I've known people abandon veganism (for vegetarianism) over cheese, since it's such a common ingredient in restaurant food. Butter feels a little less likely.
Butter is high in saturated fats which are bad for you. It is also very calorie dense. Eating a lot of calorie dense foods makes it difficult to control your weight.
It's probably better than margarine but I wouldn't describe it as a health food.
N=1, but I’ve been doing low carb paleo for 15+ years, from about age 20 to my current late 30s. I live off of butter, tallow, and lard. My weight has only crept up when I’ve eaten a lot of processed food. I get quite lean even with high fat if I fast more frequently or dip into ketosis. I’m trying to pack on some extra muscle with weight lifting right now and it’s not easy to get enough clean calories short of eating spoonfuls of (happy, pastured) bacon grease.
All I’m trying to say is that butter isn’t the enemy. Maybe commercial dairy production practices are the enemy, won’t argue with that.
> I’m trying to pack on some extra muscle with weight lifting right now and it’s not easy to get enough clean calories short of eating spoonfuls of (happy, pastured) bacon grease.
I thought I was the only one with that issue! I'm not paleo but my diet is heavy on whole foods, salads, and I don't eat much in carbs so once I started weight lifting, getting enough calories during the bulking phase has always been a struggle.
Protein is pretty easy by just chugging a few protein shakes a day, but calories? I had to start drowning my salads in olive oil and trying to sneak it or avacado oil or butter into every dish I cooked. A stick of butter only has like 800 calories!
Problem with eating lots of animal fats isn't necessarily weight gain, but increased risk of ASCVD from raised LDL-c/ApoB. Can't really see/feel that until you keel over with an MI.