Olive Oil vs Butter: What the Evidence Says, and When Each Wins
Olive oil vs butter is one of the oldest arguments in the kitchen, and it usually arrives as two questions at once: which is better for me, and which will make this dish taste right? They have different answers. On health, the evidence has moved a long way in one direction — controlled feeding trials and very large long-term studies both favour olive oil over butter as an everyday fat. In the kitchen, the picture is more even. Butter does things olive oil cannot, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. This article sets out what is actually in each, what the research does and does not show, how each behaves under heat, and the specific jobs where each one wins.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- Butter is about 81% fat, and roughly 62% of that fat is saturated. Olive oil is 100% fat, mostly monounsaturated oleic acid, with about 14% saturated fat, according to USDA composition data.
- In a 2025 Harvard analysis of 221,054 US adults followed for up to 33 years, replacing 10 g a day of butter with plant-based oils such as olive oil was associated with a 17% lower risk of death (Zhang et al., JAMA Internal Medicine).
- Randomised feeding trials point the same way: in a 2018 UK trial, four weeks of butter raised LDL cholesterol significantly compared with the same amount of extra virgin olive oil.
- The honest limits: the mortality findings are observational, and a 2016 meta-analysis found only small or neutral associations for butter on its own. Butter is not poison; it is a less favourable everyday fat.
- In the pan, extra virgin olive oil handles ordinary sautéing and roasting well. Whole butter browns and burns sooner because of its milk solids — which is why cooks clarify it.
- Butter genuinely wins in laminated pastry, shortbread, buttercream and butter sauces. For dressings, roasting, sautéing, dipping and most savoury cooking, olive oil is the sounder default.
Olive Oil vs Butter at a Glance
Olive oil is generally the healthier everyday fat: it is mostly monounsaturated, contains no cholesterol, and extra virgin grades carry polyphenols that butter lacks. Butter is richer in saturated fat, which raises LDL cholesterol. Per tablespoon, olive oil carries slightly more calories, because it is pure fat and butter is partly water.
| Per tablespoon (USDA) | Unsalted butter (14.2 g) | Olive oil (13.5 g) |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 102 kcal | 119 kcal |
| Total fat | 11.5 g | 13.5 g |
| Saturated fat | 7.2 g | 1.9 g |
| Monounsaturated fat | 3.3 g | 9.8 g |
| Polyunsaturated fat | 0.4 g | 1.4 g |
| Cholesterol | 31 mg | 0 mg |
The saturated-fat row is the one that matters most for guidelines. The NHS advises men to eat no more than 30 g of saturated fat a day and women no more than 20 g; the American Heart Association suggests aiming for less than 6% of calories, about 13 g on a 2,000-calorie diet. A single tablespoon of butter is 7.2 g — more than half the AHA figure. The same spoon of olive oil is 1.9 g.
What the table cannot show is what travels with the fat. Extra virgin olive oil carries olive polyphenols such as hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal; butter carries small amounts of fat-soluble vitamins, notably vitamin A.
Is Olive Oil Healthier Than Butter? What the Studies Show
The evidence comes from two quite different kinds of study, and they point the same way.
The blood-lipid trials
Controlled trials can compare the two fats directly. Engel and Tholstrup, writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2015, ran a double-blind crossover trial in 47 healthy adults who swapped part of their diet for butter or olive oil for five weeks each. Butter raised total and LDL cholesterol more than olive oil did — notably, the olive oil used was refined, so this was a fat-against-fat comparison, not a polyphenol effect.
Khaw and colleagues reached the same answer in BMJ Open in 2018. They randomised healthy adults aged 50–75 in Cambridgeshire — 94 attended the baseline assessment — to 50 g a day of unsalted butter, extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil for four weeks. LDL cholesterol rose significantly on butter compared with olive oil, by 0.38 mmol/L on average.
The long-term studies
Trials measure cholesterol over weeks; the question people care about plays out over decades. For that, the best data come from Harvard's long-running US cohorts. In 2022, Guasch-Ferré and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that, over 28 years, replacing 10 g a day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise or dairy fat with olive oil was associated with an 8–34% lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality.
