6 Tasty and Healthy Alternatives to Butter Boards

In the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen beautiful images of butter boards as you scroll through your social media feed. If, somehow, the trend has escaped your notice, butter boards are exactly what they sound like.

To make one, you take a platter or board, spread softened butter over the surface, and sprinkle on toppings of your choice, such as dried fruit, honey, edible flowers, nuts, or herbs. Then, you scoop up the butter and toppings with crackers, bread, or dippable veggies like radishes or carrots.

The problem with butter boards? For starters, that butter base isn’t very healthy. “As a garnish or spread on a warm piece of toast, there’s nothing like a bit of butter. But as the base of a board that is getting scooped up with each bite, butter doesn’t make the best choice,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, creator of BetterThanDieting.com and author of Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You from Label to Table. “Butter is high in calories and saturated fat, not the kind of fat your heart likes best.” On its own, butter contains 7 grams (g) of saturated fat in an approximately 1-tablespoon serving, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Plus, with butter boards, it’s tough to avoid germy double-dipping. “As with anything that you’re scooping up from a board or a bowl, double-dipping could leave you with a side of bacteria that you didn’t count on,” Taub-Dix says. One small experiment confirmed this, finding that double-dipping significantly increased the amount of bacteria in dips. “Plus, if the board is not cleaned properly before the butter is spread on it, you could also be swallowing up some old bacteria from the board itself,” she says.