Butter

Butter also carries short-chain butyric acid (and related dairy fats) alongside longer saturates.

Butter is a saturated dairy fat, low in PUFA when cows are pasture-fed. It supplies vitamin A, butyrate, and Cholesterol precursors.

Peat favored butter and coconut oil over seed oils for cooking: saturated fats are heat-stable and do not load tissues with linoleic acid.^[1]^[2]

{{Quote|text=Saturated fatty acids terminate the stress reactions, polyunsaturated fatty acids amplify them.|author=Ray Peat|source=https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fats-functions-malfunctions.shtml#:~:text=Saturated%20fatty%20acids%20terminate%20the%20stress

{{Quote|text=Palmitic acid functions as a surfactant in the lungs, allowing the air sacs to stay open, while unsaturated fats cause lung edema and respiratory failure.|author=Ray Peat|source=https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fats-functions-malfunctions.shtml#:~:text=Saturated%20fatty%20acids%20terminate%20the%20stress^[3]

Stearic and palmitic acid

Peat cited animal work that dietary stearic acid delayed mammary cancer onset in mice (Bennett, 1984, in his references). Tumors in advanced cancer had less stearic acid in phospholipids than less malignant tumors (Bougnoux et al., 1992, in his references).^[4]

Hans Selye's canola-oil feeding damaged rat hearts adding stearic acid alongside canola prevented the lesion.^[5]

Ghee

Ghee is clarified butter: milk solids and water removed, leaving mostly saturated fat stable at cooking heat. In Peat-oriented diets it sits beside butter and Coconut oil as a low-PUFA cooking fat when sourced from pasture-fed dairy, supplying the same stearic and palmitic acids discussed above.^[6] Clarifying removes lactose and casein, which some readers tolerate better than fresh butter. Use ghee for sautéing, roasting, or topping warm starches when butter would burn. Prefer ghee from grass-fed or pasture-raised sources when possible, and avoid products with added seed oils or flavorings.