I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is a lower-calorie, lower-saturated-fat alternative to dairy butter, but calling it “healthy” depends on what you’re comparing it to and how much you use. A tablespoon of the original spread has about 60 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat, compared to 100 calories, 11 grams of fat, and 7 grams of saturated fat in a tablespoon of regular stick butter. That’s a meaningful difference for your heart, though the spread still contains palm oil and processed ingredients worth understanding.
What’s Actually in It
The first ingredient in I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Original is water, followed by a blend of soybean oil, palm kernel oil, and palm oil. After that comes salt, soy lecithin (an emulsifier), natural flavors, lactic acid, and added vitamins E, D2, A, and B12. Beta carotene gives it that yellow, buttery color.
The ingredient list is relatively short for a processed spread, and notably, it contains no partially hydrogenated oils. That matters because partially hydrogenated oils were the main source of artificial trans fats in food for decades. The FDA banned their use in food products, with a final compliance date of January 2021, so the spread is free of artificial trans fat.
The Saturated Fat Advantage
The biggest health argument for this spread over butter comes down to saturated fat. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat to less than 6% of total daily calories. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that’s about 13 grams, roughly the amount in a single tablespoon of butter. Swapping butter for a vegetable oil spread gives you a lot more room in that budget.
Randomized clinical trials have shown that replacing saturated fat with linoleic acid, the primary polyunsaturated fat in soybean oil, reduces both total and LDL cholesterol. The AHA’s dietary guidance specifically supports replacing butter and animal fats with liquid plant-based oils for heart health. A spread made primarily from soybean oil falls into that category, though it’s not the same as cooking with olive oil or drizzling canola oil on vegetables.
Omega-3s and Added Vitamins
One serving of the original spread contains 375 milligrams of omega-3 ALA, about 23% of the 1.6-gram daily value. This comes from the soybean oil, which contains about 5 grams per serving. ALA is a plant-based omega-3 that your body can partially convert into the more potent EPA and DHA forms found in fish, though that conversion is inefficient. It’s a modest nutritional bonus, not a replacement for eating fatty fish.
The added vitamins are a nice touch. Vitamins A, D2, E, and B12 are all nutrients that can be harder to get from diet alone, particularly D2 and B12 for people eating less meat and dairy. But the amounts per serving are small, so this isn’t a meaningful way to fill nutritional gaps.
The Palm Oil Question
Palm kernel oil and palm oil are the second and third oils in the blend, and they’re the least heart-friendly ingredients in the spread. Both are high in saturated fat compared to soybean, canola, or olive oil. They’re used in margarine-style spreads because they’re solid at room temperature, which gives the product its spreadable texture. Without them, you’d essentially have flavored liquid oil.
This is where I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter lands in a gray zone. It’s significantly better than butter for saturated fat content, but it’s not as clean as simply using olive oil or avocado oil. If you’re optimizing for heart health, liquid oils are the gold standard. If you want something that spreads on toast, this is a reasonable compromise.
The Spray Version: Too Good to Be True?
The spray version is marketed as having 0 calories and 0 grams of fat per serving, but there’s a catch. One serving is defined as a single spray. FDA labeling rules allow products to round down to zero when amounts are small enough per serving. Once you hit 6 sprays, you’re getting 5 calories and 0.5 grams of fat. The product itself acknowledges that up to 4 sprays “contributes insignificant amounts of calories and fat.” If you’re using 20 or 30 sprays on a pan of vegetables, you’re consuming real calories and fat, just in amounts that are still quite low compared to a tablespoon of butter or oil.
How It Compares to Other Options
The healthiest fat you can use is liquid plant oil, full stop. Olive oil, avocado oil, and canola oil all have better fatty acid profiles than any solid spread. But those don’t work for every situation. You’re not spreading olive oil on your morning toast (well, some people do).
Among spreadable options, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is a better choice than regular butter or stick margarine for reducing saturated fat intake. It’s roughly comparable to other tub-style vegetable oil spreads. If you want to go a step further, look for spreads that list canola or olive oil as the primary fat and contain no palm oil at all.
For context, the AHA’s broader dietary guidance emphasizes overall eating patterns over individual food choices. A tablespoon of butter on your toast isn’t going to cause heart disease if the rest of your diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, and nuts. Likewise, switching to a vegetable oil spread won’t offset a diet heavy in processed food and red meat. The spread is one small lever in a much larger system.