Say it isn't so: Researchers pinpoint this classic condiment as a culprit in your diet. Here are toppings to sub in.
New Study: Eating This Beloved Spread Daily Shows a Near-20% Risk of Early Death and Cancer
Published on Mar. 08, 2025
Julia Child once famously said, “With enough butter, anything is good.” Americans agree. More than 73 million U.S. consumers use one pound of butter each week, according to 2020 data from the market research firm Statista. While it’s arguably a more whole choice than a processed product like margarine, scientists are reminding us that butter doesn’t belong in, or on, everything.
A March 2025 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association, has examined how the consumption of butter vs. plant-based oil impacted mortality. Data was collected over the span of 33 years, between 1990 and 2023, and was provided by three different sources. In total, 221,054 adult subjects were studied, and they answered diet-focused questionnaires every four years.
Public health researchers at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark analyzed the relationships between health and butter intake—whether used in the cooking process or spread onto food—compared to the use of safflower, soybean, corn, canola, and olive oils when frying, sautéing, baking, and dressing salads.
They found that those who consumed the most butter had a 15% higher risk of total mortality and a higher rate of cancer-related deaths than those who consumed the least.
The intake of plant-based oils, on the other hand, were connected to a decrease in mortality. The highest consumption of these oils resulted in a 16% lower risk of total mortality than those who consumed the least. Additionally, every 10 grams of plant-based oils consumed was linked to an 11% lower risk of cancer mortality.
Further, researchers found that substituting 10 grams of butter with an equivalent amount of plant-based oils in one’s daily diet resulted in an estimated 17% reduction in total mortality and a 17% reduction in cancer mortality. From these results, the study concluded that substituting butter with plant-based oils may result in “substantial benefits for preventing premature deaths.”
They add that further research is needed, as the abstract acknowledged that there were potential variables that could have influenced results. For instance, it’s possible subjects may have changed their diets as the result of a diagnosis. Also, a majority of participants were Caucasian or were healthcare professionals, which can skew trends in the results.
Still, despite the need for additional studies, it’s clear that there are benefits to replacing butter with plant-based oils, as shared by Healthline. For example:
- Olive oil contains vitamin E and oleic acid, a monosaturated fat believed to have anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties.
- Safflower oil is believed to lower the risk of coronary heart disease.
- The antioxidants in sesame oil could potentially improve brain function and protect against diseases like Parkinson’s.
If you’re willing to entertain this change to your diet but wondering about serving size, the study’s authors stated: “The present results indicate that replacing 3 small pats of butter (approximately 15 grams) with 1 tablespoon of plant-based oil (approximately 15 grams) in the daily diet could contribute to lowering the risk of premature mortality.”
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