I think I have a new rule: never, ever change your diet or lifestyle based on the reports (especially the abstract) of a single study.
Yesterday, Dr. Davis of Heart Scan Blog posted a study that he claimed supported his contention that butter had an “insulin-triggering effect, doubling or tripling insulin responses” and that “butter makes you fat.”
One of the study’s graphs showed a much greater AUC (area under the curve) for both insulin and triglycerides after the test subjects consumed a meal with butter compared to other fats.
Now that may not be scary for you if you’re following the anti-saturated fat guidelines, but for folks like me who are into Weston Price, real food, paleo/primal, or low-carb, butter is probably a staple.
Slightly concerned, I followed the link to the actual study and found out that the study subjects ate nearly six tablespoons of butter in their test meal of 800 calories to get that response. Does that sound like one of your meals? Sure doesn’t sound like mine!
Later that day, one of my regular reads responded to Dr. Davis’ post. Turns out that it’s even more complicated than I understood; the response shown by the study may suggest that the butter allowed for more fat loss!
Anyways, just goes to show you. You absolutely must take scientific research with a huge grain of salt. For more on this subject, check Jenny’s All Purpose Technique for Debunking Worthless Studies.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
Yes, you are right on this one!
I am a devoted follower of Dr Davis. I found him when I was checking out Vitamin D. As a result, I got a heart scan, found out I had a score of 322, quit eating sugar, wheat corn and industrial oils, and added high fish oil, niacin, and high Vitamin D to my diet. A year later, my score was 219. I think most of the drop was due to the Vitamin D.
Dr Davis is pushing the use of glucose monitors to check your postprandial sugar levels. I agree, since we are all very different in our reaction to various foods. But he overreached on this one.
Davis is still veggie oriented, and has the normal built in negative reaction of Cardiologists to the consumption of meat and dairy. I have no problem with eating low-carb dairy and think moderate consumption of sat fats is fine.
I too have been following Dr. Davis, and I also picked up a glucose monitor at his suggestion to test my reactions to various carbs (tho for now, I’m doing low-to-moderate carbs).
I just think he’s in a bit of an untenable position. A diet that low in carbs to keep blood sugar low needs to be higher in fat. And I certainly wouldn’t want to be filling up on industrial veggie oils!