In 2025, Zhang and colleagues returned to three of these cohorts in JAMA Internal Medicine. Among 221,054 adults, the highest butter intake was associated with 15% higher mortality than the lowest, while the highest plant-oil intake was associated with 16% lower mortality.
The Honest Limits: Why Butter Is Not the Villain
"These are observational studies." They are. The Harvard cohorts show associations, not proof of cause, and people who cook with olive oil may differ in other ways from people who cook with butter. Researchers adjust for diet, smoking and exercise, but no adjustment is perfect. What makes the case stronger is that the trials — which do test cause and effect — show butter raising LDL cholesterol against olive oil, a recognised cardiovascular risk marker.
"I've read that butter is back." That headline usually traces to work such as Pimpin and colleagues' 2016 meta-analysis in PLoS One, which found relatively small or neutral associations between butter and mortality, heart disease and diabetes. That is a real finding, and it is why a knob of butter on toast is not worth worrying about. But "neutral" is not the same as "as good as olive oil" — and when studies ask what happens if you swap one for the other, the direction consistently favours olive oil.
The fair summary is this: butter is a less favourable everyday fat, not a dangerous one. Our article on olive oil and heart health covers the wider research, including PREDIMED.
In the Pan: How Each Behaves Under Heat
Butter is not pure fat. USDA data put unsalted butter at about 81% fat, with most of the rest water plus a small amount of milk protein and sugar. Those milk solids are what brown so beautifully in a beurre noisette — and they are also what scorch first when the pan gets hot. Whole butter is at its best over gentle to moderate heat.
Cooks get round this by clarifying. Clarified butter and ghee have the water and milk solids removed, which is why they tolerate much higher heat than whole butter while keeping a buttery flavour. They are still almost entirely milk fat, so the saturated-fat picture does not change.
Extra virgin olive oil is steadier than its reputation suggests. Its fat is mostly oleic acid, which resists oxidation, and its natural antioxidants help protect it as it heats. It copes comfortably with everyday sautéing, shallow frying and oven roasting. Our guide to olive oil at high heat explains the temperatures and the research in detail.
Where Butter Genuinely Wins
Stated plainly: there are jobs where olive oil is simply the wrong fat.
- Laminated pastry. Croissants and puff pastry depend on cold, solid butter rolled into thin layers that turn to steam in the oven. A liquid oil cannot do that.
- Creamed cakes and shortbread. Beating solid butter with sugar traps air, and shortbread's crumb relies on solid fat.
- Buttercream and butter sauces. A buttercream, a beurre blanc or a hollandaise is butter by definition.
- Browned butter. The nutty flavour comes from toasting the milk solids — olive oil has none to toast.
- Flavour on its own terms. Sometimes a dish simply tastes of butter, and that is the point.
For bakes where the swap does work, our guide to baking with olive oil covers the conversion and which recipes suit it, and our piece on olive oil butter explains the tubs of spread sold under that name.
When Each One Wins: A Kitchen Guide
In short: olive oil for everyday savoury cooking and anything eaten raw; butter where its solid structure or dairy flavour is the whole point.
| Cooking job | Reach for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dressings, dips, drizzling over finished food | Extra virgin olive oil | Raw flavour and polyphenols; butter is solid when cold |
| Sautéing vegetables, onions, garlic | Extra virgin olive oil | Stable at everyday heat; far less saturated fat |
| Roasting potatoes and vegetables | Extra virgin olive oil | Crisps well without burnt milk solids |
| Bread for dipping or spreading | Either | A matter of taste; olive oil is the lighter habit |
| Oil-based cakes, focaccia, savoury bakes | Extra virgin olive oil | Moist crumb; the fruity note suits the bake |
| Croissants, puff pastry, shortbread, buttercream | Butter | These need a fat that is solid at room temperature |
| Sauces finished with butter, browned butter | Butter | The dairy flavour and milk solids are the dish |
Plenty of cooks use both — olive oil in the pan, a small knob of butter at the end for flavour. It is a sensible compromise that keeps most of the saturated fat out.
