If you got the soul of a chef like me, you must have noticed that the terminologies in the cook books have been changing with every passing year. The recipes that had butter and oil mentioned in them now have low fat oil and saturated oil written as an ingredient. 

Despite of the fact that they refer to the same thing, we still get confused and keep checking if we are reading and doing things right. Considering all the aspects of science and chemistry, most of the dairy products contain the same kind of fats. Let me help you distinguish between the most mentioned ingredient; milk and butter. 

Milk and butter fat 

This is more about physics than about terminologies. Milk is made up of fats and water. The fats present in milk have the ability to form small clusters and join together. They tend to be sticky and greasy in nature. These small clusters rise up to the surface when left stagnant. The watery content even though seems lighter but is not. It rests down allowing the fat to float. This fat is later separated and churned up to form butter. Hence, milk fat and butter fat are the same thing but with different concentrations. 

Fat present in Milk

You must have heard the terms condensed milk, low fat milk, cream milk or etc. these are the different forms of milk based on their concentration of fat. This fat content can vary from one type of milk to another. By the type of milk, I am referring to cow milk, goat milk and other animals and breeds. Most of these breeds have 3.5 percent to 4 percent butterfat.

 In developed countries where people are conscious about their health, they prefer milk with a lesser amount of fat. In such places, products like skimmed milk and low fat milk are commonly used. Skimmed milk is made from whole milk by removing its fat to a maximum level. Full fat milk is processed in such a way that it disperses the fat into extremely small globules that remain evenly separated inside the watery content and do not separate as the other would. 

Butter fat 

The fat present in butter is way more concentrated than it is in milk. It is estimated that 80 percent of butter’s weight comes from fat. The remaining is all water along with small amounts of milk solids. According to researchers it is said that a single tea spoon full of butter contains up to 4 grams of fat out of which 2.5 is saturated fat. 

By chemistry, the more the saturated fat the denser the outlook will be. Considering this statement, butter will have the maximum amount of saturated fats and oil being the least dense in appearance has the smallest amount of fat. 

Saturated fats deposit in our body and basically form layers. So we now know why doctors and health professional’s advise everyone to limit their use of butter and other saturated fats. They form fatty layers under our skin as well as in our organs. These fatty deposits are the leading risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes. 

Consult a doctor

Whenever you feel like you’re gaining weight and getting excessive fat in your body, check you BMI or get it checked by a doctor. Anything above your normal BMI will cause a problem, if not now than in future. It may seem like all fats are bad for your body but some of them give you the basic protection and energy. Therefore, before starving yourself and putting your body under any pressure, consult a doctor and understand your body better. You can visit Cardiologist in Lahore or Best Cardiologist in Islamabad if you need more help.