To wonder why anyone uses "spreads" instead of butter?

[AjasLipstick]

They're awful! So fake and plastic-ish. Hasn't it been proved that butter's better for you?

Do you use spread? Why?

Butter doesn't spread. I use anchor light and while it's not the same as real butter its not a bad substitute. I've already got to micro it for 5 seconds to soften it a bit - real butter would be worse. I'm on slimming world too and it's less syns then the real stuff and not much difference in taste imo

Fresta,you put cakes in the fridge?

My breastfed baby is cmpa so I'm forced onto the vile stuff. It's absolutely hideous, over processed and full of palm oil. I hate it and can't wait until my baby grows out of it or turns two so I can stop breastfeeding.

Because they spread.

I agree that spreads taste horrible, but it's pretty daft to be unable to think of any reasons why people would eat them, OP. Quite apart from the incredibly obvious allergy, intolerance, price and animal welfare reasons, plus the fact that some people like the taste, surely everybody knows that generations of people were told that spread was healthier. That message stuck with many people, even if advice is now different.

We were raised on Kerrygold (Irish Mum) and my sister and I still use nothing else. The smell and taste of any of the spreads turns my stomach.

Otoh, I would love to give up cows’ milk products and if I did, I’d have to give up toast as well ...

I think if I couldn't eat butter, I'd go without spread altogether or go for a drizzle of olive oil instead when having bread as an accompaniment to savoury stuff.

Lurpak everytime for me

I've just read the sausage thread and now this. I'm going to have to get up and make breakfast

I put the whole block in the dish and it has never gone rancid. We didn't knock our larder into our kitchen though, so it's in the shade on a cool tiled shelf. If it's a bit hard in the winter, I just put it in the microwave on medium low to soften it up enough to spread.

Butter will go off if left out for several days in the summer. I don't find it a problem at this time of year, but reading elsewhere on MN how high some people set their central heating, I can see they may have a problem.

I use light 'buttery' spread. I have ibs and find real butter too rich

I use ‘spreads’ because I love butter and have no will power, it’d be gone way too quick along with a loaf of bread a day. Plus yes it’s much cheaper, a 500g Flora (£1) or similar lasts us over a month!

Because my DP is allergic to dairy

Milk prices are going down at the moment and butter fat is becoming more available ( a lot was going to China last year), so in theory butter prices should come down again. Depending on the retailers passing the reduction on, or course, farmers are already getting less money.

For me it's the price.

I can't afford to buy enough real butter. We go through a big tub of country life a week. If I used butter it would be more as I know the kids would find it harder to spread.
I use real butter in cooking, it stays in a butter dish in the cupboard. I've never known it go off even after a couple of weeks in the summer.
I am fussy about spreads though. Flora, Vitalite, the olive oil spreads, and clover are pretty much inedible for me. As is the Aldi version of Lurpak.

I use vegan spread, for obvious reasons and because milk has pus in it.

Pus!

PS and hormones and antibiotics too.

I like Vitalite. I use it even when I'm not Vegan.

If I go to my DDs, who has Lurpak, I crave bread/crumpets/crackers with it on.

There is a difference in butters, not all butters are better than spreads.

I read that somewhere that the molecular content of butter is only one step away from being plastic

I thought that was spread? How can butter be plastic? It's made from milk and salt...

DCs have allergies to dairy and soya. I would much prefer to use butter for me and dh but don't think it's fair to make the children feel different. You do get used to the taste.

I don’t keep butter in the fridge - why would you? Surely it would always be to hard to spread.

I rarely make sandwiches and rolls if I make I wouldn’t use butter anyway, just a filling

I use a spread as it's lower in saturated fat than butter, I really don't notice the taste. I would be interested to see where the research shows that butter is healthier than a spread.

Food snobbery is so de classe.

People eat things they can (a) afford (b) prefer.

OP, you may swim in your non fake not plastic butter, and your arteries will thank you for it as they slowly fur up

www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/butter-vs-margarine/faq-20058152