

Peat considered butter safer because it contains only about 3% polyunsaturated fat, compared to olive oil's 8–12%, and its natural trans fats protect against the toxic effects of polyunsaturated fats.

### What did Peat say about butter and liver disease?

Peat cited research showing that saturated fats like butter could cure liver disease and cirrhosis caused by the interaction of polyunsaturated fats with alcohol, making alcohol relatively harmless on a diet low in unsaturated fat.

## Related concepts

- [Menopause](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/menopause/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)
- [Alzheimer's and Dementia](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/alzheimer-s-and-dementia/index.md)
- [Anemia](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/anemia/index.md)
- [Arthritis](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/arthritis/index.md)
- [Beef](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/beef/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — #43 - All things hormones, metabolism and health with Dr Ray Peat & Emma Sgourakis

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 4, 2021

> **Kitty Blomfield:** And, Ray, just sorry just to cut in there for the new listeners because we get a lot of women who start to follow us and they're not so familiar with the different types of fat. Could you please just list out examples of the fats that you're talking about, these polyunsaturated fats?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Safflower seed oil, cotton seed oil, which was a staple for many years, soybean oil, canola. Sesame oil is fairly high in them. Olive oil is relatively safe because it's only 8% to 12% of the toxic oils, and it contains antioxidants. Coconut oil has only 3% of the toxic oils, and so is much safer. Butter is about 3% of the toxic oils. Some of these toxic PUFA, the small percentage in butter, some of them have been converted to trans fatty acids. And the trans fats, which are formed by the cow's rumen bacteria, these happen to be especially protective against the polyunsaturated fats. The trans fats that occur naturally in butter are protective, where the artificially produced trans fats are chemically different, and they are in themselves harmful. But butter, despite having 3%, has so many protective factors that it's probably the safest of all products. oils to consume.

### Source 2 — Carbon Monoxide — KMUD, 2013

Ray Peat · Interview · 2013 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oms7dp-th0A

> **Andrew Murray:** You are welcome. Let's take the next caller.
>
> **Caller:** People keep telling me I shouldn't eat butter because of the cholesterol, and you tell me butter is good for me. What's all that?
>
> **Sarah Murray:** [chukles] It's brainwashing. They wanted to sell margarine.
>
> **Ray Peat:** A researcher in India noticed that in his area where people eat a lot of butter, alcoholics didn't get hepatitis and cirrhosis. So he did a study with rats and fed them butter and lots of alcohol, and they didn't get hepatitis and cirrhosis. A group has been researching that now for about 25 years, showing that fish oil and unsaturated vegetable oil interact with a little bit of alcohol to activate iron, causing oxidative damage, liver inflammation, and fibrosis. But if you have practically an unsaturated fat-free diet, alcohol is really pretty harmless.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** And didn't they do that study in Chicago as well, 30 years ago?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yah, Nangi is the name of the main researcher.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** We do have another caller on the air. Let's get this next caller.
>
> **Caller:** I’ve had quadruple bypass surgery, and was introduced to this Dean Ornish diet. It’s a vegetarian diet that claims fish fat is good for you; but saturated fat itself isn’t good at all, and that you should stay away from any saturated fat. No dairy or meat either. I’m very confused.

### Source 3 — Politics & Science: Fats

Ray Peat · Interview · Jul 21, 2008

> ## Dietary Recommendations
>
> **John Barkhausen:** The unsaturated oils are in everything now. You can't buy a potato chip that isn't cooked in canola oil. If you go out to dinner, is there anything you can do to protect yourself?
>
> **Ray Peat:** About 15 years ago there was this big campaign to get coconut oil off the market. In recent years it is coming back. I think if people just nag the cooks in restaurants and buyers in grocery stores, they can change things. It's changing back in the last few years to people demanding that they get real butter and other saturated fats.
>
> **John Barkhausen:** Finally, I think most people are worried about getting fat when you say butter.
>
> **Ray Peat:** The animal studies, from the industrial agriculture level all the way down to lab studies, show that the polyunsaturateds are extremely fattening in proportion to their role in the diet. The proportion to the saturated fats is more important than the actual quantity of fats. I noticed in Finland, where dairy foods are very common—probably the most common food—just going across the border from Russia to Finland, you go from a starch-eating, vegetable-based diet where everyone's fat, over to a lean, healthy population where they eat lots of butterfat. In general, Americans who eat milk and milk products are lean. It's partly the calcium and vitamin D, but also the butterfat itself is helpful.

