Study about butter funded by the butter industry finds that butter isn't good for you

I can’t believe it’s not good for you!

A study funded by the butter industry appears to have backfired when it concluded that…wait for it…butter isn’t good for you.

The Danish Dairy Research Foundation funded the study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It found that “moderate intake of butter resulted in increases in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol compared with the effects of olive oil intake and a habitual diet (run-in period).” It also showed that butter raised blood cholesterol levels more than an alternative lipid, like olive oil.

It concluded that people with high cholesterol levels should keep their butter consumption to a minimum, but moderate consumption was okay for people with regular cholesterol levels.

It’s rare, but not unheard of for research funded by sponsors to result in unsavory conclusions. Last year, research paid for by the American Pistachio Growers found that eating pistachios is actually associated with poorer performance during exercise.

Marion Nestle, a professor of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, runs a blog that tracks studies that serve the interest of their sponsor. Since March, Food Politics has found a total of 37 self-serving studies regarding the food industry.

“The first thing you need to do when you read a study is figure out who paid for it,” Nestle told the Washington Post. “It’s very telling.”

She says that even research about healthy food, such as the study by the Almond Board of California that concluded the seed is good for diabetes, should be taken with caution.

“The purpose of a lot of these studies is to show that a food is a superfood so an industry can market it,” said Nestle. “It looks like science, but it’s not. It’s business first.”