Is Butter Good for You? New Research Shows It May Contain the Key to Healthy Aging

When Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson began studying dolphins in the US Navy’s marine mammal program, she did not expect to turn the food pyramid In your head.

Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist who has worked in public health with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the dolphins she worked with lived pretty good lives. They go out into the ocean every day, come back to hang out and live, on average, lives 50% longer than dolphins in the wild. But, as with humans, more dolphins age means more opportunities for age-related health conditions, including chronic inflammation, high cholesterol and symptoms of metabolic syndrome. And some dolphins find it easier to age than others.

The secret to healthy aging in dolphins, according to Venn-Watson, was diets higher in two odd-chain fatty acids, eventually named C17:0 and C15:0. The “golden lollipop” of healthy aging is C15:0, which she and a team of researchers have since claimed can help prevent prediabetes, reduce inflammation, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and more, in both humans and in marine mammals.

“We were able to identify that healthy aged dolphins had significantly higher C15:0 and C17:0 compared to poorly aged dolphins,” says Venn-Watson, as some dolphins were inadvertently receiving fewer fatty acids in their diets.

The problem, according to Venn-Watson, is that Americans have been taught to avoid some of the foods that contain Goldilocks fat. By treating all saturated fats as equally “bad,” we’re missing out on a nutrient that can help prevent common health conditions, or even help us live longer lives. Enter: our relationship with butter and whole milk products.

What is C15:0?

C15:0 or pentadecanoic acid it is a molecule found in certain foods, such as butter, full-fat dairy products, fish, beef, and lamb. It’s also present in smaller amounts in some plants, including chia seeds and peanuts, according to Venn-Watson, but in about a tenth of the amount found in a serving of butter.

In a 2020 article published in the nature magazineVenn-Watson and the other authors state that C15:0 should be considered an essential fatty acid, elevating it to the status of other essential nutrients, such as omega fatty acids, which are necessary for our health, serve as building blocks for our cells and are only found in food sources. These are different from nutrients such as vitamin Dfor example, what our body produces when we are exposed to sunlight.

The latest discovery of essential fatty acids was made in the 1920s when scientists found disease in rats fed a fat-free diet.

C15:0, says Venn-Watson, is a fatty acid that shows potential for slowing natural age-related breakdown in our cells, as seen in her research with Navy dolphins. And just like dolphins, human bodies may be hardwired to receive and use saturated fat. Laboratory research has revealed receptors on our cells, called PPARS, that act like “little hammocks that sit on our bodies waiting for the right fat to land on it,” according to Venn-Watson. If Venn-Watson’s research continues to demonstrate the power of C15:0, we have left our hammocks empty.

Good Fats vs. Bad Fats: It’s Complicated

Many people have gone through their own trials, including and excluding different types of foods from their diets as they try to work with the current guideline of what is good or bad for us. Eggs, cooking oils and chocolate they are just some foods that range between “healthy” and “unhealthy”.

For decades, Americans have been taught to avoid fatty foods for fear they will lead to high cholesterol, heart disease, or other health complications. The United States Senate even issued nutritional guidance in 1977 emphasizing a low-fat diet. But over the years, nutritionists and dieticians have become increasingly skeptical of the practice of banning fatty foods, denouncing the lack of nutrients that we are skipping when we do not eat some fats, as well as the contribution of the low-fat lifestyle to disordered eating habits

Despite a decline in whole milk intake over the years, Venn-Watson and her co-authors wrote in a 2020 paper nature item, rates of type 2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have increased. There’s also research contradicting the idea that fat is bad for yousuggesting that people who include healthy whole fats in their diets may be healthier than those who follow a fat-free diet.

But changing the script on how we read and report dietary guidance is no easy feat. The discovery of C15:0 also does not mean that our diets should totally change to a 100% fat diet, as some types of fat they still have little to no nutritional value (there are still some unhealthy fats in butter, despite being a great source of C15:0, for example). But Venn-Watson and others who advocate for more C15:0 say it might be helpful to supplement foods like grains, similar to other added nutrients.

“The interest is how do we get this back into our diet and how do we review the regulatory guidance regarding nutrition and saturated fat,” says Venn-Watson. (Note: Venn-Watson sells a vegan supplement C15:0 called Fatty15. CNET has not reviewed this product.)

Will C15:0 replace omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids as the healthier fat? “Stay tuned,” Venn-Watson says, as she and her research team have more studies awaiting peer review. There’s also a study in progress on whether C15:0 supplementation in younger adults at risk of metabolic syndrome benefits from more saturated fat.

Time (and more research) will inform how our dietary guidance changes to accommodate more of the good fats like C15:0. But if the decades-long focus on removing fat from our diets to stave off certain diseases has taught us one thing, it’s that dietary restrictions aren’t the same for everyone.

Correction, 2:30 p.m. ET: An earlier version spelled C15:0 as C:15:0.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health care provider regarding any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health goals.