What is the Best Butter to Eat?
First of all, let’s talk about which butter is not best to eat. Personally, even though it’s easy to spread and lasts a long time, we don’t think margarine is a good choice. It’s a butter substitute and most contain no animal products at all. Most margarines are made by mixing vegetable oil and water. Oil is one of the most calorie-dense foods you can eat, meaning you need to consume a lot of it to fill your stomach. It’s also high in saturated fats and unless it’s extra virgin olive oil, which is too expensive to use in margarine, it’s not particularly nutritious. You can get lower-fat varieties, but these are packed with even more additives like colourings and flavourings than regular margarine. There’s even a rumour that goes around every so often that margarine is just a few molecules away from being plastic. That doesn’t seem to be true but there must be some striking similarities as these rumours don’t usually come from nothing. So if you’re searching ‘what is the healthiest butter in Australia’, we’re pretty sure the answer is not margarine. Vegan butter tends to be made in the same way as margarine but most brands will use a higher quality oil so it will contain some antioxidant benefits.
Spreadable Blends
Next up, let’s consider spreadable blends. Sometimes butter manufacturers provide a version of their butter that’s blended with oil to provide a lower-calorie alternative to butter that’s easy to spread. These are better than margarine as they tend to be around half butter so contain the nutritional benefits of butter like high vitamin E which is a great antioxidant. They also tend to be blended with rapeseed oil which while still calorie-dense is higher in unsaturated fatty acids which are good for health and don’t raise cholesterol like saturated fats. However, creating these blends means more processing of your food which always reduces nutritional benefits. They also usually contain additives such as colouring to get back the bold buttery yellow that’s been removed by blending it with oil. If you’re looking for a low-calorie butter in Australia blended spreads are a decent option but we’d recommend not consuming them in large quantities.
Pure Butter
Now we come onto pure butter with no blending or adding unnecessary ingredients. Some brands will add chemicals to increase the shelf life so make sure you watch the ingredients list. If you try and find a butter that’s just churned milk fat that’s going to be the healthiest choice. This is because it’s minimal processing which means the nutritional value, and the rich taste, are preserved. We’d recommend choosing unsalted or salted just based on taste preference as there’s not enough salt in it to have negative health effects. We think the salt adds the perfect balance to the creaminess when spread thickly on toast. While butter is high in saturated fats these are largely short-chain fatty acids. These are used by the body rather than just being stored in cells which is what can lead to high visceral fat. There have also been some recent studies suggesting that the fat in dairy does not contribute to raised bad cholesterol and may even improve heart health. This means butter is a healthier choice than other high-fat foods.
Grass-Fed Butter
The only way to make butter better for you is to choose grass-fed butter. If you’re looking for the answer to ‘best butter Australia’ it’s grass-fed. This butter’s fat content is a higher percentage of unsaturated fat which is the healthy fat that helps your body fuel itself efficiently. Grass-fed butter also has a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids. This reduces inflammation and plaque build-up in blood vessels and can make you less likely to have irregular heart rhythms. If you’re not great at eating oily fish each week this is good news for you. Grass-fed is also much better for the cows making the milk for your butter. They get fresh air and their intended diet instead of processed corn in a barn.
Butter as Part of a Healthy Diet
The best diet is well-balanced so we don’t think there’s any reason that can’t include butter. Butter is a way to add richness to virtually any dish and it’s important to enjoy your food. Butter is a high-calorie food the same as oil, but it also contains nutritional benefits that can aid health in moderation in a balanced diet. Some of the fat content for example is made up of butyric acid. This is only found in the milk fats of ruminant animals and has been shown in several studies to reduce gut inflammation. Butter also contains a vitamin you may not have heard of - K2. This form of K vitamin has been shown in some studies to help prevent osteoporosis and heart disease.
You may have heard that dairy increases the production of phlegm, and you should avoid it if you have a cold or you’re public speaking. While there aren’t many studies on this so far, the ones that have been done have shown no link between increased phlegm and dairy consumption. When milk mixes with the saliva in your mouth it creates a thicker liquid that coats the back of your throat as you swallow. It’s likely that this sensation has been confused for phlegm in the past and led to this myth. So now you know you don’t have to lay off dairy before your big meeting.
Do We Have the Best Butter in Australia?
We can’t say for sure, but we can say that our other dairy products at the Litte Big Dairy have won countless awards, so we think that’s a good sign. Find out where to get our single-source grass-fed butter here.