Learn English – Meaning of “Butter is Gold in the Morning, Silver at Noon, and Lead at Night.”

aphorismmeaningproverbs

In his book A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs: Explain'd and Made Intelligible to the English (1721), James Kelly offers this interesting saying (page 74, #138):

"Butter is Gold in the Morning, Silver at Noon, and Lead at Night."

Kelly then comments:

"A common Saying, of whose Truth or Reason I know nothing."

What is the literal sense of this adage? Does it refer to color changes in different light, to phase changes at different temperatures, to effects on the body at different stages of digestion, to monetary value at different times, or to something else? And what is its most likely figurative meaning? Thanks!

Best Answer

In a treatise on nutrition, written at some time before his death in 1604, Elizabethan naturalist and physician Thomas Moffet or Muffet cites this as already an ‘old Proverb’, and provides a context:

 Butter is hot and moiſt, of gross Nouriſhment, ſoftening rather than corroborating the Stomach, hastening Meat into the Belly before it be concocted, rheumatic, and eaſily converted into oily Fumes, which greatly annoy both Throat and Head. It is ill for the Stomach, Rheum, and all Fluxes either of Blood, Humors, or Seed ; and in truth it is rather to be used as Sauce and Phyſic, than as Meat to feed upon. It is beſt at Breakfaſt, tolerable in the beginning of Dinner, but at Supper no way good, becauſe it hindereth Sleep, and ſendeth up unpleaſant Vapours to annoy the Brain, according to the old Proverb, Butter is Gold in the Morning, Silver at Noon, and Lead at Night.
    —Health’s Improvement, first published 1665 (this is from an edition of 1746)

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