About three months ago I began dieting and I was looking for a healthier alternative to butter and margarine. I started browsing through the butter selection at my local grocery store and those bottles of liquid spray butters caught my attention. Initially I just assumed that they were very high in fat, cholesterol and calories, but after checking them out (“Parkay” and “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” to be specific) both products claimed to be fat free, calorie free and cholesterol free. Could this be true?, I thought to myself. Surely if they are indeed fat free and have no calories, they won’t compare to the taste that you get out of regular solid butter and margarine. I decided that I would give them a try, as both brands were on sale for a dollar per bottle.
The next day I was hungry for a little mid-day snack, so I decided to fix a can of green beans. Normally, I would just eat the green beans plain, to keep the calories to a minimal amount. I decided that today I would try putting a little liquid butter spray on the green beans to give them a little flavor for a change. I gave the bottle a few pumps and lightly coated the bowl of green beans with the butter spray. After taking the first bite, I loved it. I had finally found the perfect fat free topping to transform the taste of my dull, plain diet foods.
After trying the butter spray for that first time, I was hooked. I was using the stuff on nearly everything that I fixed, and I was using quite a bit more than just a few pumps. You can’t even imagine the taste of green beans smothered in butter if you haven’t tried it. Every time I fixed green beans, I was actually removing the spray cap and pouring the liquid butter over the green beans, coating the entire bowl with a thick layer of buttery goodness.
This went on for about two months. I was using the butter at least two or three times a week, and not in moderation. My main snack since starting the diet was always green beans. Green beans contain about 60 calories per can, making it the perfect snack. You can eat about as many as you want and still lose weight. I was very content eating green beans with my new-found, great-tasting fat free addition. Until about 3 weeks ago.
I had a doctors appointment on March 12th. The appointment was just to get some blood
work ordered, to check my cholesterol and that sort of thing. While I was talking to my doctor, I mentioned that I had been using the great tasting butter spray and how it’s fat free and contains no calories. My doctor was very quick to tell me that he has seen several patients fall for this “fat free” butter spray scam. He began to inform me that a regular size bottle of the spray butter actually contains around 90 grams of fat and that it was anything but low in calories. He told me that the serving size listed on the bottle was about one spray worth of the butter, which might indeed contain no fat or calories, due to the minuscule amount of the butter that you’re actually using in 1 spray. This is why the product is so misleading. People look at the nutritional facts of the butter sprays and see that everything has a value of zero. Zero fat, zero calories, zero cholesterol, zero everything.
Everyone assumes that it truly is a fat free alternative to using butter and margarine, when in fact, it’s just as bad or even worse, considering that people really over use it and think that it’s going to help with weight loss. I’m just glad that I stopped using it when I did. I probably consumed around four to five bottles of it over the span of 2 months time. Someone’s health could really be affected by not knowing that it’s just as bad as eating regular butter or margarine. I personally recommended it to several friends and members of my family after I tried it.
I don’t believe that they should be allowed to advertise these products as containing zero fat and zero calories. They say very bold right on the front of the bottle, “0 Calories”. This would be like a beer company marketing their product as being safe to constantly over-indulge in, without having to worry about the adverse health affects associated with it. It would be no different than a cigarette company telling people that their cigarette is safer than other cigarettes, because they only expect you to take one puff, rather than smoking the entire cigarette.
I hope this will reach a few people who have been duped into using these so-called fat free butter sprays. If you know someone who uses products like these, thinking they contain zero fat or calories, please be sure that they actually research the products before using them. I am sure that other companies try and get by with the same kind of trickery.
If you know of another product that is advertised as being healthy or fat free, don’t hesitate to post a comment and let me know about it. I will check it out if I am able to and write something about it.
