Don't feel guilty about that brandy butter - it's GOOD for you!

Not all the findings referred to below are sound -- but neither are the claims for the evils of butter

After the calorie-laden onslaught of the past few days, it’s no ­surprise that the health Nazis come out in force. Watch the ­alcohol. Go easy on the pudding. Think of all that saturated fat. Think of your body mass index.

This time of year, if the nannies are to be believed, is a killer. And butter, they say — the lovely, creamy ­butter which almost defines what is best about northern European cuisine — is about the worst thing you can eat.

A few days ago, Gordon Ramsay’s new cookbook was slated by an American health watchdog, the Physicians Committee for ­Responsible Medicine. It said his ­recipes would ‘wreak havoc’ with your health, as they contained too much cream and far, far too much butter.

Earlier this year, Shyam Kolvekar, a ­cardiologist practising in Britain, ­actually called for butter to be banned — yes, banned, like crack cocaine — to save the nation’s health. Mr Kolvekar trotted out the old canard that butter leads to clogged arteries and heart ­disease as it is full of saturated fats.

But scientists are increasingly ­challenging this view, and their work ­suggests that this call to ban butter is as wrong-headed as it is ludicrous. While it is true that we Britons eat too much fat and that our diets are far from ideal, butter is not the culprit.

For decades we have been told that animal fats (found in meat, butter, cream and cheese) are the dietary equivalent of the axis of evil, and ­responsible for the epidemic of cancers and heart disease that has swept the Western world in the past century.

But scientists claim that, far from being killer foods, butter and other dairy ­produce are — when eaten in ­moderation — good for us. They note that as butter consumption has declined over the ­decades, as a result of health concerns, the intake of margarine and other manufactured spreads has increased. But there has been no ­corresponding fall in cardiovascular problems. In fact, quite the reverse.

In a research paper looking at the ­relationship between health problems and butter, Professor Mary Enig, a ­biochemist from Maryland in the U.S., said: ‘Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920 and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose to become America’s number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from 18lb per person per year to 4lb.’

In another paper, published this year, Professor Peter Elwood, an expert in fat metabolism, said: ‘There appears to be an enormous mismatch between the ­evidence from long-term prospective studies and perceptions of harm from the consumption of dairy food items.’

This is not a message the food industry wants you to hear. For ­margarine and ­manufactured spreads have become a multi-billion-pound industry. Huge international companies now promote the message that ­animal-derived fats are the main causes of heart disease and cancer. But the Swiss, Swedes and northern Italians (who eat a great deal of butter) have very low rates of heart disease.

The anti-dairy propaganda machine has been highly successful. When I was a child, in the Sixties and Seventies, the ­middle classes all believed that ­margarine was good for us.

What only a few years before had been a detested wartime staple was suddenly rebranded by food industry conglomerates as a fashionable ‘health’ food. The labels on the tubs proclaimed how good margarine was — being ‘high in polyunsaturates’ and ‘low in ­saturates’. These phrases became repeated as a kind of holy writ of healthy living — but, like many religious mantras, were not totally understood.

Nevertheless, because people are obsessed with their weight and ­constantly looking for a new dietary ­panacea, somehow margarine acquired a bogus ‘slimming’ cachet as well.

The trouble is many margarines are packed with other unhealthy substances and chemicals. For example, they are rich (sometimes 15 per cent by weight) in trans-fats — synthesised unsaturated fats which increase the risk of coronary heart disease by raising ­levels of ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and ­lowering levels of ‘good’ high-­density lipoprotein cholesterol. A Harvard study found that trans-fat-rich margarines increase the risk of heart disease in women by nearly half.

Just as worryingly, a study published last year in New Zealand found that children who ate margarine every day scored, on average, three points lower in IQ tests than those who did not.

The researchers suggested that high trans-fat levels found in margarines could be to blame. Trans-fats have been linked to memory problems —­perhaps due to the way they affect absorption of other nutrients.

After an outcry from consumers and scientists, the use of trans-fat in ­margarines has now been cut. But then, many of us didn’t need the excuse to ­re-embrace butter — one of the ­purest, most natural foods you can eat. Of course, natural is not always the same as healthy, but, in this case, it really is — at least, in moderation.

Butter is a simple emulsion of ­milk-fat, ­protein and water, and is packed with nutrients. It is a high-energy food, ­containing 700 calories per 100g, slightly less than olive oil but exactly the same as most standard margarines.

Butter is rich in Vitamin A, which is needed for the proper functioning of the cardiovascular system. ­Deficiencies of this vitamin in pregnant women can result in babies with deformed hearts. In infants it can lead to ­blindness and skeletal defects.
Butter is also rich in Vitamin D, which helps build strong bones, and contains Vitamin E and selenium — essential for healthy nervous and immune systems.

Recent studies have also shown that butter can help to fight cancer, as it is rich in an anti-carcinogenic fatty acid obtained through cattle eating grass.

Butter, it is true, is high in dietary ­cholesterol, but the relationship between the cholesterol we eat and levels of this chemical in our blood stream is complex.

Butter — like all dairy products — is good for bone growth and repair and helps keep our joints supple. Unlike ­margarine, it promotes a ­feeling of being full when consumed in small amounts; like rich chocolate, ­butter is ‘fattening’, but you really don’t need to eat a lot of it to feel satisfied.

Increasingly, in Britain we want foods that not only look like food, but taste of food as well. A good butter — and I am thinking of the creamy ­wonders that come from Jersey and Normandy — is a gourmet food, to be savoured in small quantities.

Mashed potato cannot be made properly without butter. Ditto ­scrambled eggs. Toasted crumpets with marge? Unthinkable.

For thousands of years, butter has been recognised as one of the greatest ­culinary inventions of humankind. Those who cannot see this are ­simply missing out. So, forget the health Nazis and enjoy all those last scrapings of your brandy butter — without the ­slightest feeling of guilt.

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The secret of keeping the doctor away: An iPod a day

Patients could be given Apple iPods loaded with their favourite music to help them recover from operations faster.

A £10,000 trial plans to test the theory that patients allowed to listen to music feel less pain, need less medication and leave hospital sooner after surgery.

If approved, the first to benefit will be new mothers, who will be exposed to music before and after they give birth, and those admitted for orthopaedic operations such as hip and knee replacements.

They will be monitored to see how music affects their anxiety levels, blood pressure and heart rate compared to those who don’t listen to music.

Although it is thought that the best music to use depends on each patient’s personal taste, the research will be used to create an original piece of music designed to have the most therapeutic effect.

The trial would involve about 120 patients at Barts and The London NHS Trust, and be run by The Public Engagement Foundation charity. Founder Tim Joss said: ‘This is not about art as fluff – it’s about saving the NHS money and I will not consider this to be a success unless that’s what it does. We want to get rid of that clinical, hospital feel and make wards feel more welcoming for patients.’

The music may be given to patients on iPods, or they may be encouraged to bring in their own devices or use the hospital’s in-house entertainment system.

Mr Joss added: ‘It may be that what helps a new mother recover from a birth is not the same thing that helps someone on an orthopaedic ward. It could be fascinating.’

The charity is seeking £10,000 funding for the project from the hospital’s charitable fund, rather than using NHS money.

Music psychologist Susan Hallam, from the London Institute of Education, said: ‘There is plenty of evidence that music can reduce anxiety. It can cut the time patients take to recover so could allow them to leave hospital quicker.’

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