Slather It, Baby! Butter Consumption Hits 40-Year High

[The Straight Story]

Butter's back—and with a creamy vengeance. Foodies extol its flavor. Purists praise its freedom from trans fats. Annual per capita butter consumption in the U.S. (now 5.6 pounds), has risen 25 percent in the last decade to a 40-year high, according to American Butter Institute.

"Our sales have been growing by double-digits every year," says Albert Straus, owner of the Straus Family Creamery, whose cows graze the bucolic hills above Tomales Bay, in western Marin County, Calif. Staus' European-style butter has proved incredibly popular, he says, especially among chefs.

It was created 20 years ago at the suggestion of famed California chef Alice Watters, who wanted a locally-produced European-style butter with high fat content (82 percent, in Straus' case).


Straus tells ABC News he sold 500,000 pounds of high-fat, gourmet butter last year, a quarter more than he did five years ago.

Meantime, nationwide, margarine sales have been in free fall since 1995.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-butter-consumption-hits-40-year-record-high/story?id=21467629

[tridim]

1. IMO it should be illegal to manufacture and sell frankenfats.

There is no reason to consume them. None.

Especially now that virgin coconut oil is available cheaply.

[Arkana]

2. Somewhere, Paula Deen is going "Good, y'all...good."

[get the red out]

3. Is this bad or good?

Which pendulum swing are we in concerning "dietary purity"?

[Brainstormy]

5. It's very good

if it keeps us from consuming trans fats, shortenings and hydrogenated oils.

[Nay]

7. It is. Although butter may have its own problems, it's certainly better

than the fake-food margarines and trans-fat-saturated garbage we usually consume. In France, butter is used liberally and they have much lower incidences of heart attack, etc.

[malaise]

8. We love butter but we're careful

We never use margarine - hate it thankfully.

[Theodis]

4. It's really a simple concept

The process to make oil harden will harden in your veins and arteries, causing plaque resulting in high cholesterol and a myriad of cardiovascular nightmares.

Additionally, most margarine have GMOs.

It's hard to go wrong with nature, so people are going back to butter. And guess what? Butter tastes better!

[laundry_queen]

12. Does it EVER taste better!

I grew up on cheap margarine. I used to beg my mom to buy real butter and she would refuse, citing the price (while buying herself wine and escargots, and eating lobster at fancy restaurants weekly). I hated the stuff even as a kid. The only time I got real butter was at Christmas and at my grandmother's. My mom never understood why I hated bread and 'butter'. "I loved it as a kid." Yeah, well YOU had real butter! (My grandmother was a stickler for butter too, made her own.) She would claim there wasn't a difference. M'kay.

As an adult, I've only bought margarine a handful of times, usually because it's cited specifically in a recipe that says, "don't use butter for this recipe".

Butter and olive oil is mostly what I use day to day. My mom still uses margarine because "It's healthier".

[HappyMe]

6. I cook with butter and olive oil.

I don't buy the fancy gourmet butter. There's a local dairy that I get butter and milk from.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Same with me--butter and olive oil. I've been using real butter since the mid-90's.

Not totally sure what my coronary arteries look like, but...come on, it's BUTTER! As irreplaceable as bacon.

[HappyMe]

11. I have always used butter.

It's tastes hella good, and you know what's in it: cream, salt.

I do have some Tsang stir fry oil for high heat cooking. It's infused with garlic and spices, and adds great flavor.

[RebelOne]

10. I am diet concious, but I must have my butter.

Kroger had light butter for $1.99 a pound, so I bought two pounds,

[infoviro]

13. Enough with the Christie posts already!