Brummel & Brown is a reasonably healthy butter alternative, especially if your goal is cutting saturated fat and calories. At 45 calories and 1.5 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, it delivers half the calories and roughly one-fifth the saturated fat of regular butter. It’s not a superfood, but as a swap for butter on toast, vegetables, or in cooking, it’s a meaningful upgrade for heart health.
Nutrition Compared to Butter
A tablespoon of regular stick butter contains 100 calories, 11 grams of total fat, and 7 grams of saturated fat. The same amount of Brummel & Brown has 45 calories, 5 grams of total fat, and 1.5 grams of saturated fat. It also contains zero cholesterol per serving, while butter has about 30 milligrams.
If you use butter daily, those differences add up. Swapping two tablespoons a day saves you 110 calories and 11 grams of saturated fat, which is significant given that the American Heart Association recommends keeping saturated fat under 13 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet. For anyone watching cholesterol or managing cardiovascular risk, the swap is one of the easier dietary changes to make.
What’s Actually in It
The ingredient list starts with water, followed by soybean oil, palm kernel oil, and palm oil. Then comes nonfat yogurt, which is simply cultured nonfat milk. The yogurt contributes to the creamy texture and lets the product use less oil overall, which is how the calorie and fat counts stay low. It adds what the label calls “a dietarily insignificant amount of cholesterol,” meaning trace amounts from the milk.
The product also contains mono and diglycerides (emulsifiers that keep the water and oil blended), soy lecithin (another emulsifier), and potassium sorbate as a preservative to extend shelf life. None of these are unusual for a margarine-style spread, and all are widely used across packaged foods.
The Palm Oil Question
Palm kernel oil and palm oil are the ingredients that give some health-conscious shoppers pause. Unlike most vegetable oils, palm-based oils are high in saturated fat. However, in Brummel & Brown, water is the first ingredient and the oils are diluted enough that the total saturated fat per serving stays at 1.5 grams. That’s a fraction of what you’d get from butter. So while palm oil isn’t ideal in isolation, its presence here doesn’t undermine the product’s overall nutritional profile in any meaningful way.
Palm oil also raises environmental concerns related to deforestation. That’s not a health issue, but it matters to some buyers when choosing between spread options.
Is the Yogurt a Real Benefit?
The nonfat yogurt in Brummel & Brown is real cultured milk, not a flavoring. But don’t expect the probiotic or protein benefits you’d get from eating a cup of yogurt. The amount per serving is small, and the product undergoes processing that likely reduces any live cultures. The yogurt’s main role is functional: it replaces some of the fat that would otherwise need to come from oil, giving the spread a creamy consistency with fewer calories. It’s a smart formulation trick more than a nutritional bonus.
Dietary Restrictions
Brummel & Brown is labeled gluten-free. It is not vegan or dairy-free, since it contains cultured nonfat milk. It also contains soy from the soybean oil and soy lecithin, making it unsuitable for anyone with a soy allergy. If you’re looking for a fully plant-based butter substitute, this isn’t it.
Where It Falls Short
Brummel & Brown is a processed food. It doesn’t contain the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) that real butter provides in small amounts, and it doesn’t offer the heart-healthy monounsaturated fats you’d get from using olive oil instead. If you’re choosing between drizzling olive oil on bread or spreading Brummel & Brown, the olive oil is nutritionally superior. But if the choice is between this spread and butter, Brummel & Brown wins on saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories.
It’s also worth noting that “lower calorie than butter” doesn’t mean low calorie. Five grams of fat per tablespoon still adds up if you’re generous with the spread. Portion awareness matters, just as it would with any fat source.
The Bottom Line on Heart Health
UVA Health notes that butter substitutes made from vegetable oils are generally the better choice for heart health because they’re cholesterol-free and lower in saturated fat. Brummel & Brown fits that description while also cutting calories more aggressively than most margarines, thanks to the water-and-yogurt base. It’s not a health food you’d seek out for nutritional benefits, but as a replacement for butter in everyday use, it’s a practical, lower-risk option that tastes close enough to the real thing for most people.