### Source 4 — Source Nutritional Show: Brain And Tissue ll

Ray Peat · Interview · May 12, 2012 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/source-nutritional-show-brain-and-tissue-2.mp4

> **Karen:** Well you mentioned butter, which happens to be my favorite food. I have an horrible craving for butter all the time. Is there a problem with exceeding a certain level of butter?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, you can get fat on butter, but in context its main function is anti-stress and anti-inflammation. So if it's in balance with the nutrients you need such as calcium and sodium to keep your metabolism going at a high level and adequate protein – and gelatin happens to be a protein that you can increase considerably without worrying about increasing inflammation. And the protein in milk, casein especially is an anti-stress type of protein, but especially if you supplement that with gelatin, the balance is very anti- stress and as a consequence, anti-obesity.
>
> **Karen:** And how do you recommend that we use a gelatin?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Oh, it depends on your needs. For treating inflammatory bowel disease and liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes and so on, they've used as much as an ounce or two of pure gelatin added per day, even more, people sometimes use temporary And it's important to have a good gelatin without additives and it generally should be thoroughly dissolved rather than eating it as a powder. It should be mixed with hot water or milk until there are no granules left, so that it's easy to digest.

### Source 5 — Dr. Ray Peat, Ph.D - Your Health Questions Answered - March 2, 2021 | One Radio Network

Ray Peat · Interview · 2021

> **Patrick Timpone:** So regular use of olive oil in your opinion is fine.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Well butter is better because it’s only about three percent of the bad stuff but if you hold your olive down to flavoring, maybe a teaspoon or so. It gives good flavor at that amount with out much danger. But butter is like three times as safe.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Hm, butter is the safest. Isn’t that interesting. Okay here’s an email fast developing cataract on my right eye and I’ve been reluctant to have a surgery due to sojourns. Any available therapies or remedies for this?
>
> **Ray Peat:** O, people my brother for example had a cataract diagnosed when he was about 70 and in his late 70s he went back and the oculist said he could see where there had been one but there was no trace of a functioning cataract left. So people do recover from them when their physiology changes but the lack of...the loss of energy to those cells that become opaque leads to them swelling just like any deenergized tissue swells; takes up water and the water, the effect is like cooking egg-white. The change of the water form an organized transparent state, it becomes an opaque like a cooked egg white and in the cornea of the eye that can happen to. A women with for some reason extreme water retention. I knew some one who in just a period of a few hours went blind in both eyes because the corneas became white and opaque. And bathing her eyes in a slightly hyper-tonic salt solution, the hyper-tonic salt solution removed some of the excess water and immediate her eyes were clear again. Anything that can shift your balance away from that water disorganization and retention effect can let the cataract clear up.

### Source 6 — Energy Production Diabetes Saturated Fats KMUD 2011

Ray Peat · Interview · 2011 · http://www.l-i-g-h-t.com/files/herb-doctors-energy-production,-diabetes-and-saturated-fats.mp4

> **Herb Doctor:** Which is like butter versus corn oil?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yea. The butter turns off adrenaline and ACTH and cortisol. And the corn oil turns them on. And the excitotoxic histamine in the brain that wears out, and can kill brain cells. Those are activated by the polyunsaturated fats, pretty much in proportion of the number of double bonds they have, arachidonic more than linoleic.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** So these promote Alzheimer's and other neurological, degenerative diseases?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yah. And they're calmed by stearic acid.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** Right which is beef fat? Or, stearic from steers?...
>
> **Herb Doctor:** It's in butter.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Stearic is basically a Greek word meaning fat.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** Ok.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** Ok, you are saying that these bad oils can cause diabetes, block your use of sugar, so that the blood sugar remains high, and also Alzheimer's.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** They block your energy production.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yah. And if you look up the saturation index - I googled it and saw that all, except one of the studies, found that people with cancer had much more polyunsaturated fats in the tumor and in their bodies than healthy people. For example, twice as much in one study. It was polyunsaturated where healthy people had equal amounts. Putting rodents on a diet of high saturated fat delayed their development of breast cancer, fitting in with the saturation index being a matter of protection against cancer. Similar for heart disease: there is a study in which adding the polyunsaturated fats shortened the lives of the animals with a tendency to heart disease, while a very high saturated fat diet greatly extended their lives.

