Is Butter Healthy? | Vogue [Video]

Of course, butter has long been a favorite food of many people—and, whether its being smoothed onto bread or melted into sauces, its exaltation isn’t exactly new. But are the recent claims that butter is a health food best consumed in large quantities actually true? Here’s what to know.

Is a stick of butter a healthy snack?

“Basically, you can say that butter is not as bad as its reputation,” explains health and nutrition coach Tanja Maxeiner. However, she stresses that while butter can be included in a healthy snack, it should not be the whole snack. “It is not recommend to eat more than one to two tablespoons of butter a day,” she says, noting that thanks to butter’s high saturated fat content, it’s better to stick to moderate amounts of a high-quality olive oil instead.

As for the date-and-butter snack trend, Maxeiner says the fat in butter could help balance the potential blood sugar spike that might come …