Better Butter Alternatives
Are you swapping butter with margarine as a “healthier” alternative? Some butter substitutes may actually clog your arteries just as much — if not more — than good old butter. Learn more about the butter-versus-margarine debate and butter alternatives to try.
The Facts About Butter
Butter’s bad rap comes from the artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol it contains. One tablespoon of stick butter contains 102 calories; 64% of the calories are from fat. If you can’t give up butter, try switching to an unsalted whipped butter — 1 tablespoon has 67 calories. Even better, go for a pat of butter — that’s the equivalent of 1 teaspoon.
Butter vs. Margarine
When comparing to butter, margarine isn’t always better. During manufacturing, margarine undergoes hydrogenation, a process in which heat and hydrogen transform liquid oil into a solid form. Although it contains no cholesterol or saturated fat, the hydrogenated oil does have trans fat. When I need a little butter, I turn to traditional butter rather than margarines.
If you’re sticking with margarine, you can find lighter or sometimes even non-fat tub margarines — Smart Balance Light and Promise Light both have only 45 calories per tablespoon and no trans fat. You can also look for butter sprays for cooking eggs or veggies. Check out this handy chart to find some healthier butter alternatives.
When to Replace Butter
When I counsel obese children and adults, one change I suggest is to cut out the butter. The results are amazing. Instead of butter on bread, use a teaspoon of jam, light margarine (I usually recommend Smart Balance Light) or nut butter.
When cooking scrambled eggs or veggies, use butter spray and coat the pan. Bake sliced, new potatoes with a touch of butter spray. You can even make mashed potatoes without butter — in this recipe, Ellie Krieger uses low-sodium chicken broth to keep in the moisture (brilliant!).
The Bottom Line:
Think outside the stick! Butter isn’t always the answer — there’s a world of alternatives (even chicken broth) that you can try. Just experiment. Keep an eye out for good, safer butter alternatives at your supermarket, too.
What about Shed Spread Light?
Canola Harvest and Earth Balance are non-hydrogenated
I use OLIVIA made entirely from olive oil. I’ve seen no comments on that product – anyone have an opinion? DML
Try mixing Butter with half olive oil. Melt and mix together. Much better for you and doesn’t taste bad either.
I like to use Coconut oil, in place of butter. What do they say about Coconut oil??
What about OLIVIO?
Thanks. SCR
The ‘handy chart’ you give the link to, while helpful, is over 8 years old. Many new products have shown up on the shelves in that time.
I use Coconut Oil. It’s amazing. I use it whenever I can – especially in the skillet with veggies and chicken. I personally think that it actually tastes better than using butter and the health benefits are amazing (do the research – its worth it!). And as a side note: it is extremely versatile; I use it as a lotion and sometimes eat it right from the spoon. I’ve tried a lot of brands but the best brand that I’ve found is Nutiva.
Allergic to butter? I found NUCUOA an expensive brand of margarine tastes and acts like butter. READ the ingredients. Most margarines have whey.
Hi Susan,
Yes, that’s a good list, but some new products have popped up on the market. Two great new products I mentioned in the article are Promise light and Smart Balance light. Those are what Dana and I recommend to our clients.
What does Expeller pressed mean? This is how Earth Balance is made. I wonder if they’ll find that it is just as bad as Transfats someday…..
I use Butter Buds when cooking…still tastes like butter but without the fat and cholesterol. I also use Butter tasting spray for my pans when pan frying.
Hi Kathleen,
Coconut oil is a tropical oil that contains artery-clogging saturated fat (like butter). Use it once in a while for a special treat. All other oils (except palm and palm kernel) are a better choice for using on a daily basis.
Margarine is NOT real food, it is fabricated and processed. Have the butter and make sure it’s organic.
About the coconut oil, do the research as it is one of the best oils that exists on the market.
Coconut oil is saturated (the healthy kind)and goes liquid at 76 degrees and doesn’t clog arteries. Animal fat is saturated (bad kind) but doesn’t go liquid in the body.
Toby,
I’m afraid you’ve got your research wrong on this one. Coconut oil is made up of medium-chain fatty acid (rather than the long-chain fatty acids found in oil and butter). Because of this, coconut oil provides instant energy and is not stored up in the body as fat. It is arguably the healthiest oil on earth- don’t succomb to old-fashioned falsities regarding coconut oil and coconut!
Where is the best place to buy coconut oil?
Butter has gotten so expensive, we buy unsalted butter on rare occassions and only for baking. Cooking spray is my preference but it is very expensive also.
We use a spread made from Cholesterol free Canola oil with Omega Nutrients and vitamin A & D. High in monounsaturated fats.
I always thought that coconut oil clogged the arteries badly but the Thai people have it in their daily food one way or the other. Most of them live a very long time.
My wife cooks mostly with Extra Virgin Olive oil and uses peanut or rice oil for other cooking.
Ok = now I am completely confused about coconut OIL. Good or Bad?