### Source 7 — Carbon Monoxide — KMUD, 2013

Ray Peat · Interview · 2013 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oms7dp-th0A

> **Andrew Murray:** Let's take the next caller. You are on the air.
>
> **Caller:** You talked about the liver and how saturated fats protect it from alcohol. Is butter bad for your arteries and your cholesterol?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The same things that applies to the liver applies exactly to the arteries, except the arteries are the first place that the unsaturated, oxidized fats will injure.
>
> **Caller:** Why do people think that butter and animal fats will clog your arteries?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Because of 50 years of propaganda from the seed oil industry, basically.
>
> **Caller:** So you are basically saying that unsaturated fats will clog your arteries quicker than butter?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yah.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** Exactly. It's when the seed oil industry was unable to sell their oils to the paint companies (because the paint companies started buying their oils from the petroleum industry), they needed to market their corn and soy oil to humans, because there was no other market for it. And that's when Mr. Mazola would drink a cup of corn oil and say, "It's great stuff! It lowers your cholesterol.". And he unfortunately died at a very young age of a heart attack. So, it causes such an arterial blockage... But, basically, they needed to sell their oils, and they boycotted all tropical oils ( palm oil, coconut oil, which will not cause heart attack) and promoted corn oil. And there you have it.

### Source 8 — From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context

Ray Peat · Book · 1997

> **Question:** What about butter?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Butter contains natural vitamin A and D and some beneficial natural hormones. It is less fattening than the unsaturated oils. There is much less cholesterol in an ounce of butter than in a lean chicken breast [about 1/5 as much cholesterol in fat as in lean meat on a calorie basis, according to R. Reiser of Texas A & M Univ., 1979].
>
> **Question:** Are fish oils good for you?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Some of the unsaturated fats in fish are definitely less toxic than those in corn oil or soy oil, but that doesn't mean they are safe. Fifty years ago, it was found that a large amount of cod liver oil in dogs' diet increased their death rate from cancer by 20 times, from the usual 5% to 100%. A diet rich in fish oil causes intense production of toxic lipid peroxides, and has been observed to reduce a man's sperm count to zero. [H. Sinclair, Prog. Lipid Res. 25, 667, 1989.]
>
> **Question:** What about lard?
>
> **Ray Peat:** In this country, lard is toxic because the pigs are fed large quantities of corn and soy beans. Besides the natural toxicity of the seed oils, the oils are contaminated with agricultural chemicals. Corn farmers have a very high incidence of cancer, presumably because corn "requires" the use of more pesticides. This probably makes corn oil's toxicity greater than it would be otherwise. but even the pure, organically grown material is toxic, because of its unsaturation. Women with breast cancer have very high levels of agricultural pesticides in their breasts [See Science News, 1992, 1994]. Israel had the world's highest incidence of breast cancer when they allowed the insecticide lindane to be used in dairies, and the cancer rate decreased immediately after the government prohibited its use. The United States has fairly good laws to control the use of cancer-causing agents in the food supply, but they are not vigorously enforced. [World Incid. of Cancer, 1992.]

### Source 9 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Thyroid and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Ray Peat · Interview · Jul 1, 2008 · http://www.l-i-g-h-t.com/files/herb-doctors-thyroid-and-polyunsaturated-fatty-acids-new-56-mins.mp4

> ## Caller Questions
>
> **Caller:** How much Vitamin B12, B6, and B2 do you think a person needs?
>
> **Ray Peat:** It varies according to your metabolic rate.
>
> **Caller:** Is it better to eat butter than olive oil?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes, butter and coconut oil. Olive oil is not as good as butter.
>
> **Caller:** Why do you say butter is good for you when so many people say it's bad?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Researchers, specifically Nanji's group, are showing that they can cure liver disease caused by polyunsaturated fats by adding butter and other saturated fats to the diet. It is the polyunsaturated fats that cause alcoholics to get cirrhosis and hepatitis, not just the alcohol.
>
> **Caller:** What about the glop in your arteries?
>
> **Ray Peat:** That is caused by the vegetable oils, primarily.
>
> **Caller:** Are you saying that Omega-3s are not good for you?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes, they're not. Alzheimer's disease is now definitely associated with inflammatory processes and free radical oxidative processes which are supported by the polyunsaturated fats.
>
> **Caller:** It does seem to make the arthritis in my knee better.
>
> **Ray Peat:** It's anti-inflammatory, but those are the oxidized breakdown products that suppress your immune system. At the same time they suppress inflammation, they also suppress your ability to stop infections or the spread of a tumor.

_Generated 2026-07-20 from the Bioenergetic Oracle corpus._