Norway plunges into a butter crisis with black market auctions making some butter rich

Poor, poor Norway. The country is suffering from a severe butter shortage, right in the middle of the holiday season.

According to Reuters, the scarcity is attributed to a low-carb/high-fat fad diet that has overtaken the Norwegian populous.

"Sales all of a sudden just soared, 20 per cent in October then 30 per cent in November," said Lars Galtung, the head of communications at TINE, the country’s biggest farmer-owned cooperative. [...]

Butter is now selling on Norway’s top auction website, with a 250-gram piece starting at around $13, roughly four times its normal price."

The widespread ketogenic diet is the corollary of steady weight gain across the Nordic country: According to a 2010 report, half of Norway's 4.9 million citizens are overweight, with 20 percent obese.

A diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat, while effective in treating epilepsy in children, is not-so-effective for long term weight loss maintenance. Perhaps Norwegians should have consulted Americans about that. Like, circa 2003.

Making matters worse, Norway — not a member of the European Union — imposes hefty duty fees on imports. That means little help from the E.U., nor from neighboring Denmark (a top dairy producer).

But if all else fails and the people of Norway insist, individuals can simply buy cream and make butter themselves. The exercise will help with weight loss, and surely the country's booming petroleum industry hasn't removed its citizens too far from the rich farm culture, right?

Otherwise, those traditional, butter-centric Christmas treats will have to wait 'til next year — or until the fad ends.