Margarine is one of the most evil innovations in the food industry.
Aside from being man-made, the manufacturers make claims about cholesterol reduction and push the ‘heart health’ fabrications. They advertise as healthier alternatives to butter.
Margarine is hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificially saturating the unsaturated fats, which makes it solid. After hydrogenation, margarine is WHITE. The yellow dye is added to make it look more edible.
At one point, it was legally required to dye margarine pink in the USA and NZ to highlight how filthy, abhorrent and DISGUSTING it is. (As you can tell, I really hate margarine).
The problem with the hydrogenation process is that it forms artery-clogging trans-fats that increase LDL (bad cholesterol) and reduce HDL (good cholesterol)(1). This increases your risk of coronary heart disease, and trans-fat consumption is a very powerful predictor of obesity in adults. There is evidence to suggest that trans-fats lay down a denser form of subcutaneous and visceral bodyfat around the belly that is much harder to shed than normal bodyfat. This lays down around your belly and internal organs, around your liver. This is not a good thing.
So now that we’ve examined margarine, lets take a look at its healthy nemesis, butter.
Lovely, lovely butter.
Butter comes from the udder of a cow. You make it by shaking cream for a while. No hydrogenation here.
A claim that smug margarine manufacturers can make is that butter contains 40% more saturated fat (+3g per 100g). Because saturated fat is incorrectly more ‘infamous’ than trans-fats, they can get away with this.
Benefits of saturated fat
- Saturated fat is useful for the production of testosterone, which helps you gain muscle and lose fat. (3)
- 50% of your cell membranes comprise of saturated fatty acids. Saturated fat intake is involved with cell reparation.
- Protective role, including boosting the immune system and protecting your liver from alcohol.
A study of 348,000 people found no statistically significant link between cardiovascular disease and saturated fat intake. Mediterranean diets with high dairy and olive-oil intake produce ‘exceptionally low’(2) death rates from heart disease, and lower depression rates.
Moral: Eat your butter*
Eat your butter.
References
1: Food and nutrition board, institute of medicine of the national academies (2005). Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients). National Academies Press. p. 504.
2: “Coronary heart disease in seven countries”. Circulation 41 (4 Suppl): I1–211. April 1970
3: Mary Enig, pHD – The truth about saturated fats.
* Disclaimer: Don’t ACTUALLY eat butter. Cook with it or something.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey guys,
Just a quick question about margarine and butter. What about “Spreadable” butters ie Lurpak and Anchor as well olive oil based spreads like Bertolli (formally Olivio)? Are they just as bad as Flora and Vitalite?
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Nothing is as bad as vitalite. Nothing. :P
Haha I love the names they ascribe them to make it sound like the healthiest thing in the world.
Hi Tom,
I have to admit, we were out of butter yesterday and I had to use some ‘lurpak spreadable’. These are a mixture of hydrogenated fat and butter, maybe 30:70. But that was emergency circumstances, I promise! Otherwise stick with butter, or if you can find it, pasture butter is even better – for taste and health.
Thanks for the good words.
Hey
do you have the full reference for number 2: “Coronary heart disease in seven countries”. Circulation 41 (4 Suppl): I1–211. April 1970 , please?
Cheers
Jen
Jen, the full reference is:
Keys, Ancel (1980). Seven Countries: A Multivariate Analysis of Death and Coronary Heart Disease. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674802373.
A summary can be found here
http://www.sph.umn.edu/epi/history/overview.asp
Enjoy!
Cheers :)
Liking the articles btw.
Jen
If you guys want to use butter as a spread, I recommend Kerrygold Irish butter. It’s grass-fed (more omega-3!) and it’s smooth and soft as a baby’s bottom. It also tastes better than any other brand I’ve tried.
Nice, will try to get a hold of that. Sounds great
good article! i was struggling to explain to a friend who was convinced marge was healthier, why it was shite and butter is better so just linked her this to save me the hassle, cheers!
“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
“the ones wanting to be ‘toned’ still have bodybuilding goals, they just don’t realise it” – Yusef
^ Exactly – I didn’t even write that article for the sake of the internet, it was literally for that purpose of linking to people that I can’t be bothered to argue with!
Great article guys, I also have a hard time telling people saturated fats aren’t all bad =/
RDA 2lbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByfO4tIzcSs
My god, that looks delicious.
Totally agree. but I am not yet ready to eat butter with a teaspoon
Very informative. Thanks.
good info! thanks!
Please continue discussion on the forum: link
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