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Americans Eating More Butter Than They Have in the Past 40 Years

americanbutter

There was a funny tumblr post I read recently that goes a little something like this:

"My doctor just told me to eat more Taco Bell. Well, actually he said 'less McDonald's,' but I'm pretty sure I know what he meant."

Healthy-eating loopholes make the world go-round, and according to the Los Angeles Times, it seems our fuddy-duddy little American heads have managed to logic out a "healthy" reason to eat more butter than we have in the past 40 years. Namely, because butter, unlike margarine, is "all natural."

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"Consumers are changing their perception of food and looking for healthier alternatives," the executive director of the American Butter Institute Anuja Miner told the LAT, which reports that per-capita butter consumption rose to 5.6 pounds in 2012, up from 4.1 pounds in 1997.

Americans have come to understand that products like margarine tend to be higher in trans fats, which are known to raise bad cholesterol — as opposed to the saturated fats found in butter, which are said to be heart-healthy and raise good cholesterol. Thus, the national increase in creamy butter lovin'.

Check back in 40 years when someone inevitably runs the inverse of the story, because that's just how the world works.

H/T LAT