BUTTER could actually reduce your risk of heart disease, scientists say.

Having a teaspoonful a day was found to cut the risk of getting type 2 diabetes by a third.

Close-up of a curl of butter on a stick of butter.Butter could actually reduce your risk of heart disease, scientists say

The study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that butter – which helps to remove harmful fats known to cause and .

Scientists from Boston University tracked 2,500 men and women over the age of 30 over decades, noting what they ate and how many went on to develop .

Those who ate five grammes of butter a day or more were 31 per cent less likely to develop – usually caused by poor – than those eating little or no .

– often promoted as “healthy”; alternatives for – increased the by more than 40 per cent and heart problems by 30 per cent.

Researchers put it down to the unhealthy “trans fats”; used in margarines from the 1970s onwards – now largely ditched by spread manufacturers.

your risk of deadly heart attack or stroke, new research shows.

– whether they’re dried, canned or frozen – can boost heart and metabolic, according to scientists.

Daily portions ofandcould serve as a “simple, cost-effective”; way to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, they said.

The new study links chickpeas to improvedlevels, which blacks beans seemed to reduce.