Butter is one of the all-time favorite ingredients for most people. It serves as the perfect cooking alternative to oil and allows you to cook all your meals and enhance the flavor. However, the Mediterranean diet aims to help people lose weight.
Can You Eat Butter On The Mediterranean Diet?
The great thing about the Mediterranean diet is the versatility that it offers. Those following the diet can often rely on eating almost anything, as long as it is done in moderation. The same is true for butter, and while you will get a lot of saturated fats in butter, it can be added to your meals in moderation.
However, it is not just about adding butter to your diet and going with it. If you can use methods to make butter more Mediterranean diet-friendly, you should consider looking at these alternatives. Fortunately, we have done the research, and we aim to show you how to add butter to the Mediterranean diet in the best possible way.
Can You Eat Butter On The Mediterranean Diet?
Butter is well known for containing plenty of saturated fats, but much like peanut butter, you will only be consuming a little bit of butter with each meal. Unless you eat spoons full of butter, you might have an issue with too many saturated fats, but adding a little bit as a spread to your toast or bread should not have such a bad effect.
Ideally, you want to look at the calories and fat content in the butter you choose. This information should be integrated into your calories, and you will have to work around it. For many people, butter can be enjoyed as a snack with meals. However, to reduce the intake of saturated fats, it is often better to aim for using olive oil in your foods.
5 Ways To Make Butter Mediterranean Diet-Friendly
Now that you know that you can add a little bit of butter to your Mediterranean diet, the question remains about integrating it into the diet. Fortunately, we have done some research, and these methods could help you. You can use some of these ways sparingly to add some additional butter to your Mediterranean diet.
Consider A Light Butter
One of the first things you might want to consider is looking at the butter you have chosen for your diet. There are plenty of different forms of butter for you to consider, and you should look for a diet butter with fewer calories. Generally, it will also have fewer calories, and the saturated fat content might not be as high.
It might often take some getting used to the different butter, but much like removing cream from your coffee, you will eventually get used to the flavor and the consistency. Keep in mind that some of these forms of butter might be a little more expensive. However, they could ensure that you remain in your calorie range.
Limit Yourself
If you are like many people, you probably have your diet planned out for the week. It is much better to be prepared with your foods to counteract falling into the trap of succumbing to your cravings. The best way to do this is to limit yourself with the intake of your foods, and having meals prepared should be the best way to go.
Since you will be planning and preparing meals ahead of time, you can integrate different foods into your diet. You will also be working out the calorie content each day, which means you can stay under your goal. If you add butter to specific meals, you might need to sacrifice something else to make room.
Add Vegetables
This might come as a surprise, but vegetables will be your best friend, especially when indulging in different foods. Vegetables are packed full of fiber, and the fiber will help to keep you feeling full. If you eat plenty of vegetables, you will find that you don’t indulge as much, and you can eat butter with your meals without overeating.
If you crave butter, you can cook your vegetables in the butter, and while it might not make it healthier, you will be consuming fewer calories than when you mix it with some form of protein or carbohydrates.
Training Harder
Since your body works with calories and not specific foods, you might need to consider ramping up your training regime. The more active you are and the harder you train, the more calories you will also burn. By burning as many calories, you will notice that the butter does not significantly impact your diet.
However, you cannot always consume what you want and just train harder. This tip is only for days that you really cannot control the cravings. It is also best to consider eating your meals with butter in the morning. It should, in theory, give you the entire day to burn off some of the alternative calories you have consumed.
Mixing It With Olive Oil
While the best thing would be to replace your butter with olive oil completely, it defeats the purpose of making it Mediterranean diet-friendly. One thing you can do is to mix the butter with olive oil when you are cooking. Once again, it will be a taste that you might need to get used to, but you will limit your calories significantly. If possible, you can gradually get off the butter and consider using more olive oil for your meals.
Butter On The Mediterranean Diet Summary
Butter is one of the best raw ingredients, and we often use it for various foods. However, butter is far from healthy, and you will need to make a few changes to make it a healthy meal. We hope this article has given you the tips you are looking for, and we would love to read some of your comments.
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