A lot can be learned about Canadian history by examining different types of literature from different periods of time. Often, cookbooks are overlooked as a source of historical content. Butter: Vital for Growth and Health provides a lot of valuable insights into what life was like for Canadians during the 1920s. This decade, often called the "Roaring Twenties," was for many a time of wealth and prosperity due to a booming economy and higher household incomes. The end of the First World War in 1918 meant the return of loved ones, leading to new families being created and others being reunited. Family togetherness and making up for lost time, which were prominent sentiments during the 1920s, are evident in this cookbook and the readers it targets. In the imagery, information, and page headings, the cookbook paints a very rosy picture of postwar life and the importance of maintaining the health of all family members through the consumption of butter.

But there was also a much darker side to the optimism and wealth that tends to characterize the 1920s. In Canada, this decade was also a time of heightened tensions and fears of racialized groups who were considered "the other." Racism and discrimination were directed towards Black Canadians and Asian Canadians especially. The Klu Klux Klan, a White supremicist organization with roots in the United States, began to organize in Canada in the 1920s. Some of the racist sentiments of the time are reflected in the content of Butter: Vital for Growth and Health. Within its pages, a quote is provided by soon-to-be president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, who claimed that the "white race cannot survive without dairy products." This quotation is indicative of how much racism permeated North American society at the time as Hoover argued that butter and its alleged health benefits were only important for White citizens. Even when it came to food and nutrition, race played an important role in determining who should and should not have access to "healthy" foods and their benefits. 

In the 1920s, knowledge about the ideal healthy diet was still being determined, but North Americans recognized that dairy provided some nutritional properties and contributed to bodily health. With the recent discovery of vitamins, North Americans were beginning to understand the nutritional properties of dairy products, but this knowledge was piecemeal. Thus, it was easier to promote a trusted product that contained a lot of the essential vitamins human were expected to consume rather than push the individual vitamins themselves, as the average person did not yet possess enough understanding of how vitamins worked. While it is now common knowledge that butter, when consumed in excess, can have negative impacts on the body, it was more important in the 1920s that Canadians be getting some of the health properties found in butter. As this cookbook indicates, understandings around health and nutrition were expanding, and Canadians were beginning to recognize why they should adhere to healthy diets and lifestyles. Groups like the National Dairy Council of Canada attempted to promote healthy living by convincing Canadians that dairy products, like butter, would provide nourishment and nutrition.