Posted at 6:04 pm on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008. |
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April 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I have actually been using this product for 12 years. For the past two years, I have literally poured it on my oatmeal. Usually I would consume an ENTIRE bottle every day!!! At least Twice a week, I would eat a bowl of oatmeal with my “fat free” butter for dinner and breakfast. I found out last night that one bottle was 900 calories!!! I was sick. My innocent bowl of oatmeal could have been replaced with four donuts or the biggest meal possible from mcdonalds. I was consuming between 7000 to 10000 calories per week on spray butter! I know its overboard, but I had no idea how unhealthy this was. I have forwarded an email to a friend a shape magazine and my trainer who is on the radio….I’m only hoping others find out how misleading this product is.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I am glad you found this post and were able to quit using the “fat free” butter spray. Many people are using it as much as you were and have no idea how unhealthy it really is. I have found several blog posts and videos on websites such as YouTube with people talking about how great the butter spray is and how it is fat free and contains no calories. People really have no clue. I hope that more people can find this post and quit using the butter sprays. Thanks for visiting.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I think you are, or were, misinformed. A serving size is 5 sprays and a little goes along way (since the product is sprayed, as opposed to using a glob of butter, it goes farther on your food, so you *don’t use as much*). THAT’S the idea.
And for your info, the term “no-calorie” is allowed when the number of calories per serving is less than 5; fat-free means there are less than 0.5 grams per serving. For a butter spray product, 25 sprays add up to approximately 20 calories and 2 grams of fat – a whole lot better than 1 Tbsp of butter/marg at 100 cals and 11 g of fat. Plus, soybean oil is low in saturated fat, contains no trans fat, is high in poly- and monounsaturated fats, and is better for you than butter. Didn’t you read the ingredients – the 2nd on the list is Soybean Oil, and the last time I checked, all oil had fat and calories, and you would be ignorant to think otherwise.
“Every time I fixed green beans, I was actually removing the spray cap and pouring the liquid butter over the green beans, coating the entire bowl with a thick layer” and the other comment of “poured it on my oatmeal” to consume an entire bottle in one day??….yeah, not exactly how the product is to be used.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Jane, I can’t agree with you more. Though I also am addicted to Spray Butter on Green Beans…well any veggie for that matter.
I think that your response is great, and everyone should chill. There is a trick that I do, which people might want to know… pure half the bottle into another container, and fill the other half with water. This will water down the butter for you still leaving some of the flavor, sure it is not as creamy, but it works.
Also. Molly McButter salt is good and McCormick Imitation Butter Salt is okay for popcorn and non canned veggies.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Yes, I know exactly how the nutritional facts work, but, as I said, many people over-use the products (as I did) thinking that they are actually 100% fat free and have no calories no matter how much they use, which is not the case. I have read plenty of reviews about these butter sprays online and watched several video reviews with people saying things like “you can use as much as you want, its fat free!” and “this stuff is great if you’re dieting and want a fat free alternative to butter and margarine”. People have absolutely no idea that the nutritional facts on the butter sprays are misleading, which is all I am trying to point out. I am not telling you not to use these products, I am just trying to insure that people understand that they aren’t truly fat free. By all means, use a couple of sprays on a piece of toast, just don’t overindulge in the stuff and think you’re eating healthy and fat free.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:03 am
The FDA says that as long as a serving contains 1/2 a gram of fat or less per serving, it can be labeled “fat free”, the only catch is, the FDA has no rules on how much a serving size has to be. Companies could make “fat free potato chips” just by calling a serving size 1 chip. People need to be aware of these tricky nutritional labels before jumping on these so-called fat free products. Be sure and research something before buying it for dieting purposes and be sure to read all of the nutritional facts. If you’re unsure about something, ask a nutritionist or a doctor.
April 12th, 2008 at 3:34 am
I was at the grocery store last night picking up a few small things. I went to grab my usual big box of Post’s Honey Combs and I checked out the nutritional facts. The serving size was 1 and 1/2 cup. I then checked out the Chocolate Honey Combs, which I have never tried. I expected the fat and calories to be much more than the regular Honey Combs, however, Post calls a serving size of the Chocolate Honey Combs 1 and 1/4 cup, making it appear that the chocolate version of the delicious breakfast cereal contains less fat than the regular version. Just another small example of how nutritional labels can really be misleading if you don’t pay attention to everything on them.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:43 am
This is why advertising works. Because people accept what companies say at face value. How about you actually know what is in your food before indiscriminately shoveling it in your face? ICINB spray is made up of mostly oil. Guess what, oil=fat. Oh, and using 80 times the recommended serving size and then complaining that it has more calories than the bottle claims is ludicrous. Eating an entire bag of potato chips doesn’t make it only 180 calories because that is what it says for ONE serving.
