Alternative to Eating Butter: Drink Heavy Cream

butter
fat
#1

Just another option for adding some fat to your diet. I know some that will just eat straight butter during a fat fast or when they feel a bit hungry or whatever (which is fine). A similar possibility is just drink Heavy Cream. Butter is made from Heavy Cream, and if you look at the nutritional content, it appears that 1 serving of Heavy Cream is nearly exactly half of 1 serving of butter (1 tbsp each). That’s what the labels will show, but of course the specifics are a bit different, as Butter has the Buttermilk from the Cream removed in the churning process. In the end the Heavy Cream does have more carbs than butter, and more electrolytes, but both situations are in still usually negligible amounts (if you drink a cup of straight Heavy Cream, you may need to think about it). I sometimes will have a sip of Heavy Cream when I’m still a bit hungry after a meal.

Of course, most people already know you can add heavy cream to other foods or drinks in a similar way as they add butter with just a few culinary usage nuances.

So, similar taste, similar nutrition, but one you can drink the other you can eat (unless you melt your butter and drink that).

For more specifics of the nutrition, see these values:
Heavy Whipping Cream
Unsalted Butter

Note, specific brands and types may vary a bit (Grass-fed vs non grass-fed, for instance).

(Luke Jeffery) #2

I drink at least 300ml cream a day when I’m trying to lose weight, often in Coffee (spread across just two coffees)

#3

Yea, I don’t care for coffee myself, so I just cut the coffee part out. But it makes sense for coffee drinkers to throw them together as well.

I do sometimes do something similar and put cream in my bone broth though, but bone broth isn’t non-caloric like coffee (it has some protein and trace amounts of other stuff sometimes).

(Chris Bair) #4

We had sugar free jello a few nights ago, my wife ended up whipping nearly a QUART (first time doing it, she didn’t know it gets bigger =). We have a lot left over. Last night I took about 1/2 cup of the whipped heavy cream, added some Torani sugar free raspberry syrup and enjoyed!

#5

Too easy to obliterate your calorie goals using this strategy IMO.

(Mike W.) #6

Calorie goals?

#7

Yeah yeah :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(Luke Jeffery) #8

No calorie goals here.

(Henna Selnes) #9

I tried using apps to track calories, proteins ect. Every time I did I screwed up so bad with my woe. I learned, I never track now,and doing 150% better. The freedom that comes from that also is what eating this way is all about. Bring the hwc,in massive amounts. I like using hwc for making on the stove old fashioned custards and puddings. Made a pudding today with coffee flavor cream for the top. Pudding is chocolate. :yum:

(CrazyScottishCatLady) #10

I love double cream (heavy cream) and enjoy my coffee (and sometimes tea now) with a dollop in. When eating out I will have a coffee with cream as my ‘dessert’ too, after a meal. I don’t track either and tend to go with intuition and how my body feels. It’s still working so I’ll just carry on.

#11

How so? Are you afraid you won’t eat enough calories this way, as it might make you reach satiety too soon? I’ve had that problem before, but I usually reserve the bit of cream till after a meal if I’m still hungry to curve off any remaining hunger.

#12

The opposite: heavy cream’s high caloric density + lower satiety of liquid food vs. solid food = recipe for exceeding one’s desired calorie budget.

#13

What is a desired calorie budget?

#14

Not all keto eaters have long-term success eating ad libitum. Some need to keep an eye on overall intake if they want their weight and/or body composition to cooperate.

#15

I see. I eat once per day. One hour eating window. So, I guess, it truncates ad libidum eating as well.

#16

Yup – shortened eating window is one way, longer periods of straight fasting is another way, removal of hyperpalatable foods is another, etc. “All roads lead to Rome”, as the saying. Although, I guess in the quest for optimum health, it’s more like “Good luck finding a road to Rome” :wink:

#17

I’ve never heard that liquid food provides lower satiety than solid food. At the same time, I know that would have to be in certain otherwise equal settings, or perhaps it depends on the person (as most things do). I know for myself, at least, cream will get me to satiety much better than, say, nuts.

I can imagine heavy cream may give lower satiety than solid butter in equal amounts, but part of that may be that butter has both a slightly better fat to carb ratio and butter has twice the calories per tablespoon, which may balance out the problem of drinking more cream than one would eat solid butter.

Some people have problems with dairy that may give satiety and other goals a problem, but I’d imagine it would be pretty similar with butter (unless the amount of buttermilk in the cream makes a big difference in that aspect).

In any case, if you are counting calories, you are right that you would need to keep an eye on the matter and be careful, but if you are measuring calories strictly you need to do that with anything (and everything) you eat or drink.

(Luke Jeffery) #18

Same for me. It’s all I have during the day. That’s my breakfast and lunch.

#19

There’s a few studies that show the higher satiety from solid food as opposed to liquid. Something about the mechanical act of chewing, as well as salivary enzymes that are released.
I think for the purpose of this distinction, butter would still count as liquid. Compare heavy cream to ground beef: a half cup of cream is about 400 calories, and the equivalent calories in beef is about 7 ounces. There’s going to be much more involved, eating-wise and metabolically, from getting through that chunk of meat as opposed to drinking the cream.
And it makes sense if you think about it from an evolutionary perspective — liquid calories aren’t as prevalent “in the wild” as solid ones.

#20

That’s fairly interesting and something to look into. The mechanism makes some amount of sense that it might have an impact anyway.

With the comparison, I don’t know. I feel like it would be harder to drink a cup of cream than to eat a 7 oz steak. I at least used to eat a pound of steak as part of a meal (not as the only thing) without any problem, but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to drink even half a cup of cream at a time. Granted, I’ve never tried to compare the two in equal settings, so I can’t say for sure.

But, if you are saying that Butter and Cream can be considered equally in this regards, than that would remove that distinction. The recommendation was the option to use cream in place of butter specifically.

On the evolutionary side, the lack of availability really just means our bodies would not have adapted as well to it, in whatever way it would adapt to it. Can’t really derive more than that. I know the evolutionary argument is thrown around rather commonly and loosely in keto and paleo circles, but there are only a few instances where the connection is particularly valid.