We use, I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter (Light) – no transfats, no cholesterol. For baking, I recently tried Smart Balance. They came out with a stick butter that you can use for baking.
whip canola and butter – half and half – and olive oil and butter. I gives me a light spread which we use sparingly. I plan to try other oils as well.
used butterbuds and was greatly satisfied when making heavy sauses askingfor butter.cannot find pkts in stores not enough ads marketing the product
I use Olivio also, it is high in omega 3’s which is good for you and your health; I also use Can’t Belive It’s Butter spray, a little dab will du ya! and it taste great; I cook with pure, unsalted butter, there is no taste like it and my cookies will not do with margarine but I try not to eat the cookies..give them away and I eat my Splenda Oatmeal Raisin cookies they are great and good for you and me!
I use Smart Balance Brand or Smart Balance Light. I have also tried Smart Balance 50/50 for baking. For special recipes and for a treat I use real butter in moderation.
It’s all about portion size!
Its good we know the difference and how we can safely substitute one for the other. Some recipes alert users about how they can use one ingredient instead of the other. There are cooking methods that allow unconventional yet beneficial methods like that of Ellie Krieger you explained.
I use applesauce in place of butter for most of my baking. Even in something like biscuits you can’t taste the flavor of the apple sauce.
I have found a butter substitute called Brummel & Brown. It’s made with 10% yogurt, and 35% vegetable oil. I compared it to some of the other butters in the aisle (including Smart Balance and Promise) and it seems to be better all around. Only 45 calories per tbsp, only 1g of Sat Fat, 0 trans fat, 90 mg of sodium, and no cholesterol. You might want to check it out. I know it’s in Giant, but not sure what other food chains carry it.
Has anyone tried the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” sticks? I was wondering if they were healthy and good? THanks
Thanks for making a couple of comments on how margarine is made but this article seems to gear more in favor of recommending margarine over butter. You might want to read more about how it’s made. It’s better to have butter, just cut down on how much is in your diet, but it’s better than eating margarine any day!
We use the Land O Lakes Fresh Buttery Taste Spread. It has 70 calories in 1 TBS and 2g Saturated fat. No Trans Fats and no Cholesterol. It also contains 400mg of Omega 3 per serving. Flavor is nice and we use it in baking and have had no adverse results.
Anybody have suggestions for substitutions to butter for cookie recipies? I don’t really want to add that much oil. The rec calls for 2 sticks of butter (makes 48 cookies). I’m real big on non-processed and healthy so these butter substitutes aren’t peaking for me. Thanks for any help you can offer.
I use Promise Light and have so for years. Co-workers told me most of these spreads are one molecule away from being plastic?? Is there any truth to that? Promise has palm oil, isn’t that bad??? I don’t want to give up Promise!!!
Why on earth are so many people using highly artificial butter substitutes rather than using the real thing sparingly? For the most part the substitutes have the same calories and differ only in cholesterol — so unless your doctor has advised you that you have a cholesterol problem, you are needlessly eating gunk. This NY Times article is quite informative:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/health/nutrition/05brod.html?scp=1&sq=buuter%20margarine%20health&st=cse
But the bottom line is, if your tastebuds cannot tell you that margarine and other butter substitutes taste terrible, you’re doing something wrong. Either you’ve killed your tastebuds through smoking cigarettes and/or you’ve become completely accustomed to plastic-y processed food. Try something for a while and see how it goes: Eat only real food, made with non-synthetic ingredients. Lots of vegetables and fruit (real vegetables that must be washed and chopped, not processed stuff from a box that tastes like mush) and if you’re going to eat meat, make sure it is of good quality and not processed (e.g., no antibiotics, no artificial flavors added, no extruded chicken). No McNuggets, no Lunchables, no cold cuts loaded with nitrates and water and salt, no food from terrible chain restaurants that serve gigantic heaps of fried frozen food. If you crave cookies, bake real cookies with real butter and eat them in moderation. (Give half the batch or more to friends if you haven’t got the willpower to keep them in the house without eating them all at once!) Try this for a couple months and see how you feel. If you eat processed food after all that, it will very likely taste awful to you.
One more thing: this article by Dr. Andrew Weil is even better than the NYT one I linked to above (which is somewhat less clear, and also contains at least one inaccuracy in that it parrots the old thinking about coconut oil):
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/margbutt.htm
In any case, read it and make up your own mind.
Since we’ve been using promise light, I’ve noticed an increasing presence of heartburn? Anyone else experiencing this?
mangopickle-I totally agree, use the natural product in minimal quantities. Who knows what they’ll find in all these “healthy” substitutes in the coming years. We’re big into evoo and minimal amounts of butter, we buy it at Costco so the price is very reasonable compared to the grocery store.
COCONUT OIL NEEDS TO BE RESEARCHED BY EVERYONE!! Just type it into your search engine and keep reading. IT IS the best oil you can use for a multitude of things. You will be amazed at the bad press it has gotten over the years. I agree with Mangopickle in everything stated about unprocessed food – we must get back to eating the way our bodies function best, not the way big business wants us to eat.
can butter be frozen?
Hi Joyce,
Butter freezes well– for up to 6 months. Dana actually does it all the time!
if you read the list of ingredients, i believe you will find that olivia is not 100%