If you ask this question to doctors or nutritionists, probably 90% of them will answer, without hesitation, that olive oil is better because it protects the arteries and keeps the heart healthy.
The remaining 10% will not be limited to a superficial response but will explain to you that both must be present in a balanced diet.
In Italy, 2005 saw a clear decrease in the consumption of margarine (minus 7.4%), butter (minus 3.7%) and seed oil (minus 3.5%).
The consumption of olive oil (minus 0.6%) also decreased to a lesser extent.
Margarine, fortunately, is slowly disappearing from the tables of the Italians, although it often returns hidden in the form of sweets or other industrial preparations.
The numerous scientific certificates that attribute to the extra virgin olive oil a leading role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases have certainly helped to stimulate their consumption and, despite a decline in the market of fats and oils that has continued for a decade now, its popularity it is constantly growing.
The same cannot be said for the consumption of butter which, given the clear stance against the saturated fats we have witnessed in recent years, is gradually decreasing.
It took about twenty years to downsize the quality of pasta, of which Italy, by chance, is among the leading producers in the world. We hope not to need as many to understand that excessive valorisation of olive oil can only give the same negative consequences.
Unfortunately, behind every great food there is a great commercial interest. It is natural for olive oil producers to struggle to churn out new studies that bear witness to their beneficial properties. It is no coincidence that the few studies that reduce the role of olive oil in our food come from the United States where its consumption is still limited.
Be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the Mediterranean diet
The "soft" information that passes through the newspaper or distracted television programs in many cases is not only useless, but even harmful. It happened in the past with pasta and it will probably happen again with olive oil.
Unfortunately, not all people have the time, education or financial means to create a healthy food culture.
Let's think for example of a family that has to deal with unemployment, star rentals and children's needs; it is unlikely that the supermarket will take the time and money to select the best quality products. You will hardly understand what monounsaturated fatty acids, phenols or tocopherols are, will only understand that olive oil is useful for heart health.
The inevitable result is that this family will abound with the consumption of olive oil which, as we know, is very energetic. The caloric surplus will inevitably make them gain weight and the excessive accumulation of fat will increase the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the family. Moreover, the high cost of the product will lead them to buy cheaper oils, often of poor quality, which have lost many of the virtues for which they are recommended during refining.
Butter or olive oil?
One hundred grams of olive oil make 899 Kcal; The butter, on the other hand, has a lower caloric content of 16%, equal to about 758 Kcal / 100 g. Therefore, using 20 grams of butter instead of 20 of olive oil saves 24 kcal.
Butter also has the advantage of being easily measurable, while we often tend to overdo the amount of olive oil.
The conviction that oil is a lighter and less caloric food than butter is therefore completely unfounded. The opposite is never true.
Olive oil also contains saturated fats just as butter contains a small percentage of unsaturated fatty acids. Specifically, the long chain fatty acid content of the butter is three times higher.
One hundred grams of butter contain about 250 mg of cholesterol which is absent in olive oil.
Considering that your daily cholesterol intake should not exceed 300 mg / day, adding small amounts of butter to foods is fully compatible with the rules of a healthy diet.
On the other hand, even the cheeses are rich in cholesterol and to abolish the butter to then consume in abundance other dairy products or fatty meat would make no sense. It should also be remembered that cardiovascular diseases are fought not only by controlling cholesterol intake but above all by maintaining their normal body weight, by practicing regular physical activity and by taking the right amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Butter consumption is higher in northern European countries and northern Italy. In the south, we prefer instead to use olive oil without obtaining significant advantages over the average life span or the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.
This fact confirms that considering olive oil as a food able to protect ourselves from such diseases is, without doubt, overly optimistic.
Among the various oils, extra virgin olive oil can in some ways be considered the best, but it is necessary to take it in moderation and in any case alternate it with other types of condiments (butter, seed oil, etc.).
In fact, remember that in order to function better, our body also needs cholesterol and precious polyunsaturated fatty acids that are scarcely present in olive oil (9%).
While butter is rich in vitamin A and mineral salts, olive oil is rich in tocopherols, plant sterols and other substances with an antioxidant action.
The more the olive oil is of quality, that is to say extra virgin of first pressing, the greater is the security that it is devoid of chemical residues, or that in any case it contains it in limited quantities. The butter production technique makes it a healthy food, at least as regards the content of chemical processing residues. The organoleptic characteristics (flavor, aroma, etc.) are instead influenced by the production techniques and are therefore better in a handmade butter.
The butter has a very low smoke point so it is good not to use it for frying, for which olive oil is certainly more suitable. However, this characteristic gives the butter excellent digestibility, especially when eaten raw.
Clarified butter
X Problems with video playback? Reload from YouTube Go to Video Page Go to Video Recipes Section Watch the video on youtubeButter is often used to increase the palatability of foods, masking the poor quality of the ingredients. For this reason it is excessively used in canteens, bars and restaurants, raising the calorie content of the dish. In the most economical exercises we also tend to use poor quality olive oil or to replace it with tastier, less expensive and unfortunately more dangerous oils for our health.
Butter is a good source of fat-soluble vitamins, especially vitamin A and mineral salts.
In the kitchen and especially in the industrial field the butter is used for its aggregating properties and in this regard it cannot be replaced by olive oil that would make the food greasy and not very compact.
Often the butter is replaced by margarine which, as widely explained in the article "Butter or margarine" is a food to avoid as much as possible because it is rich in hydrogenated fatty acids.
So the butter must absolutely not disappear from our tables, just simply be careful not to use too much.
To moderate but not to demonize therefore, always trying to create a food culture as wide as possible. Only in this way is it possible to protect oneself from foods, often shoddy, enhanced by misleading advertisements.
This is the case, for example, of butter with reduced cholesterol content. In this product a proportion of animal fats is replaced with fats of vegetable origin which in many cases are obtained through chemical processes that make them much more harmful than traditional butter.
Butter contains about 12-15% of short and medium chain fatty acids.
SEE ALSO: BUTTER OR MARGARINE?
