A little bit of butter
Sir: Dr Gould is correct (7 November) — the truth is that nobody yet knows whether the kind of fat we spread on our bread makes any difference to our chances of surviving into old age. However, one margarine manufacturer has, for nearly ten years, been promoting the idea that the medical establishment did know and, in promoting a polyunsaturate diet, implied to the public that our product, butter, was dangerous to health. It was only after this had been going on for many years that the Butter Information Council decided to try to set the record straight by emphasising, as Dr Gould does, that the picture was not so simple.
Now Dr Gould pillories us for joining the the argument. Does he think we should have sat back and allowed our competitors to use selected medical evidence which did not tell consumers the whole story? / Incidentally, there are some comments that should be added to Dr Gould's description of the development of coronary heart disease. His point that heart attacks 'are caused by patches of fat-like material which form on the inner surface of the coronary arteries' certainly focuses attention on fat. But researchers specialising in the structure of arteries point out that a very high proportion of patches on the artery — atheroma-do not contain any more fat than normal tissues; they consist of other matter.
Thus fat is unlikely to have been the initiating factor and we must look elsewhere for a cause. There seems to be a lack of knowledge on the subject which is further reason, as Dr Gould would probably agree, why dogmatic advice on diet change must be suspect.
David Roberts
Butter Information Council, The Pantiles House, 2 Nevi11 Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
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