Whether you cook or bake with it, spread it, or melt it — butter can be a divisive topic. This dairy product has been back and forth on the “good” and “bad” foods lists for years.
Butter is made from churning cow’s milk or cream, which separates the solid butterfat and liquid buttermilk, and the result is a firm, spreadable thing of bliss (via Taste of Home). It comes in salted and unsalted varieties and is considered by many a non-negotiable ingredient in baking.
You may be wondering why something so good could be so bad. It is up for debate depending on how much you consume. Experts say butter can be a part of a well-rounded diet — as long as it’s consumed in moderation. While butter can cause some negative impacts to your health, it does bring some benefits to the table, too. Butter is a source of vitamins A, D, E, and calcium (via WebMD). One tablespoon has 102 calories, with 12 grams of fat — but no carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, or protein.
Curious what butter does to your body if you eat it every day? Read on to find out.
Your body gets nutritional fat
Contrary to what you may have heard, fat is not your ultimate health enemy. The “war against fats” studies date all the way back to the 1960s, according to the Harvard Public Health.
But your body actually needs healthy fats for energy, muscle movement, to absorb vitamins and minerals, as well as for blood clotting nutrients (via Harvard Health). That doesn’t mean you should start consuming sticks of butter each day. Experts say saturated fats like those found in butter should be limited to less than 10% of your daily caloric intake.
The kicker is that when you try to eliminate fats from your diet, many times you replace the healthy fats with sugar or carbs that are even worse. And so reducing saturated fat didn’t guarantee a healthier diet overall, explains Harvard Public Health.
“Saturated fat is found in a range of foods — including not only butter and meats but also milk, yogurt, cheese, nuts, and vegetable oils. Each of these foods has different effects on heart disease,” Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, told Harvard Public Health. “Instead of emphasizing one nutrient, we need to move to food-based recommendations. We’re not going to artificially create healthy diets by manufacturing low-fat, low-saturated-fat packaged foods. What we eat should be whole, minimally processed, nutritious food — food that is in many cases as close to its natural form as possible.”
Reduce body fat and weight
While saturated fats can negatively impact your health, there are other sources of fat in butter that could actually benefit you. The conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in butter, for example, could decrease body fat (via Healthline). You heard that right — butter could potentially help with weight loss.
How can that be? The fatty acids in butter are absorbed directly from the small intestine into the liver to be converted into energy (via Don’t Waste the Crumbs). What actually is stored as fat in your body comes from refined carbohydrates and polyunsaturated oils, not necessarily saturated fats found in butter.
Some people also find butter to be a perk of a low-carbohydrate diet. Depending on your body type, you may be able to maintain your weight or have more weight loss success than with a low-fat diet (via WebMD). Another reason why butter could help with weight loss is because it may make you feel more full than its alternatives, according to Don’t Waste the Crumbs. Feeling fuller means less room for poor food choices.
Source: Healthdigest