Why you should upgrade to cultured butter
Wholemeal sourdough bread and Bungay Butter.
Key points
Cultured butters contain probiotics, live microbes with proven health benefits. Standard butters, known as ‘sweet butter’, do not.
Cultured butters taste AMAZING!
Most people with lactose intolerance can tolerate butter because it contains only trace amounts of lactose (<0.7g/100g). Only those who are highly sensitive to lactose may experience symptoms.
If you’re highly sensitive to lactose and experience symptoms with sweet butters, you’re more likely to be able to tolerate cultured butter because it contains even less lactose.
A single portion of butter (5g/1 teaspoon) contains 13% of a woman’s maximum recommended intake of saturated fat per day and 9% of a man’s.
Butter is high in saturated fat, but can be enjoyed in moderation as part of a generally healthy diet that isn’t high in other sources of saturated fat.
Probiotics
Besides its phenomenal flavour, that is.
Because you get a dose of probiotics with your butter! Live microbes with proven health benefits.[1]
Cultured butters are made with SOURED CREAM. Whereas standard butters, known as ‘sweet butter’, are made with FRESH CREAM, and therefore do not contain probiotics.
In days of yore, all butter was cultured. Milk was left to sit until the cream rose to the top, during which time it started to ferment and sour slightly.🥛🪣 The cultured cream was skimmed off and then churned into butter.🧈
Today, the process is replicated by souring cream with live cultures (live lactic acid bacteria (LAB)) that kick-start the fermentation process.🦠
Thinking of optimising your health with your diet?
Outstanding flavour
Culturing the cream before churning creates W.O.W. butter:
💛Wonderfully rich, full flavour
💛Amazing subtleties and complexity
💛That characteristic, slightly sour tang – the LAB convert the lactose in the cream into lactic acid, bringing its richness into perfect balance, like acidity in a big, fat buttery Chardy or Viognier wine
💛Creamy, silky texture – again due to the LAB breaking down the lactose.
It really is very special indeed.👌
I’m lactose-intolerant: Can I eat cultured butter?
Most people with lactose intolerance can tolerate butter because it contains only trace amounts of lactose, between 685 and 688mg per 100g of sweet butter.[2] That’s less than 0.7g/100g! Infinitesimal.
Why is butter’s lactose content so low? Because it’s made from the fat vs non-fat part of milk, and it’s the non-fat part that contains all the lactose. As mentioned above, butter is made by skimming the cream (the fatty part) off the liquid (the non-fat) part of milk, leaving virtually all of the lactose behind. The final product is 81% fat, 16% water, and less than 1% protein and total sugars combined (81g, 16g and 0.9g per 100g respectively).[3]
Most people with lactose intolerance have no problem with levels this low (<0.7g/100g). Only those who are highly sensitive to lactose may experience symptoms. But here’s the good news: if you’re unlucky enough to be in that tiny minority and regular sweet butter gives you a bit of an upset tummy, wind, or bloating, you’re more likely to be able to tolerate cultured butter (I’d hazard highly likely!) as it contains even less lactose. (Note that the same is true of ghee.)
How so? Because the LAB feed on the lactose in the cream fermenting it out to lactic acid.
Can butter be part of a healthy diet?
Too much saturated fat in the diet can raise levels of total and LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol in your blood, which can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Current advice is that you should get no more than 10% of your total energy intake from saturated fats:
For women, that’s no more than 20g saturated fat/day
For men, that’s no more than 30g saturated fat/day.[4]
Butter contains 81g fat per 100g, 51g of which is saturated.[3] A single portion of butter (5g/1 teaspoon)[5] therefore contains 2.6g of saturated fat, 13% of a woman’s maximum recommended daily intake and 9% of a man’s.
If you like butter – and most of us do – I therefore believe it can be enjoyed in moderation as part of a generally healthy diet that isn’t high in other sources of saturated fat (including meat and dairy products, coconut products, palm oil, cacao butter, chocolate, biscuits, cakes, and pastries).
Recommended products & stockist
I recommend Bungay Butter – the best butter in the land and the UK’s only raw milk cultured butter. Made by Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk, from their own herd of grass-fed, ancient-breed cows. Available locally from Mellis (£5.50/200g) and online from the dairy’s shop.
And Isigny Ste-Mère Unpastuerised Salted Butter – the champagne of French butters. A raw milk cultured butter from grass-fed cows in the Isigny Ste-Mère PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) region of Normandy. Available from Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, £3.70/250g.
Isigny is a great everyday choice. Bungay is a real treat: rich, creamy, and complex. The flavour it gives to beurre noisette is truly exceptional – as good as any pudding or dessert!
Have you tried cultured butter?
If not, why are you still here? 😜
References
Salminen S, Collado MC, Endo A. et al. The International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on the definition and scope of postbiotics. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021;18:649–667. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41575-021-00440-6#citeas.
Portnoia PA, MacDonaldb A. The lactose and galactose content of milk fats and suitability for galactosaemia. Mol Genet Metab Rep. 2015;5:42–43. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgmr.2015.10.001. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5471386/.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central. Butter, salted. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173410/nutrients [Accessed 23rd January 2023].
Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). Saturated fats and health. London: SACN; 2019. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/saturated-fats-and-health-sacn-report [Accessed 23rd January 2023].
British Dietetic Association (BDA). Portion sizes: Food Fact Sheet. https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/food-facts-portion-sizes.html [Accessed 23rd January 2023].