Do You Want To Butter Your Health?
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Your Waistline
Butter used to be universally understood as a delicious yet unhealthy addition to your morning toast or frying pan. But the popularity of the keto diet brought with it butter’s revival (and good name?)! So what’s the truth? Should we work butter into all of our meals, or use it sparingly?
I wish it were a simple yes or no, this or that. In reality, it depends on what you’re comparing the butter to! If your alternative to butter is margarine or the fake butter flavored sprays, then the real thing is best. The closer to nature it is, the more vitamins it’ll have. A tablespoon of butter has roughly 100 calories, negligible amounts of vitamins E, B12, and K, and 11.5 grams of fat. Keep in mind, however, that 63% of that fat is saturated!
Given that saturated fat content, healthful oils and nuts will almost always be a better alternative to butter. Use avocado, walnut, or olive oil for cooking or nut butter when snacking! These oils and nuts will actually give our body the healthful fats and protein it needs.
But wait! You may have heard that butter gives us a kind of fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Research suggests CLA can help reduce body fat and may have some anti-cancer properties as well. Before you buy a year’s supply of butter, however, know that the type of CLA that was studied is called Tonalin® CLA, which is essentially, 100% safflower oil and researchers are still unsure if butter has the same benefits. To top it off, the therapeutic dosage of CLA is also 3.4 grams per day. To meet that requirement, you would have to eat between 14 and 31 tablespoons of grass fed butter daily! That amount of saturated fat would likely outweigh any CLA benefits.
The other claim to fame for butter lovers is butyrate. Butyrate is a kind of fat that acts as a source of energy for cells in our intestines. It’s typically produced by healthy gut bacteria, but if you have gut issues, you may not produce butyrate, which is why some may encourage eating butter. But I once again pose the question: How much butter would you have to eat to get enough butyrate? One study showed 300 milligrams of butyric acid per day was helpful, which equals a couple tablespoons of butter per day…better than the CLA but potentially more than we need as again, the implications of the additional saturated fat may outweigh those butyrate benefits.
The verdict? Everything can fit into your meal plan, including butter! It’s certainly better than margarine and manmade flavoring. But you’ll want to consume butter in moderation and instead prioritize incorporating more healthful fats into your diet, such as nuts, avocado, walnut, and olive oil. I will say though, sometimes, nothing tastes better than buttered toast.
