Is Butter Better Than Margari... Health Article

I studied nutrition at the height of the fat-phobic ’90s—so one day, when an astute professor asked which of us dietitians-in-training used margarine instead of butter, I was sure all the hands in the room would go up. Not a single one did. Even then, we were a room full of butter lovers. And no doubt more among our ranks have since moved into the pro-butter camp, as the almost daily indictments of trans fats make margarine look more like foe than friend. But most healthy cooks I know treat butter as a dear but distant pal, who comes only occasionally for brief visits.

"I subscribe to the ‘a little goes a long way’ school," says former EatingWell Food Editor Patsy Jamieson, who drizzles it sparingly in recipes where buttery flavor is critical.

Even though butter doesn’t contain those trans fats, it’s still a potent source of saturated fat—nearly 70 percent. That’s even more than lard (43 percent) and duck fat (33 percent). Choosing butter made from the milk of grass-fed cows improves the situation slightly—it has higher levels of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a so-called "good fat" that has shown promise in preliminary studies of rheumatoid arthritis. However, nobody’s about to call butter a health food.

Luckily butter, unlike margarine, has the gift of wonderful, irreplaceable flavor that works miracles in small amounts—as creative cooks like Jamieson have found. For baking, she beats canola oil into softened butter to thin it with healthier fats a feat duplicated by the Land O’Lakes company in its new "Soft Baking Butter with Canola Oil"). And swirling a tiny nub of butter into a pan sauce at the end of cooking "can work wonders," she adds.

Indeed, nutritionists and foodies alike agree that life without a little butter would be bleak. "If I live to be 80-plus," exclaims healthy-cookbook author Marie Simmons, "I’ve decided I’m going to slather butter on my toast again."

—Joyce Hendley

Resources

Heart Healthy Diet Recipes and Menus
Grilled Corn with Chipotle-Lime Butter
Healthy Cooking for Two Recipes and Menus
Heart Healthy Diet Center