Butter or Margarine

Just got this email from a friend, thought I'd share this with everyone here. As for me, I just purchased a tub of real whipped butter and threw out all the margarine in my house. I've been telling my neighbors family and friends about this and hope they boycott margarine also, its just so disgusting!!

********************************************************************************************

Can this be?

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 coloring and sold it to people to use in
place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever
new flavorings.

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.

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 only
because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors
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.

Triple 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 fold.

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...

This fact alone was 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 in your garage or shaded area.
Within a couple of days you will note 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 microorganisms will not find a home to grow. Why?
Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread
that on your toast?

Share This With Your Friends.....(If you want to "butter them up")!

Mon. Sep 12, 9:33am

watch the sources in those emails!

A brief google search leads me to believe that the claim the margarine was originally made to feed turkeys is false. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine for a source I generally trust...many other pages confirm the basic details, and I didn't find anything about feeding turkeys.)

That said, I think the general sentiment of your friend's email is probably right, as confirmed by recent studies that trans fats (which are found in many margarines) are worse for your health than saturated fats. I also try to limit my intake of processed food as much as possible (and would claim that margarine is more processed than butter), but not everyone thinks that that matters or wants to focus on that.

I think the long and the short of it is everything in moderation. Both butter and margarine are fats, and overloading on any kind of fat is bad for your health. See this link for info on determining how much fat is healthy for you: http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/recommendations.htm

Monday, September 12, 2005, 10:34 AM

what is wikipedia? I keep hearing people talk about it,

Monday, September 12, 2005, 10:49 AM

here's what wikipedia has to say about itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Basically, it's an online encyclopedia that is attempting to be a reliable (and free!) source of informaition. However, it's open format approach (almost anyone can edit an article) means it might not always be accurate.

Monday, September 12, 2005, 11:19 AM

Margarine myths

Yuck, who wants to eat plastic! Let’s get technical for a moment. Plastic is a polymer, whose ingredients may include polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, acrylic, silicone, and urethane. Margarine is an emulsion of naturally processed vegetable oil, water, salt, vitamins, and other functional ingredients that ensure the safety and quality of the finished product. Emulsions consist of two or more ingredients that naturally do not remain blended or “in suspension”; and need added ingredients to keep them together; think of it like oil and water. Other types of emulsified foods that you may eat include deli meats and salad dressings.

Living a healthy lifestyle includes eating moderate amounts of various types of foods. The margarine industry has been in the forefront of reducing the amounts of trans fat, and adding more functional ingredients to its products to support health. I've been working with the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers so I've learned a lot about this particular topic. In addition, heart disease runs in my family so I have a personal interest in the subject as well.

As for trans fatty acids, you won’t find any soft or liquid margarine that contain trans fat, and trans fat levels of stick margarines have been greatly reduced. Margarine manufacturers continue to be the leaders in the food industry in removing trans fats from products, and they continue to innovate the market by adding healthy, functional ingredients such as antioxidants, omega fatty acids, and fat-soluble vitamins to products.

The margarine industry has made such an impact in providing healthy product that in 2005, when the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the MyPyramid food guidance system was issued, liquid oils, and soft, trans fat-free margarine spreads were classified by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report as helping to meet the essential fatty acids and Vitamin E needs of consumers.

Check out the links below for more information:

http://www.margarine.org, http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp, http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#choice1 and
http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/cholmonth/q_a.htm.

Link

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 8:29 AM

I checked it out on Snopes.com

You can, too, if you like. The message is both true and false. Check it out!

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 9:00 AM

I have always believed in the more natural properties of butter, in moderation of course.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 9:40 AM

Eat Natural foods

The way I figure, when our ancestors (even just a couple of generations back) ate only natural food and worked all day, no one was fat. There's some really interesting information on the Weston A Price Foundation web site (link below).

I prefer to use small amounts of butter and only sometimes. I think once you get used to not using it often, very little goes a long way.

Link

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 9:57 AM

i use a soy spread. all natural and organic, packed w/ omega-3's and, of course, no cholesterol. i think the brand i buy is soy garden, but i'm not positive about the name. it comes in a tub, is speadable, and really tastes great. i wouldn't bake w/ it, but then again, if i'm baking, i'm using real butter!!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 10:30 AM

I always knew that margarine was worse than butter. The main reason is that while margarine turns into carcinogenic material after it is heated to a certain degree (as in frying or baking), butter does not. Neither does grape seed oil or coconut oil.

Also, margarine has hydrogenated oils and trans fats.

It's also unnatural and the smell of it when fried makes me want to barf.

As far as margarine providing us with healthy alternatives, what a quack.
All the margarine industry has provided us with is lies and marketing schemes to make money. Obviously.

My trainer and nutritionist at my gym have seconded my research and conclusions. So have many health books that I have read. Butter is a lot better than margarine.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 10:33 AM

I have felt that a margarine that is trans-fat free is the best choice for our family. That way, we avoid the cholesterol and saturated fat of butter. My favorite margarine is smart balance light. It has 45 calories per tbsp and no trans fats. Plus, has omega-3 fatty acids.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11:37 AM

I use Brummel and Brummel yogurt-based butter. Anyone know anything about that?

