Being Vegan – No Butter But Finding A Balance

By Paul Graham

Contributing Writer

We have been looking at recent weeks at a number of vegan products that are out in the marketplace that can be used instead of products that use animal products.  Dairy is one of the things that so many people struggle to eliminate from their diets.  Milk, cheese and butter being the main culprits here.  We have looked at some of the milk, cheese and other dairy alternatives already.  Today we are going to explore two of the more popular non-dairy butter alternatives, Earth Balance and Smart Balance.

The Earth Balance products and the Organic Whipped Buttery Spread and Light Original with Flaxseed from Smart Balance are animal product-free.  Both have tastes that are superior to other margarine spreads and are a healthier alternative.  In comparing the Organic Earth Balance product with the Organic Smart Balance product and also Land O Lakes butter, the Smart Balance product was lower in calories than Earth Balance and the butter.  The butter was the highest.  The Smart Balance was also lower in total fat, with the butter being slightly higher than the Earth Balance.  Butter was almost double the saturated fat of the Earth Balance and three times as much as the Smart Balance.  The butter was high in cholesterol while the Smart Balance and Earth Balance having none.  Both the Earth Balance and Smart Balance were higher in sodium than the butter, and that is something they are going to have to work on.

While Earth Balance and Smart Balance are kinder alternatives than those using animal products directly, there are still other ethical issues remaining.  Both of these companies use palm fruit oil, while a healthier alternative than palm kernel oil, which is derived from the palm plants which are primarily found in the South American Rain Forest and Malaysia to name two.  The production of palm oil is destroying the eco-systems in many of these places which are endangering at least four kinds of wildlife as well as the natural habitats where they live.  Earth Balance has addressed these issues in a formal letter that is available to read on the internet where they state they are aware of and sensitive to these issues and only get the palm fruit product from areas that are minimally affecting the wildlife and eco-systems.  That is truly up for debate and the reason why quite a number of vegans do not use any products with palm oil present.  While they are technically animal product-free…they may impact wildlife and their habits in the farming of this product.

I think that these are both good products and I think we have an opportunity to influence some positive change.  It would be very easy just to say I am not going to use these products and be done with it.  Or we can react like to the two young girl scouts who discovered that they use palm oil in Girl Scout cookies and have been fighting an on-going battle to see if they can affect a change in the way the cookies are made. I believe that we need to similarly influence the companies that produce Earth Balance and Smart Balance to do the same. They are so very close to producing products that are good for our health, animals, and the environment.  But this is one issue that must be addressed.  It would be good to contact the companies in any way that you would like to voice your opinion to help influence things for the positive and work on a suitable alternative to the palm fruit oil in their products.  I believe this can be done.  There are other butter-type spreads out there that do not use palm fruit oil but you have to do some label-reading…which is something you get very good at after being vegan for a while.

Some do not use these buttery-type spreads at all and that is certainly an option for some.  But I can find more reasons for having them than not.  Let’s just be aware of the issues that are present and see what we can do to bring about the best possible results.  It is entirely possible, as we have seen with these products, to have products that are animal-free but still have ingredients whose production are impacting animals and the environment in a negative manner.  Let us hope that with encouragement from consumers, these companies will look beyond production values and profits and produce products that are healthy and kind at every level.

Paul Graham

Paul Graham was born and raised in Northern California and has lived in Las Vegas since 2004.  He is a top wedding officiate, a green Realtor and writer.  He has a daily vegan food blog www.eatingveganinvegas.tumblr.com which is 365 days and 365 vegan meals in Las Vegas.  He can also be reached at eatingveganlv@gmail.com or www.facebook.com/EatingVeganinVegas.