Can you eat butter if you have high cholesterol?

Dr. Jean-François Renucci, a vascular surgeon at the Timone University Hospital in Marseille and an expert ambassador for Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes, offers some very practical advice on our butter consumption.

In fact, butter is one of the first foods people think they need to cut out when their cholesterol levels are too high. But is that really necessary?
What is high cholesterol?
An LDL cholesterol level (bad cholesterol because it infiltrates the walls of our arteries, causing cholesterol plaques) is considered reasonable when it is 1.3 g/liter. Above that, it is considered too high.
However, the desirable cholesterol level is assessed in relation to a specific situation. It depends on the level of cardiovascular risk, which can be calculated. The higher the risk, the lower the LDL cholesterol level needs to be. Thus, a level of 1.3 g/L is acceptable only if there is no cardiovascular disease. After a heart attack, for example, it must be < 0.55 g/L, hence the need for personalized goals.

High cholesterol: butter isn’t off-limits! Let’s break the stereotypes!
Can you still eat butter when your cholesterol is high, and under what conditions?
If your cholesterol level is considered too high for you, should you give up butter—which is rich in saturated fatty acids—and opt for margarines, particularly those enriched with “anti-cholesterol” ingredients?
Indeed, it is recommended—and justified—to replace saturated fatty acids, which should account for only 10% of the total diet, with beneficial unsaturated fatty acids. Furthermore, a simplistic yet persistent notion links harmful saturated fatty acids to animal-based foods, while plant-based foods are believed to contain the protective unsaturated fatty acids.
Saturated fatty acids are found in red meat, cheese, and butter—all animal-based foods—while plant-based foods contain unsaturated fatty acids. This is a simplification, as fatty fish provide unsaturated fats—the famous omega-3s—while certain vegetable oils contain saturated fats.
Butter is a minimally processed product with nutritional value. It provides vitamins A and E, fat-soluble vitamins that our bodies cannot produce. This dairy product is also rich in vitamin D, which is essential for bone and immune health.

High cholesterol and butter: watch your portions!
Even though it’s okay to eat butter, that doesn’t mean you should overdo it: 10 to 12 g of butter per day is a reasonable amount. This is equivalent to a small pat of butter. This amount ensures that saturated fat does not exceed 10% of your daily diet, which is the recommended limit.
If you enjoy salted butter and have high blood pressure, it is advisable to consume no more than 5 g per day—half the amount—since you would then need to cut your salt intake in half.
This limited amount of butter should be consumed raw, on toast in the morning or added to pasta, and not used for cooking (the “butter cooking” style of northern France, which causes it to lose some of its nutritional benefits and leads to the production of compounds harmful to health).
In conclusion:
It is perfectly fine to eat butter even if you have high cholesterol.
The key is not to exceed a certain amount to reap the benefits of these 10 g and to avoid various margarines.

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