And for when a spread won't work, I always buy sticks of butter, not margarine. For the reason that, if butter and margarine are the same amount of calories (which they are), I'd definitely rather eat the "real" food than the "fake" food. If margarine were 0 cals, and butter were a lot, then maybe I'd risk the effects of the margarine. But for no benefit, I just can't see any reason to eat margarine!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11:40 AM

Brummel and Brown still has trans fats in it. Read: partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

Stick to butter. It's natural, not man-made.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11:58 AM

to 11:37 and 11:40 - both of those have trans fat.

The way these companies get to trick us is that as long as there is less than 1/2 gram of trans fat per serving, they can call it "zero". That's why you HAVE TO read the ingredients. See link below for source of this excerpt -

Q: Is it possible for a food product to list the amount of trans fat as 0 g on the Nutrition Facts panel if the ingredient list indicates that it contains "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil?"

A: Yes. Food manufacturers are allowed to list amounts of trans fat with less than 0.5 gram (1/2 g) as 0 (zero) on the Nutrition Facts panel. As a result, consumers may see a few products that list 0 gram trans fat on the label, while the ingredient list will have "shortening" or "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" on it. This means the food contains very small amounts (less than 0.5 g) of trans fat per serving.

Link

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 12:05 PM

Why is it so bad for you to eat half a gram of trans fats? I know trans fats are bad for you, but really, half a gram here and there really adds up??

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 12:46 PM

For myself, maybe. But for my children, I would never give them margarine. I believe children need good fats for their bodies to grow. People have been eating butter for hundreds if not thousands of years. It's only in the past half-century that cancers, heart disease, and diabetes has been on the steep rise. I think all these "substitute" foods have a lot to do with it.

Whole milk, eggs, everything that helps their brains develope. No junk food though, ever.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 1:23 PM

When I have kids I will most definetly teach them how to eat right. I grew up on fried foods.... and McDonalds.... everything YUMMY that isn't that great for you. I think the day and time has a lot to do with it. That is just the way you ate. My parents parents cooked that way, so they did too.. They know different now and do better.

But my I want my kids to be healthy and enjoy the fruits and veggies that I do now. I don't want them to have the struggle with weight as I do. AND to enjoy playing outside and not be hypnotized by the tv and nintendo. When I was little I LOVED the climb trees and get dirty. My hubby didn't like to play outside.. haha.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 2:30 PM

2:30 again.. sorry that was WAY OT... I just had a thought and went to typing. :P

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 2:31 PM

people have been eating butter for centuries, but they also never lived as long as they do now. heart disease most certainly existed, as did diabetes and high cholesterol, but the tests and the doctors were not as prevalent back then. i think one needs to realize the plethura of options and choose the best that is available today, even if it's relatively "new". soy spreads, for instance, take into account centuries of use of soy ingredients by the asian cultures and the data that has been found that suggests that soy is beneficial for the body in many ways. i mean, people have been smoking cigarettes forever, too, but didn't know it contributed to heart disease, lung failure, emphysema, etc. a history of use doesn't necessarily indicate healthy.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 2:46 PM

response to 12:46 - does 1/2 gram of trans fat matter?

I think the issue some people have is that most people use more than 1 serving per use/per day of margarine. So the 1/2 grams of trans fat add up - if it's on your toast or oatmeal in the morning, on your whole wheat pasta at lunch, on your plate of steamed veggies and fish at dinner...and it can be hidden in other processed foods, too.

It's just something to be aware of in labeling. <0.5 grams means that the FDA allows it to be labeled as zero trans fat. Have 3-4 servings, plus the "zero" trans fat in the processed 100 calorie packs or some such thing and it adds up. That's why people suggest reading the ingredient list and looking for partially hydrogenated oils.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 3:39 PM

Be careful of margarines (or any food) that says "No trans fat". Read the ingredient list. If anything is "hydrogenated" (whether partially or fully) the product contains TRANS fat. Yes they legally can say it is trans fat free if there is less than 1 g in each serving. However if you are using it for cooking or are generous at all w/ these spreads, you are often consuming more than a gram or two. We should aim for 0 g of trans fat in our diets-so for me "less than 1 g per serving" is still too much. I use olive oil or real butter instead.

Be careful of marketing-read the fine print and do research. PR people are paid to essentially dupe the public. Don't be duped!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 9:51 PM

Actually, olive oil shouldn't be used for frying foods- high heat damages it and can create toxins. Safer to use something like canola or almond oil that is able to withstand high heat.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 10:56 PM

1205: Smart Balance and Smart Balance Light DO NOT have trans fat. And, they do not contain any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. There are other margarines out there that do not contain even trace amounts of trans fats/hydrogenated oils. Just takes some label reading to find them.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11:06 PM

I use canola harvest non hydrogenated margarine, it has NO hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats. Although I find that since I've been losing weight, I rarely if ever eat margarine anyway. I'd rather get my fats from something I really want to eat and that fills me up (peanut butter, cheese, milk, chocolate if I'm going to splurge).

Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11:38 PM

Margarine was designed as a butter substitute. I'd rather have a moderate amount of the real thing, and enjoy it rather than just wishing it was butter.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007, 10:04 AM

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