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It’s not butter, it’s ?!?

Posted By Patti On 11th February 2007 @ 16:29 In Nutrition | 2 Comments

read time: 204 words, about a minute

Here’s something fun – well scary really – I picked up from [1] Health Science Institute.

Butter versus margarine

Butter:
* 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!
* For most people, butter tastes better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods. (The best flavor claim margarine can make in ads is that it tastes the same as butter.)
* Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.

Margarine:
* Very high in trans fatty acids.
* Triple risk of coronary heart disease.
* Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol)
* Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol).
* Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold.
* Lowers quality of breast milk.
* Decreases immune response.
* Decreases insulin response.

2 Comments To "It’s not butter, it’s ?!?"

#1 Comment By Emma On 21st February 2007 @ 12:44

I work with the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers so I’m well informed on this subject. Have you looked at a margarine label lately? 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.

To learn more about the benefits of margarine products, check out these links: [2] http://www.margarine.org, [3] http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#choice1 and [4] http://margarine.org/pdf/inthenews_092906-nytimes.pdf

#2 Comment By Patti On 21st February 2007 @ 13:29

Emma, I’m glad the margarine industry has possibly made margarine less bad, BUT, plain and simple: margarine is not real food. It’s highly processed stuff. Even insects aren’t interested in it.
Butter is real food.
I’m not sure about margarine - haven’t researched it - but in some cases trans-fats are being replaced with interesterification fat which would be fully hydrogenated fat.
I’m not swayed.

Article printed from Healthy Bytes: http://betterwaytowellness.com

URL to article: http://betterwaytowellness.com/blog/2007/02/11/its-not-butter-its/

URLs in this post:
[1] Health Science Institute: http://www.hsibaltimore.com/
[2] http://www.margarine.org,: http://www.margarine.org,
[3] http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#choice1: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#choice1
[4] http://margarine.org/pdf/inthenews_092906-nytimes.pdf: http://margarine.org/pdf/inthenews_092906-nytimes.pdf

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