How to Choose a Butter Alternative

If you are new to dairy free, one of the first things you might have tried to find is a good butter substitute. There are tons of vegan or “plant-based” butters out there – marketed to look healthy, but really they are nothing different than the Country Crock margarine that I remember seeing at my friend’s houses growing up in the height of the low fat craze.

My generation grew up with “milk does a body good”, believing cereals and pastas were good for us – as long as they were low fat, and butter was the enemy (because it was fat!).

Today, we know better. It’s like we are starting to remember what generations before us already knew. Our bodies need REAL food – not processed food products that are cheap and marketed as good for us.

But anyway, back to butter. Obviously if you need to go dairy free, butter is out, but that doesn’t mean vegan butter or margarine is in.

I don’t care if your margarine says things like “made from olive oil” or “made with healthy plants” or “made with magical unicorn seed oil.” Vegetable oils are highly processed, highly inflammatory, and toxic to our bodies.

What are vegetable oils?
Well, they are not healthy like vegetables, and they actually usually come from seeds. Here is a short list of the most common vegetable oils – to be avoided!

• Canola oil (rapeseed oil
• Soybean oil
• Sunflower oil
• Safflower oil

In fact, pick up any packaged food in the grocery store (even the “healthy” organic ones), and you’ll probably see one of these oils in it.

Vegetable oils are not real food because in order for them to be made, they need to be processed. Like, in a chemical plant. Using nasty chemicals & solvents. They are also processed at high temperatures and pressures which oxidizes the oil, makes it rancid, toxic, and inflammatory. This also produces trans fats, which we KNOW are bad for us (the FDA has even banned trans fats from being added to foods).

Vegetable oils are also high in omega-6 oils. Which aren’t bad for us, unless we eat too many. And if you are eating a standard American diet, you are eating too many and they are causing inflammation in your body.

So what can you eat if you can’t eat butter?

• Coconut oil (this is a great all-purpose oil and generally can be substituted pretty well for baking)
• Avocado oil (this is my go-to cooking oil)
• Olive oil (for salads and low-temperature cooking)

What if you just REALLY want that buttery flavor on your toast, etc.?

• Depending on you or baby’s sensitivity, ghee could be a great option. This is clarified butter (meaning most of the protein has been removed). Do not try to introduce ghee when you are still working through healing baby and pinpointing root cause of symptoms.
• If you want a plant butter, the Miyoko’s plant butter is a better option. It does contain sunflower oil, but it’s not loaded with vegetable oils like many other plant butters. Use sparingly – think of it as a treat!

Watch the full video below for more details.

Additional resources:
https://blog.daveasprey.com/dr-cate-shanahan-376/