People like you are the reason coffee shops have to put “CAUTION: HOT BEVERAGE” on their coffee drinks to avoid lawsuits. Use some common sense, use the serving size and take some personal responsibility.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I just found this post on a forum……. I completely disagree with Rachel’s comment. If something says it contains 0 calories and that it is fat free, of course people are going to think that they can use the heck out of it. I have used this stuff for about 6 months and a few sprays can’t even coat a piece of toast. I also was suspicious about the nutritional facts label claiming that the spray was fat free and no calories, so I asked someone at my gym if they knew anything about it. They said pretty much the same thing as this article.
Why should consumers suspect that something contains fat or calories when the nutritional facts say zero for everything? The FDA needs to be a little more strict with companies when it comes to nutritional labels and serving sizes. They have rules regarding the amount of fat and everything that’s in a product to be labeled ‘fat free’, but they have absolutely no rules as to how much a serving size has to be.
And as far as Rachel’s comment about potato chip serving sizes, that’s common sense. I completely agree with the article that if someone labeled potato chips as fat free and called a serving size 1 potato chip, there will be plenty of people who don’t pay attention to the serving size and just eat half the bag of chips thinking that they’re indeed fat free. Of course people accept what companies say. If a product is labeled as being fat free, why would you think otherwise?
After all, they surely wouldn’t be allowed to use misleading nutritional facts, right? (sarcasm)
I think the article is just trying to point out that nutritional labels can be very misleading if you’re not careful. You ladies seem to be getting all bent out of shape, thinking that the guy is calling companies liars or something. I don’t think that is the case. He is acknowledging that what they’re doing isn’t by any means illegal or breaking the rules, it seems like he’s just trying to warn people and let them know that it isn’t really fat free as it claims to be, and to use it with caution.
What’s wrong with trying to inform people so that they don’t use the heck out of the butter spray thinking that it’s fat free?
-J
May 30th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Hey everyone–thanks for all the info. Even if there are differing views and some people are getting a little too passionate about butter…the back and forth comments have given me the information I was looking for about this butter substitute I’ve been using. Thanks!
May 31st, 2008 at 7:31 am
You need to step back and think about the reason you got to where you are (needing to lose weight). Excesses…Moderation is key in EVERYTHING you do even when it comes to “diet” foods.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Most people don’t take moderation into consideration when something is labeled as being fat free and zero calories. They think that they can over indulge all they want with no worries.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I never would have thought of using butter spray to any extreme… (I don’t like butter anyway!) I tend to look at all of the labels of everything that I buy so I can get a rough idea of what a serving size is and what I’m getting in that serving size.
It just pays to look at every angle of what you buy.
That’s why I spend a really long time buying my groceries in the grocery store… *-*
However! Thank you for the information, I totally appreciate it. :3
July 8th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
To be honest, I think all of these diet/low fat/sugar free/no carbs foods are soooo bad for you.
They are so outrageously over processed that all nutritional value has been completely extracted from the food. Then they have to pump it full of additives and preservatives, not to mention oodles of salt, to make it in any way palatable. If something is fat- or sugar-free, then you should ask yourself what exactly has been used to replace it.
I think you’d be much better off using whole, unprocessed foods, whether you’re on a diet or not. Fresh, unprocessed food made with good quality ingredients is so much tastier. And often, you don’t eat as much of it, because you’re satiated with smaller, flavorful amounts. Besides, you need all of these food groups in your diet (in moderation) to feel full and to properly fuel your body.
At the end of the day, a small (small I said
knob of butter (which is basically unrefined and unmodified apart from the addition of some salt) is going to be much less damaging to your health. Plus, people on a diet tend to exactly what they’re getting into with butter, and can treat it with the respect it deserves.
July 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
To be honest, I think all of these diet/low fat/sugar free/no carbs foods are soooo bad for you.
They are so outrageously over processed that all nutritional value has been completely extracted from the food. Then they have to pump it full of additives and preservatives, not to mention oodles of salt, to make it in any way palatable. If something is fat- or sugar-free, then you should ask yourself what exactly has been used to replace it.
