View Full Version : Is this true? Butter vs margarine
Some are very knowledgeable on this board and may be able to verify or correc the info in this bit of trivia that was sent to me.
Not even sure how to investigate to get the truth of the matter.
Pass The Butter
This is interesting . .. .
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.
It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter.. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings....
DO YOU KNOW..
The difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end...gets very interesting!
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .
And now, for Margarine..
Very High in Trans fatty acids.
Triples risk of coronary heart disease ..
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT
These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance)..
You can try this yourself:
Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:
* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)
* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny micro-organisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?
Not true, doesn't make sense, you can look up the history of margarine and find out that it was invented as a butter substitute. As far as "shares 27 ingredients with paint", I looked at the ingredients on the package of margarine in my fridge, and it only has 10 ingredients (mostly vegetable oil, whey and salt) and the only ingredient I can imagine might be in paint is artificial coloring. It's reasonable that it doesn't spoil if it's left out, because it's mostly vegetable oil, which doesn't require refrigeration. I'm not saying it's good for you or better than butter, but this article is just silly.
A good rule of thumb is that any email of this format is not providing real information. I delete them without reading them.
If you really want to check it out, google "snopes {key words from topic of email}" and you'll probably find a full analysis.
Dharma Bum
1-11-11, 11:13am
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp
Have to admit I use the Smart Balance spreads on my toast, but if I'm cooking and want what I cook to be good? No question, it's butter, butter and more butter.
My hubby asked our family doctor if we should use butter or margarine...He said he recommends butter (in moderation) and also suggested using olive oil when it could be used instead of either butter or margarine. Doc said in his books, natural ingredients are always preferred.
ApatheticNoMore
1-11-11, 5:00pm
Well it is true that butter is generally less harmful than margarine. It is true that saturated fats (in butter) aren't nearly as bad for you as transfats.
The problem with telling everyone to eat butter is that many people can't handle dairy very well, You'll know if you don't tolerate it very well, you'll have symptoms. Then I'd recommend olive oil (my personal favorite), coconut oil might also be fine.
IshbelRobertson
1-11-11, 5:29pm
That seems a really weird set of info!
I use butter only - and in moderation.
People sensitive to milk solids may tolerate ghee, or clarified butter. Butter is always a better choice than margarine (and a good source of vitamin A), IMO, but I also use olive, grapeseed, and coconut oil in my cooking.
Dharma Bum
1-11-11, 5:54pm
Well it is true that butter is generally less harmful than margarine. It is true that saturated fats (in butter) aren't nearly as bad for you as transfats.
Except the vast majority of "margarine" (i.e. fake butter) products now have no trans fats. They are basically whipped vegetable oil, or in my case whipped olive oil. These fats are way healthier than animal fats.
I'm a firm believer in, and swear by real butter.
Some are very knowledgeable on this board and may be able to verify or correc the info in this bit of trivia that was sent to me.
Not even sure how to investigate to get the truth of the matter.
Pass The Butter
This is interesting . .. .
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.
It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter.. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings....
DO YOU KNOW..
The difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end...gets very interesting!
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .
And now, for Margarine..
Very High in Trans fatty acids.
Triples risk of coronary heart disease ..
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT
These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance)..
You can try this yourself:
Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:
* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)
* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny micro-organisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?
Don't know if it's "True" but I have no doubt that Margarine is not "Better" than Butter I use butter. I don't even use it much, so I'm not worried. Plus it tastes SO much better.
Here's my credo: eat what tastes good. I have always passionately hated margarine, it tastes plastic to me and I swear it has a higher melting point, it doesn't get liquid in my mouth the way butter does. I love the "scientific evidence" that butter really is better for you, but even if it's not, there's no way i'm eating plain margarine, I'll just skip the bread-spread entirely if it's not butter. There's also something comforting about the ingredients label: cream, salt.
loosechickens
1-11-11, 11:44pm
I'm like kib.......I'd rather skip the butter altogether than eat margarine. I've always hated it, (although one of my very first memories is of sitting in the kitchen of a friend of my mother's, who would let me push the little red dot and press and mix the coloring into margarine, which is how it was done in the forties, to get around dairy laws. It had to be sold in a way that did not allow it to resemble butter in color, so you had to mix the food coloring in yourself to make it yellow).
Like others had to check on Snopes, seen the exact thing going around in an email. Even with the turkey killing part! No question about it, butter is better, if nothing else, reading Michael Pollan Food Rules tells you that as well. I personally have olive oil more than anything else, but I also do not bake. We do not even have butter in our freezer or refrig. But I think we got enough of both butter and margarine when we stayed at the parents' homes this fall - his parents ate tons of butter, and my parents had margarine. Neither used as much olive oil as we did. But in both places we had indigestion from the unbelievable rich food for the first couple of days. Then we got used to it and craved both. I think after being away from it for over a month, we may have gotten used to eating OUR food again.
It depends on what I'm fixing but, olive oil with just a little butter in it is the BEST! Saute your veggies in that and you'll pat your feet!
It's butter for us. Years ago I read that if you throw a tub of margarine in the trunk of your car for a year, there will be no change when you open that tub. That was enough for me!
loosechickens
1-12-11, 3:04pm
"Better butter" is a nice option. take a stick of butter and allow to soften to room temperature, then beat in an equal amount of olice oil, and store in refrigerator in a container and use like "tub margarine".......less saturated fat than butter, olive oil is good for you, and still you have the flavor of butter. Alas, calories are the same.......
http://www.health-report.co.uk/saturated_fats_health_benefits.htm
From the article (well worth reading):
The benefits of saturated fats
The much-maligned saturated fats—which Americans are trying to avoid—are not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact, they play many important roles in the body chemistry:
1. Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what gives our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.
2. They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.38
3. They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease.39 They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol.40
4. They enhance the immune system.41
5. They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats. 42
6. Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated.43 The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
7. Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.
The scientific evidence, honestly evaluated, does not support the assertion that "artery-clogging" saturated fats cause heart disease.44 Actually, evaluation of the fat in artery clogs reveals that only about 26% is saturated. The rest is unsaturated, of which more than half is polyunsaturated.45
My dad told me it was his friend who invented the plastic device that dispensed the yellow color into the margarine. He called it oleo, tho, all his life. I'm too young to have ever seen the plastic dispenser, by my time (70's) it came yellow.
My parents only had margarine and baked goods were made with Crisco. I don't think I ever tasted butter, even at restaurants, because I refused to put any on my bread or pancakes--thinking it was the same as margarine. It wasn't until I met my husband that I tasted real butter on bread. Now I'm sold. It's real butter or nothing.
I like real foods: butter, sour cream, cream, vanilla, cane sugar (vs. artificial sweeteners), etc.
Dharma Bum
1-12-11, 5:29pm
Eat what you want because of taste, but: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/PreventionTreatmentofHighCholesterol/Know-Your-Fats_UCM_305628_Article.jsp
LDL cholesterol is affected by diet. Knowing which fats raise LDL cholesterol and which ones don't is the first step in lowering your risk of heart disease. In addition to the LDL produced naturally by your body, saturated fat, trans-fatty acids and dietary cholesterol can also raise blood cholesterol. Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats appear to not raise LDL cholesterol; some studies suggest they might even help lower LDL cholesterol slightly when eaten as part of a low-saturated and trans-fat diet.
Very few people have a deficiency in saturated fat consumption. If you don't want to or don't have to modify your diet for heath reasons, great, but the new plant-oil spreads are much healthier for most people.
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