How easy it is to mindlessly put a pat butter on your bread. It seems so small. It seems so harmless. It can’t be that bad, can it?
Butter contains two of the sources of the bad kind of food you want to avoid – dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. In a typical pat of butter, about 1” square by 1/3” high, you ingest 2.6 grams of saturated fat and 11 grams of cholesterol. That still may not seem like a lot. But, it is nowhere near the 0 saturated fat, and 0 cholesterol goal we strive for in the “Prescription for Life” plan. When compared with its size and payoff, a pat of butter is really a punch in the gut.
Many say to substitute margarine for butter because margarine doesn’t contain dietary cholesterol. And they are half right, but still half wrong. Although margarine doesn’t have the dietary cholesterol butter contains, it has about the same amount of saturated fat as butter. Butter and margarine both fit into the “bad” picture. So quit putting either butter or margarine on your bread, vegetables, or potatoes.
Rather than butter or margarine, use substitutes like Benecol or Promise Activ light spreads. These are cholesterol-lowering spreads. Also, use olive oil and canola oil in cooking. They contain the good monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. If you want to put something on your bread or potato, put a light spritz of olive oil on it. You will begin to enjoy the natural flavors and earthiness of grains and vegetables when they are not literally saturated in saturated fat!
“Butter” photo courtesy of sommai at www.freedigitalphotos.net
