Can You Eat Butter If You Are Dairy-free? What About Lactose?

Butter is a popular spread and cooking ingredient. Butter is made from milk and contains minute amounts of lactose and you may or may not be able to eat it if you are dairy-free or lactose-free depending on your level of sensitivity and reasons for avoiding these things.

Butter is a popular spread and cooking ingredient. It holds large amounts of energy and saturated fats. Protein foods like meat and eggs also contain saturated fats, but these foods provide other essential nutrients. Butter, on the other hand, is usually voluntarily added as a spread on toast or chosen as a cooking medium over healthier options like vegetable oil. Healthcare providers, meanwhile, may recommend a dairy-free diet for various reasons. Two questions may strike you — is butter dairy? Can you eat butter if you are lactose-intolerant?

Dairy is an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet, especially for children. However, many dairy products load your food with saturated fats, salt, and sugars, so you may want to go dairy-free in your daily meals. Lactose intolerance is a medical condition that similarly requires dairy avoidance. 

Traditionally, any food made from the milk of mammals is considered dairy. Butter is a solid food most frequently made from cow's milk. Goat, buffalo, or sheep milk is also used to make butter. Since these are all mammals, butter is a dairy product. 

The dairy group is commonly the chief source of calcium in your diet. Currently, the dairy group of food includes milk, yogurt, cheese, and lactose-free milk. Soy milk and yogurt are also included. On the other hand, foods that don't provide calcium and are rich in fats, like cream, sour cream, butter, and cream cheese, are not recommended as part of your daily dairy.

Dairy is an important food group. Consuming dairy has several advantages:

• Milk and milk products provide 71.8% of the calcium in American diets. Calcium is a nutrient of concern — 42% of people don't consume enough. Fortified milk is also a valuable source of phosphorus, potassium, and vitamin D. Other nutrients you get from dairy products include magnesium and vitamin A.
• Significantly, 92% of Americans don't get enough vitamin D in their food, but most cow's milk sold in the U.S. is fortified with vitamin D, which can help. 
• Milk also provides you with complete proteins — it contains all nine essential amino acids that your body needs.

Mind you, although dairy products provide you with important nutrients, not all dairy products are healthy. Choose those with low amounts of fat and avoid those with added sugars and salt. Butter, though a milk product, has little protein and a high concentration of saturated fats.

Butter contains several valuable nutrients. Specifically, a 100-gram portion of butter contains:

• Energy: 717 calories
• Protein: 0.85 grams
• Total fats: 81.1 grams
• Saturated fats: 51.4 grams
• Carbohydrates: 0.06 grams
• Dietary fiber: none
• Butter also provides you with vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, folate, pantothenate, niacin, pyridoxal, cobalamin, vitamin A, vitamin E, and vitamin K). Minerals in butter include calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, and fluoride.

The total carbohydrate content of butter is only 0.06 grams per 100 grams. However, that amount may contain lactose.

Lactose is a sugar. Like other carbohydrates, it is chiefly used by your body as an energy source, yielding 4 calories per gram. Lactose is a disaccharide — it is made up of two simple sugars. Each lactose molecule is broken down in the intestines to yield one molecule each of galactose and glucose. These smaller molecules are absorbed by your intestines.

To break lactose down, though, you will need an intestinal enzyme called lactase. If your intestines don't have enough of this enzyme, you can't digest lactose. Undigested lactose will cause unpleasant symptoms like gas, bloating, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Lactose intolerance can't currently be cured because your intestines can't be stimulated to produce lactase. Fortunately, your doctor and dietician can advise you about a lactose-free diet to avoid symptoms.

Butter is made from milk and contains minute amounts of lactose. Sensitivity to lactose varies among people with lactose intolerance, and most people with lactose intolerance can eat butter because it is generally consumed in small amounts. Still, those who are very sensitive might have significant problems with even minute amounts of lactose.

Butter contains large amounts of saturated fats (50.5 grams per 100 grams). It's packed with calories, too. A 100-gram serving of butter contains 717 calories. Of course, you probably won't actually eat 100 grams of butter. The amount spread on a slice of toast or a bagel is likely to be one or two teaspoonfuls (5 to 10 grams). 

Still, if you've been placed on a dairy-free diet, you will likely wish to avoid milk, cheese, and yogurt. Whether you can eat butter, meanwhile, depends on your reasons for going dairy free. 

• If you're following a vegan diet and want to avoid all animal products, butter is ruled out.
• If you want to go dairy-free for health reasons, you probably want to avoid the consumption of saturated fats, sugars, salt, and calories. Butter should not be part of your diet, then, as it is packed with calories and saturated fats, and it is often salted. It doesn't provide the benefits of the dairy food group and presents certain health risks. Avoid using it as a spread and while cooking.
• If your doctor has recommended a dairy-free diet because of lactose intolerance, you may be able to tolerate some butter in your food. However, if you're severely lactose intolerant, read all food labels carefully and avoid buying any that contain even small amounts of butter. 

Margarine

Margarine sold in the U.S. is usually made from vegetable oils like palm oil and fully hydrogenated vegetable oil. Though considered healthier than butter, margarine is also up to 80% fat, so you should consume it in limited amounts.

Peanut butter and other nut butter

Peanut butter is a good alternative spread for toast and bagels. Although 100 grams of peanut butter contain 49.5 grams of fat, only 9.52 grams are saturated fats. Most of the fat content in peanut butter consists of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are beneficial for heart health. 

Peanut butter is 81% peanuts, though some emulsifiers, salt, and sugar are added during manufacture. 

Peanut butter contains no lactose. 

Seed butter

You can consider using sesame, tahini, and sunflower seed butter instead of regular butter. These kinds of butter are plant products and usually contain no dairy ingredients or lactose.