Came another question about my attitude towards so-called “healthy swaps”:

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Hey Irina,

If you asked a lifelong health advocate who has always supported less oil, salt, and sugar, and more fruits and vegetables, would he or she have hated on butter??

II hear you okay… you’re not a fan of animal fats, that’s for sure.

I personally don’t use butter much because I agree it just makes me feel heavy and sluggish.

But maybe some people are actually benefiting from using it. Maybe there are ways to use butter that really do make meals taste better.

So I ask again

So what’s wrong with that??

Really look forward to your response

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Well, my friend, I got good news for you.

I’m about to give you my response now:

As I’ve said more times than I can even count at this point… I don’t have anything against butter. Like I also recently said, I get it when people enjoy it now and then, if the meal is already centered on nutrient-rich foods.

When this glorious bubble pops, the illusion will simply disappear.

But it will have been fun while it lasted.

At the same time:

While I don’t have anything against butter itself, it is just food, I do hate the way butter is deliberately being lied about in the nutrition arena. Especially how it’s aggressively pushed on people already addicted to rich, calorie-dense foods by influencers with zero grasp of nutrient density via FOMO narratives. I see people I know for a fact aren’t even qualified to make a simple salad without drowning it in ranch much less teach about health declaring it a “superfood.”

As far as the question about the lifelong health advocate hating on butter:

I reject the premise of the question.

Because if anything, I already do treat butter exactly as it should be treated… a flavor accent, not a health foundation. And I do not treat it as anything that requires or would be better done via nutrient-dense foods, which butter does NOT have, also, yes… by its own admission.

If you won’t believe me that’s fine.

Maybe you’ll believe biology then.

Speaking of biology:

People reverse diabetes, normalize weight, and regain energy, not by swapping butter for seed oils or seed oils for butter, but by centering their plates on nutrient-dense foods like greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, and seeds.

That’s the real swap. Not “this fat for that fat.”

And if you want practical ways to make eating this way simple and sustainable, even if you’re busy or just starting out, you’ll find them all in my updated books on Amazon.

Both are packed with the tips, tactics, and time-saving tricks I use myself.

To clarity (not swaps),

Books info here: ​https://www.amazon.com/author/irina-valeva​

Irina Valeva

​https∶//​​www.IrinaValeva.com​