If you're a man who's keeping your weight steady and eating very few carbs, doubling the amount of butter and fatty meats you eat won't raise the level of saturated fat in your blood — meaning carbs might be the key link between what you eat and what shows up in your blood.

If you eat less saturated fat (like butter) and more unsaturated fat (like olive oil) while staying on a low-carb diet, your blood fat levels drop by about 11.5% and your body shows less signs of cellular stress.

If you have metabolic issues like high blood sugar or cholesterol, eating foods that swap out butter or fatty meats for carbs (like bread or rice) or for olive oil and avocados doesn’t make a noticeable difference in your blood fat levels after meals.

If you swap out butter and fatty meats for foods like olive oil and avocados instead of swapping them for bread or sugar, your blood fat levels drop more — and that’s especially true if you already have health risks like high cholesterol or insulin resistance.

Eating saturated fat doesn’t always make you more likely to get heart disease or diabetes—it depends on what foods you’re getting it from and what you’re eating instead.

Eating saturated fat doesn’t always make you more likely to get heart disease or diabetes—it depends on what foods contain the fat and what you eat instead of it.