Clean Eating Butter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the healthiest butter to eat? ›

Grass-fed butter offers some health benefits to counteract the health risks it poses. It appears to have lower levels of saturated fats and more unsaturated fats than standard butter. This is because grass-fed butter is made from the milk of cows that are allowed to graze instead of being fed high-grain diets.

Butter is avoided by some clean eaters, but not by others, while most who eat it suggest it should be organic and grass-fed – attributes that don't change the fact it is high in saturated fat.

To finish the butter, rinse it under cool water, gently moving it around the sieve with a mixing spoon. You're rinsing off the residual buttermilk, and this is important because the more thoroughly you rinse, the longer your butter will last.

Homemade butter is nutrient-rich, packed with milk proteins, vitamins A and D, and saturated fats – all of which contribute towards good bone health whilst boosting your immunity. With no hidden trans-fats and broken-down nutrients, homemade butter is much healthier than store-bought butter.

Grass-fed butter is rich in important nutrients like Vitamin K2, and it contains a type of fat called butyric acid, which helps maintain colon health. It's also rich in conjugated linoleic acid, a type of fat that may actually help protect against weight gain.

It's the very first sweet cream butter. Melted, browned, creamed or clarified, Land O Lakes® Salted Butter is the all-purpose butter that improves the taste of everything it touches. It's the original that never lets you, or your taste buds, down.

Although peanut butter in its most natural form is very healthy, many commercially prepared forms are full of additives, such as sugar and hydrogenated oils — which may contain trans fats. While shopping for peanut butter, check the label to make sure it doesn't contain additional ingredients.

Eggs are a great choice—and don't skip the yolk, or you'll miss out on extra protein and nutrients not found in the egg whites. Nuts, seeds and beans are all fantastic choices for plant-based proteins. Just be sure to look for lower-sodium options when possible.

Likewise, many whole grains qualify for a clean eating food list even though they may be somewhat processed. For example, whole rolled oats are a clean food, but the very outer coating of the oat, as you'd find with oat groats, has been removed.

Homemade butter's shelf life depends on how thoroughly you extract the buttermilk. If a substantial amount of buttermilk remains, it will sour within a week, otherwise homemade butter can keep for up to 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

What happens if you don't rinse homemade butter? ›

Rinse the Butter

This step is very important, to keep the butter fresh. The final butter may have some lactose and milk proteins remaining in the liquid and if this is allowed to ferment, the butter may become rancid in a short time.

The texture of homemade butter is softer, creamier, and fluffier than regular stick butter. The flavor of the plain butter differs on the type of heavy cream you use.

Rather than slathering it on bread, consider alternate toppings like nut butters, avocado or olive oil. Since the main health concern with butter is its high levels of artery-clogging saturated fat, consider, too, where else you're getting saturated fats in your day. Not consuming red meat, whole milk or cheese?

Butter isn't that expensive — it's about $3 per pound at the wholesale level. Cream costs roughly $3.50 for 16 ounces, or less if you buy a larger carton. That means the price of making your own butter isn't much more than buying it in the store, and often you can get organic cream cheaper than organic butter.

The Bottom Line

If you eat butter daily, you will likely consume more calories, more saturated fat and add a small amount of beneficial vitamins and gut-healthy fatty acids to your diet. Overall, it's best to prioritize unsaturated fats from nuts, seeds, avocados and oils from vegetables, nuts and seeds.

For 1 cup of butter, substitute ½ cup applesauce and ½ cup oil, she recommends. According to the USDA, 1 cup of butter has 1,630 calories and 184 g of fat, while ½ cup of applesauce and ½ cup of avocado oil combined have 1,049 calories and 109 g of fat.

Margarine often tops butter when it comes to heart health. Margarine is a blend of oils that are mostly unsaturated fat.

The fact is, just because something is “real” does not necessarily make it good for you. The “real” ingredients that “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter” is touting are oils and salt. The ingredient list of “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter” reveals unhealthy ingredients like tropical oils and salt.