Butter and cream will do you no harm (if you walk for 22 minutes a day): Doctors say avoiding saturated fats in these products does nothing to reduce heart disease.

The Daily Mail reports:

For decades we’ve been told to steer clear of butter and cream if we want to stay healthy.

Now, however, a group of doctors has claimed that avoiding the saturated fats in these products does nothing to reduce heart disease.

Their call for a major shift away from the idea fat is bad for you provoked a heated scientific row yesterday.

The doctors, led by cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, said the widely held belief that saturated fats clog the arteries is misguided.

Instead, they said, people can best avoid heart disease by eating ‘real’ home-cooked food, taking a brisk 22-minute walk every day and avoiding stress.

In an editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Dr Malhotra of Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Pascal Meier of University College London and US cardiologist Professor Rita Redberg said: ‘Despite popular belief among doctors and the public, the conceptual model of dietary saturated fat clogging a pipe is just plain wrong.’

They said moderate consumption of foods rich in saturated fat – such as butter, cream and cheese – is not actually bad for you.

An article worth your time.