Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread is a healthier choice than dairy butter in some measurable ways, but it’s not a health food. It has roughly half the saturated fat of butter per tablespoon (3 grams versus 7 grams) and contains no cholesterol. That said, its primary ingredient is palm oil, and the spread is still a processed blend of refined fats with limited nutritional value beyond the calories it provides.
What’s Actually in Earth Balance
The Original Buttery Spread is built on a vegetable oil blend: palm oil, canola oil, soybean oil, and flaxseed oil, in that order. The rest is mostly water, with small amounts of salt, pea protein isolate, sunflower lecithin, olive oil, lactic acid, natural flavor, and annatto for color. None of these minor ingredients are present in meaningful nutritional quantities.
The inclusion of flaxseed oil adds a small amount of omega-3 fatty acids, and olive oil appears on the label, but both sit well below the 2% threshold. They’re present in trace amounts, so don’t count on Earth Balance as a real source of either.
The Palm Oil Question
Palm oil being the first ingredient is what raises the most eyebrows. It’s about 44% palmitic acid, a saturated fat that has long been linked to higher LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. But the research on palm oil’s actual health effects is more nuanced than its reputation suggests.
A meta-analysis of 51 human dietary intervention trials found that diets rich in palm oil did not significantly change the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, or the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol. Compared to diets high in trans fats, palm oil actually raised HDL (“good”) cholesterol and lowered triglycerides. Several crossover studies have also shown that palm oil and olive oil produce similar effects on blood lipid levels in people with normal cholesterol.
Palm oil also has a practical advantage over other solid fats: it doesn’t need to be hydrogenated to stay solid at room temperature, which means it’s naturally free of trans fats. That matters because trans fats are the most clearly harmful type of dietary fat for heart health.
How It Compares to Butter
The saturated fat difference is the clearest win for Earth Balance. One tablespoon of most butter brands contains 7 grams of saturated fat. Earth Balance Original has 3 grams per tablespoon, and some varieties (like the olive oil or organic whipped versions) come in at 2.5 grams. The stick versions run slightly higher at 3.5 grams, but still half of butter’s total.
This distinction has real cardiovascular implications. A large study modeling the effects of swapping spreadable fats found that substituting butter with tub-style margarine or spreads was associated with an 8% lower risk of heart attack among people who used a single type of spread. Even in the broader study population, the substitution was linked to a 5% to 6% reduction in heart attack risk. The benefits were consistent across other cardiovascular outcomes like coronary heart disease and stroke, though those results had wider margins of uncertainty.
Earth Balance also contains zero cholesterol, since it’s entirely plant-based. Butter has about 30 milligrams per tablespoon. Dietary cholesterol has less impact on blood cholesterol than once believed, but it’s still a relevant difference for people managing their lipid levels.
How Processed Is It
Earth Balance uses expeller-pressed oils in some of its products, which is a mechanical extraction method that uses pressure and friction rather than chemical solvents like hexane. Expeller pressing generates heat (roughly 140 to 210°F), so the oils aren’t raw, but they avoid the harsher refining steps that strip antioxidants and vitamins from conventionally processed oils. That said, even expeller-pressed oils in a blended spread like this are still refined products, not whole foods.
The “natural flavor” on the label is vague by design. Food manufacturers aren’t required to disclose exactly what compounds make up a natural flavor, and Earth Balance doesn’t specify. For most people this isn’t a health concern, but if you’re trying to avoid specific allergens or additives, it’s a gap in transparency.
What Earth Balance Doesn’t Give You
Earth Balance is not a source of protein, fiber, vitamins, or minerals in any meaningful amount. The pea protein isolate is there for texture, not nutrition. Unlike butter, which contains small amounts of fat-soluble vitamins like A and D, Earth Balance provides essentially no micronutrients unless the specific variety is fortified.
It’s also calorie-dense, like all fats. A tablespoon delivers around 100 calories. If you’re using it liberally on toast, in baking, and for cooking, those calories add up regardless of the fat profile.
The Bottom Line on Heart Health
If you’re choosing between Earth Balance and butter, the spread is the better option for cardiovascular health. It has less saturated fat, no trans fat, no cholesterol, and the available evidence on tub-style plant spreads versus butter consistently points toward modest heart benefits from making the switch. If you’re choosing between Earth Balance and simply using a drizzle of olive oil or avocado on your food, the whole-food option wins. Earth Balance is a processed fat that’s better than the thing it replaces, not a product that actively improves your health.