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The finding may explain why health research on the benefits and hazards of animal and vegetable fats are so contradictory in different parts of the world and why government advice on what people should eat and avoid have different health outcomes in different countries.

Consumers have been running circles for decades, trying to react to health advice that steered them away from animal fats and toward vegetable oils and back again. Most recently, corn, cottonseed and soybean oil have been vilified for their unhealthy omega ratios, while findings on butter are mixed.

“Some research says butter is fine, other findings say it’s not,” Ghosh explained. “But they had failed to do a chemical analysis to find out what was really in it.”

Studies on the health impacts of dairy conducted in Europe tend to show positive effects, while similar studies in North America show no effect or a negative effect, he said.

“When we look at these results, the reason is pretty obvious,” he said.

While omega-6 fatty acids are essential to human health, research shows that they should comprise about one per cent of daily calories and should be consumed about evenly with omega-3s, the researchers say. Canadians get five to 10 per cent of their calories from omega-6 fatty acids and eat roughly 17 times more omega-6 than omega-3.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada note that butter and dairy fat contain very little omega-6 fatty acid to begin with, so little that it is not considered a source of omega-6 in the Canadian diet. An average Canadian eats about half a tablespoon of butter per day.