Butter is not as bad as it has been made out to be over the last decade. It has some incredible ingredients that are essential to the body. A good grass fed butter can provide many desperately needed nutrients to the human body.
Butter is not the devil!
A good grass fed butter that is ethically made is a good ingredient to use in many of cooking recipes.
Let’s get to know this misunderstood ingredient and let’s also celebrate all the good it has to offer.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and all the information you find in this post is based on my extensive research. The opinions below are also formed after listening to esteemed members in the medical community. Please consult your health care professional for further information.
Tips for working with butter
- To soften butter sticks quickly, add about ½ a cup of water to a glass. Microwave the glass for 20 seconds. Use oven mitts to handle the hot glass of water. Discard the water and cover the butter sticks with the heated glass. Let it stay there for about 5 minutes. It will be softened after that.
- Never softened
- ALWAYS use grass fed butter in all your cooking. It has nutrients that are lacking in other processed butters.
- If you are making pastry where you are working with dough, cold butters work better than softened butters
- If you are like me, you probably don’t have a stand-alone mixer. So, you can use a cheese grater to shred cold/frozen butter and add it to your pastries.
Why is butter good for you?
Grass fed butter is rich with Vitamin K2 (menaquinones). This vitamin has one main job and that is to take the calcium out of the blood/soft tissues and deposit it into the bones.
This ensures strong bones and less risk of Osteoporosis.
Sources – Cleveland Clinic, Pubmed, WebMD, Better Nutrition and Autumn Bates. Note: these are just 2 of the sources sited in this post. There are many, many other well-researched articles from other members of the nutrition and health professional. I have also had several conversations with other nutritionists who have educated me on butter.
“It’s high in saturated fat!!”
Yes, butter is high in saturated fat! That is a dyed-in-wool kind of fact!
But, many, MANY recent findings have shown that saturated fat is more complex that simply being “bad” for your health. It’s not as bad for your cholesterol as previously thought.
Check out these AMAZING sources on saturated fat and cholesterol.
- Harvard Health – The truth about fats: the good, the bad, and the in-between
- BBC – The truth about saturated fat
- Medical News Today – What are the benefits of grass-fed butter?
- Dr. Mark Hyman – 7 ways to optimize cholesterol
Types of butters
- Salted Butter
- Unsalted Butter
- Sweet Butter
- Whipped Butter
- Vegan Butter (AKA Plant-Based Butters)
Not sure how and when to use these butters? Well+Good has a breakdown of when to use them. Use any of these combinations of butter to make compound butters.
Grass fed butter brands
- Kerrygold Butter
- Kirkland Signature Grass-Fed butter (Costco’s brand)
- Organic Valley
- Anchor
- Whole Food’s 365 Organic Butter (Pasture Raided)
- Vital Farm’s Pasture-Raised Brand
- President
- Plugra
- Kalona
These butters can be found at Whole Foods, Aldi Publix and Thrive Market.
Why I don’t endorse vegan butters anymore
Vegan butters or Plant based butters are very highly processed and artificial ingredients are brought together for a “buttery” taste.
Many of these vegan butters are made with bad vegetable oils (like canola or corn), artificial coloring, Palm oils, Soy, corn and even things like food dyes.
These ingredients are bad for the heart and are carcinogen. Additionally, foods like palm oils are bad for the environment.
Source:
- MBG – 8 Unhealthy Oils to Avoid
- The Independent – Vegetable oils contain ‘toxic’ chemical linked to cancer and brain degeneration, say scientists
- NY Post – These are the worst cooking oils for your health, experts say
- National Library of Medicine (PubMed) – Omega-6 vegetable oils as a driver of coronary heart disease: the oxidized linoleic acid hypothesis
Many of my old recipes have vegan butters listed in the ingredients. I am actively working on recreating those dishes with alternatives to the bad butters.
If you are vegan for the animals, you may not like hearing that these butters are bad for you. I know it hurts to hear this because it hurt me. These butter caused so many health problems in my case that I had to step away from my blog for a while.
Just avoid butters in general (vegan or dairy), if you are vegan for the animals. Things like Extra Virgin Olive Oils, coconut oil or no-oil cooking can be a good replacement.
So what do you think about vegan/plant-based butters? Sound off in the comments because I am very curious to hear about your experiences.
When is butter bad for you?
Most people use butter for baking (I am guilty of that too!)
Mixing flours, sugars and butters is where all the good of butter is negated. When combined with sugar and flour, good fats in butter are turned into the bad Omega 6 fats. Omega 6 is known to clog up arteries and cause other health problems. Source: Mashed, Men’s Health.
Nutrition in grass fed butter
- Vitamin K2
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin E
- Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)
- Omega-3 fatty acids
Source: Very Well Fit
Ask me questions
No, butter is not vegan because it’s made from bovine milk. Since vegan can’t eat dairy, butter and ghee is automatically not allowed on vegan diet. Confused about what is vegan and what is vegetarian? Check out my handy dandy guide on veganism
Ghee is made from butter. Butter is boiled until it separates into 2 ingredients. The process of boiling the butter causes the impurities to separate. These impurities are strained and then discarded. What remains is a golden yellow liquid which is allowed to cool to room temperature.
I learned to make ghee from my mother and she from her mother. Ghee making tradition is a time-honored tradition that are passed down over generations in our culture. I haven’t posted a recipe for it but, if you want to make your own, check out Bhavna’s Kitchen. Her recipe is a very traditional way of making it.
Yes, it can easily be frozen. I like to freeze my homemade compound butter like my Herb Garlic Butter and Lemon Balm Butter. It lasts a long time.
Grass fed butter is where the cows are allowed to roam free and eat grass. When the cow is milked, it’s milk contains all the nutrients from earth. However, non-grass fed butters are made from farm cows are often fed grains and corn by-products. This results in butters that are devoid of many nutrients. Additionally, these cows are reared in in-humane conditions.
– Margarine
– Most Vegan Butters
– Vegetable Oil Spreads
– Fake Butters
– Canola Oil Butters
– Artificially flavored butters
More sources
- Fatty Acids in Bovine Milk
- Grass-Fed Butter: 7 Benefits that May Surprise You
- 6 Health Benefits of Grass-Fed Butter
- The Top 20 Foods High In Vitamin K2 (Menaquinone)
- Vitamins K1 and K2: The Emerging Group of Vitamins Required for Human Health
- Vitamin K2: Are You Consuming Enough?
- What to know about vitamin K-2
YouTube Videos
- BUTTER: 100% Saturated Evil?? (What’s Actually in There?)
- I Will Change Your Mind on Butter in 3 Minutes
- Butter & Saturated Fat Benefits | Is Butter is Bad for You? | CLA vs. Fat Loss Science (2019)
- The Benefits of Eating Butter on Keto Diet
- Why Do Arteries Get Clogged? It’s Not What You Think
- The BIG MYTH Behind Heart Disease & What ACTUALLY CAUSES It!
- Three Top Cardiologists Say Saturated Fat Doesn’t Cause Heart Disease
- 5 Amazing Health Benefits of Grass-Fed Butter
Sharing is caring
⭐️ If you tried and enjoyed this Kale Salad with Pomegranate, please rate it 5 stars! Share it on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram ⭐️
Have Questions? Tried a recipe? Want to voice an opinion?