I think you’d be much better off using whole, unprocessed foods, whether you’re on a diet or not. (Not to imply that I don’t eat my fair share of processed stuff!) Fresh, unprocessed food made with good quality ingredients is so much tastier. And often, you don’t eat as much of it, because you’re satiated with smaller, flavorful amounts. Besides, you need all of these food groups in your diet (in moderation) to feel full and to properly fuel your body.
At the end of the day, a small (small I said
knob of butter (which is basically unrefined and unmodified apart from the addition of some salt) is going to be much less damaging to your health. Plus, people tend to know exactly what they’re getting into with butter, and can treat it with the respect it deserves.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
agreed about the bending out of shape over butter. the way some people are defending it makes them sound like close personal friends of the spray butter trying to redeem its bruised ago. or employees of the company. but anyways, this posting has opened my eyes to this particular scam. i am skeptical by nature of claims made by companies wanting to sell a product, but i really thought they could not, would not lie this blatantly for fear of being caught and that backlash, if nothing else. i understand that the FDA says a little fat means fat free, and that only a few calories is none. but, in reality, a little fat is a little fat, and 4 calories are 4 calories. companies should be held responsible with truth, but wishful as that is, we should expect the government that regulates these companies to uphold the truths they will not, and not near-truths.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Having lived in the US and the UK I’ve noticed a big difference in claims of fat/calories and I think it’s time the FDA adopted more stringent standards. In Europe and most of the world nutrition information and claims are based on percentage in the food itself. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration says any food serving that contains less than half a gram of fat, protein or carbohydrate can claim 0 grams — and thus, 0 calories — for those nutrients. Plus, any nutrient with less than 5 calories can be listed as having no calories on the nutrition label. This is why in the UK French’s Classic Yellow mustard is labelled as ‘low fat’ (it’s about 4% fat) and in the US it claims to be fat and calorie free. Coke Zero is advertised in the US as Zero Calories, when in fact the can has 4.5, it just says ‘Zero Sugar’ elsewhere. But surely a little common sense is appropriate, I use ICBINB spray, and the main ingredient is soybean oil, if i use more than the 1.25 sprays (I don’t even know how you’d do a quarter spray!) you get more product and therefore more calories
September 5th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I love your products, but they are very pricy and have chosen less expensive spreads recently. One of the stores in our community has the I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BUTTER at 3.00 a piece! That’s way out of line. Walmart has gone up also! What gives? 1-605-995-1277
I need coupons to buy your products now for sure!
September 19th, 2008 at 6:21 am
As Jane says: don’t you guys read the ingredients? Jeeez. All this talking about being mislead by companies and about ’serving sizes’ (who invented that? I like to decide for myself what a serving size is, and when I want to go overboard) and advertisements of being ‘fat free’… when I read ‘fat free’ or ’sugar free’ on a package of food, it mostly means that it’s unhealthy. Otherwise they wouldn’t have to try to sell it with big words like it being fat or sugar free. Just buy yourself an apple, bake your own cakes, or cup cakes. And read the ingredients! Ignore the advertisements. Like Jane says: if it says ‘oil’, than it’s fat. I mean, if you’re dieting and you’re literate you have no excuse. Use your eyes and common sense. You can never beat the evil world around you.
October 25th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
My husband was at a doctor’s appointment last week, when they were talking about what he was using for butter, etc. His doctor told him that “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” was a better source than what he was using, as it had no calories and could use as much as he wanted. This just shows to us that even our doctors that so many trust so much in don’t do complete research either!!
December 11th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
It was good of you to put up this article. I have used this junk advertised product for the last 8 months. Now I will not. I would rather use ordinary margarine or whipped butter. Thanks.
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 am
I did some research and, interestingly, extra virgin olive oil, which I personally believe to be fairly innocuous cooking fat, has the same gram for gram amount of saturated fats (the bad kind) and 30 more calories than I Can’t Believe It’s Butter (regular, stick).