Choosing an Olive Oil That Makes the Swap Worth It
If you are replacing butter partly for health, the grade matters. The research on polyphenols applies to extra virgin olive oil; bottles labelled simply "olive oil", "pure" or "light" are largely refined and lose most of them. Look for the words "extra virgin", a named origin, a harvest or best-before date, and dark glass or a tin. Once opened, finish the bottle within a few months. For a fuller walkthrough, see our guide to choosing a quality olive oil. If you are weighing olive oil against other cooking fats too, we also compare olive oil with vegetable oil and with avocado oil.
Why Sidr & Stone
If olive oil is going to take over most of butter's jobs in your kitchen, it should be one whose origin and processing you can actually trace. Sidr & Stone's olive oil is a single-estate, cold-pressed, unfiltered extra virgin olive oil from our own family-owned farm on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco.
- Single-estate — Sidr & Stone grows its olives on its own family-owned farm near Marrakech and controls every step from tree to bottle, with no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides (not yet certified; certification is in progress).
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch; once it is gone, it is gone until the next harvest.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — to preserve flavour, aroma and polyphenols.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed; a little natural sediment in the bottle is normal.
- 100% natural — one ingredient, olive oil, with nothing added.
- Dark glass with a gold label — packaging that protects the oil from light.
- 10% of profits to charity — a commitment that applies across the Sidr & Stone range.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be exactly the kind of flat claim this article avoids. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, and that you can taste the difference in a dressing, where no butter could stand in for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is olive oil healthier than butter?
On current evidence, yes, as an everyday cooking fat. Olive oil has about a quarter of butter's saturated fat per tablespoon, and trials show butter raises LDL cholesterol compared with olive oil.
Why does butter raise cholesterol more than olive oil?
Butter's fat is mostly saturated, and saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol. Olive oil's fat is mostly monounsaturated oleic acid, which does not have that effect.
How do I choose a good olive oil to replace butter?
Choose "extra virgin", with a named origin, a readable harvest or best-before date, and dark glass or a tin. Avoid bottles labelled only "olive oil", "pure" or "light", which are mostly refined.
Does olive oil have more calories than butter?
Slightly, per spoon: about 119 kcal per tablespoon against about 102 for butter, because butter is partly water.
How does Sidr & Stone's olive oil compare with butter for cooking?
Ours is an unfiltered extra virgin olive oil suited to sautéing, roasting, dressings and oil-based bakes. For laminated pastry, buttercream or browned butter, butter remains the right fat.
Is ghee better than butter for cooking?
Ghee handles higher heat because the milk solids that burn have been removed. Nutritionally it is still almost entirely milk fat, so it carries the same saturated-fat concern as butter.
Where can I buy extra virgin olive oil from a single estate?
Look for a producer that names one farm and one origin. Sidr & Stone's single-estate Marrakech olive oil is available to pre-order from its limited single-harvest batch, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
The olive oil vs butter question has a clearer answer than most food debates. As the fat you reach for every day, extra virgin olive oil is the better-supported choice: less saturated fat, no cholesterol, polyphenols butter lacks, and trials and decades of cohort data pointing the same way.
That does not make butter an enemy. It is the right fat for pastry and buttercream, and modest use is not a worry. The practical shift is to make olive oil the default and butter the occasional choice.
Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed and unfiltered — is available to pre-order now from our limited single-harvest batch, with estimated shipping from November 2026 and fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Our extra virgin olive oil is grown organically on our own single-estate farm on the plains outside Marrakech: we control every step from tree to bottle, and no synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers are used. It is not yet certified organic — certification is in progress, and we will publish it as soon as it comes through.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited Single-Harvest Batch →
Disclaimer: This article compares olive oil and butter using published research, composition data and dietary guidance available at the time of writing; research findings and guidance may change, and readers should check current sources. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.