Is Vegan Butter Healthy?

Is vegan butter healthy? Is it good for you? Is it better than regular butter? What about grass-fed butter? There are so many questions that need to be answered.

Many people automatically assume vegan = healthy. However, this is not the case. Instead of looking for magic wellness terms like “gluten free” and “vegan”, read the label of a product and see if you recognize the ingredients.

If it’s not a whole food or name you can pronounce, you probably want to stay away.

With this being said, I’m a believer that grass-fed butter or ghee (which is dairy free) is always healthier than a fake product created to mimic an animal product.

Below are the ingredients in Kerrygold’s grass-fed butter. As you can see, it’s two simple ingredients: pasteurized cream and salt. You know exactly what you’re getting.

Now let’s look at the ingredients of the two most popular brands of vegan butter.

Earth Balance Original Natural Butter Spread

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these are not real, whole food ingredients. This “butter” is simply made of harmful vegetable oils. Vegetable oils are one of the most inflammatory things you can consume and should be avoided at all cost. In addition to the vegetable oils, it contains natural flavors and sunflower lecithin, an ingredient derived from harmful vegetable oils.

Miyoko’s Classic Fresh Organic Vegan Butter

So close to using better oils, but not quite. The first ingredient is coconut oil, which is a good start. However, you can see this brand also uses sunflower oil. Don’t let the term organic thrown in front of any type of vegetable oil fool you. They are still extremely detrimental to your health, organic or not. You can see they also use sunflower lecithin, an ingredient you want to steer clear from.

Unfortunately there are no good options for “vegan” butters. They are all made of inflammatory oils, whether they’re organic or not.

If you really want a vegan butter substitute, go with a healthy oil like extra virgin olive oil. This is much less processed and has lots of amazing health benefits.