Margarine! *eeek*

[Bathsheba]

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?

DO YOU KNOW.. the difference between margarine and 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!

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 t rans 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 a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?



I received this as an email.

I've always eaten plain unadulterated butter... it just made sense... plus "butter tastes better". Another example of trying to improve on nature... rarely works. JMO.

[BellyBelly]

You can't win with butter or margarine. You have to choose which you would prefer, to use something more likely to give you a stroke, or something more likely to result in blindess!!! Or you could try and avoid it altogether!

[Bathsheba]

Do you think it's really true that there is no "nutrition" in margarine? maybe this could just be an alarmist article written by a butter manufacturer! Is there any "dairy" in marg at all? I guess if you had a dairy intolerance marg who have to be your choice...

[krysalyss]

There is some nutrition in margarine and butter (oils and fats are an important part of our body) but generally we could do without it.

[saslia]

We only have butter as DD reacts to some preservatives so we thought it was a better alternative....

[Bathsheba]

Even the idea that it's a fake colour worries me... it's usually such a glaring bright yellow... way more yellow than pure butter... frightens me off!

[Heaven]

Hmm...I get confused about which one is better/worse, now I will remember. But then when I go to the supermarket it's hard to tell which is actually butter and which is margarine. Which do you think is the best brand to buy?
And if they're both bad how can you get by without it!! I use it in cooking a fair bit.

[Bathsheba]

I personally prefer Devondale's Extra Soft or just plain/pure butter (often wrapped in paper). Extra Soft has 25% less fat than most margarines, is blended with canola oil to make it more spreadable but tastes very buttery. It has a preservative though so this might not suit everyone. We get this brand because DH demands it. if it was just me i would buy cultured butter (Girgars is a good one) it is devine and is a very pure food. I use it to make shortbread and pastries.

[Pandora]

margarine is black, and lots of chemicals are used to make it yellow.
My mum worked for years at whats now food science australia/CSIRO, and none of the research scientists there would eat or allow their families to eat margarine.
DH prefers butter but still buys marg. I dont use it for anything other than baking, in which case I try to use butter anyway.

[Bathsheba]

OMG... if they wouldn't eat it that a bit of a clue I think!

Butter is definitely better for cooking... things just taste and turn out better, from my experience.

[Heaven]

I usually use the home brand butter in the paper for cooking. But last time I noticed it had trans fats so now I don't know what to do.
I got some light 'Butterfully' from Aldi last time I was there but I'm chucking it, I have no idea what it is but it looks weird, all like whipped. It just looks wrong anyway, it can't be good.

[Astrid]

Butter user here. Tastes better and where possible I prefer to eat more natural food that has not been messed with too much.

[Bathsheba]

SJ: with the butter in the paper: it wasn't "Fairy" was it? That's shocking stuff and not butter at all. If you buy the plain usually no-name brand butter in paper or Western Star there are usually only two or three ingredients: cream, water and sometimes salt. My Coles brand butter in foiled paper has only 2 ingredients: pasturized cream and water, can't beat that when it comes to avoiding additives and man-made chemicals.

ETA: probably organic butter would be the best... no trace pesticides etc.

[Heaven]

No, it was the home brand one from woolies!

[Liz]

Yep - butter here too.. coz it's yummy and more natural. I use Mainland Butter Soft - same ingredients as pure butter.. somehow they've taken out the bit that makes the butter go hard. LOL. I don't like the oil blends.. don't like the taste, and it makes the bread go soggy LOL.

Everything in moderation I say. Butter's only harmful if you have too much.

So I wonder if those ones like Logicol that reduce cholesterol absorption do it by lining your stomach with plastic? heheh.

ETA: hmm.. I get the one with salt... aah well

[Bathsheba]

SJ: weird... I've bought a few generic butters in my time and only ever seen the 2/3 ingredients. Transfats are actually banned in some countries... it makes me angry that here in Australia they sell things that are banned over seas.... like we are some kind of dumping ground

If you use plain butter in the block, just buy yourself a butter dish with a lid. Then you can store it outside the pantry (as long as it's a cool pantry) for up to a week i think, longer in winter. I used to do that when i lived by myself pre-family. Always spreadable.

[christy]

When I went to a LC she said to use devondale even if Jovie was allergic to cows milk as its the lesser of two evils. Then she found something called Nuttlex. Its Dairy free... 54% sunflower oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, water, salt,sunflower lecithin, vitamens a, d, e and flavouring from vegetable sources. It has no artificial additives, and is "virtually free of trans fatty acids".... made in Australia.

I use it for my baking... because Matilda is highly allergic to milk and I prefer more natural substances. Otherwise we use avocado to spread on bread or we use olive oil if we want the fat side of things (but only cold pressed olive oil here...).

[Bathsheba]

Sounds good Christy. I've heard good things about Nuttlex