I was trained in french cooking and it’s nice to get to cook french at home every now and again less 5g of saturated fat and 31 heaping milligrams of cholesterol per 14g dollop so even though I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter isn’t exactly, y’know, Jesus, I still think it’s pretty great.
December 28th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I think there is a lesson to be learned here…
Read the INGREDIANTS! If there’s oil, theres fat!
Also, this brings up another point- TRANS fats. Many things claim to be trans fat free, but there may actually be a small amount of trans fats. Check the INGREDIANTS and if you see and PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OILS, theres trans fat!
January 10th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
This brings up a question then - Waldenfarms has many products which are no fat, no calories, etc… - is it just as bad then?
January 21st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Over the last year I have had to carefully read labels in my own personal effort to kick white sugar out of my diet. What I found is so disturbing. There is so much misleading information out there, I look forward to what I believe is a new Age of Transparency, thanks in part to the information available to us online, including your article.
I found that “sugar” has a plethora of different names found on ingredients labels. Even so-called “health foods” are duping the very customers they imply that they care so much about.
I’ve found that if you are going to buy ANYTHING packaged, you have a research project ahead of you. I know because I have been doing it since the very beginning of 2008. I’ve written to companies calling them out for their misleading labels. I’ve spent hours reading labels at health food stores, even, expecting better ingredients and not finding as many as I had hoped to find.
Our safest bet is to buy fresh foods and prepare them ourselves. When people complain about the time and effort it takes to do this, I question their priorities in the first place.
February 8th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Thanks very much for this post! I eat a very healthy diet aside from the use of fake butter spray. Seriously, I pretty much only eat fruit, veggies, and lean protein, and all of this time I’ve been flabbergasted as to why I was still gaining weight. Normally I am very skeptical of “light” versions of normally bad foods.
Off I go to throw away the bottle of “not butter” spray that I’ve been putting on most of the veggies I’ve eaten for the past few years! I have a roommate whom I have seen pour this stuff on pasta…I should tell her about this too!
March 1st, 2009 at 5:52 am
I have been using this butter for over 3 months on my diet and my cholesterol is great. I have lost 50 pounds in less than 4 months. I get blood tested every 6 weeks with my physician. I can understand how it’s not completely fat free or calorie free. but it’s alot better than real butter. Plus I don’t pour it on my food. But I do use well over the serving size. Where are you getting this information that it is 90 grams of fat and 900 calories that seems like the biggest mislead on this page. Not the nutrition label. Bottom line is I’m doing great. I use at least 3 bottles a week.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
The nutritional values label states that a serving size is only about 3 sprays or something like that. All you have to do is Google “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray fat and calories” and you’ll find plenty of results that talk about the real fat and calories.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I have read both the “ican’t believe it’s not butter and the parkay Fat free Ingredeints and niether have hydrogenated oils which have trans fat. Everyone keeps talking about it. but this stuff is made of soybean oil which contains No trans fat and a small amount of mono and poly unsaturated fats. that’s where the .5 grams of fat comes in to play and remember that .5 is at most. Oh so much better than smart balance and of course real butter just Don’t pour it on People. If you spray each bite on your fork a couple times it’s just as good as pouring.
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:13 am
Im going to be blunt… I am amazed at how stupid people are and wonder how these people manage to get through their lives with such little common sense.
NO food has 0 calories and how anyone could think that consuming a whole bottle of anything other than water had 0 calories is just incomrehendable to me, especially when the primary ingredient is oil.
Its perfectly reasonable to say 1 serving has 0 calories,because it does but if you actually read the bottle it has 226 servings, so if you consume 226 servings of course your gonna get fat…if i ate 226 servingss of celery or carrots id probably be consuming alot of calories too!
IMO this spray is a life saver because you can have a SERVING and have fried food or deliciously buttery food with negligable calorie difference.
I think anyone who has to have a whole bottle of the stuff on cerial must have a serious eating disorder and should seek medical advice.
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:26 am
P.S
Im pretty sure the reason this isnt forsale in the UK is because our food has nutritional info per 100g…as well as er serving.
ICBINB works out i think at about 350cal per 100g…which in actual fact is pretty damn good.
I’m guessing that there is no such thing in the U.S hence the confusion by those guliable people.