Butter or Margarine, which do you prefer?

[Robertt S]

Subject: 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 pay- back 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 that?   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 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 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.
 
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 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? 
 
Share This With Your Friends.......(If you want to butter them up')!
 
Chinese Proverb:  When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others. 
Pass the BUTTER PLEASE

[Scottish_Rob]

During the war, not that I was born then, people used to spread LARD onto their bread.

Something I have noticed Robert about Margarine, you do not get salted like you can butter...

[David E]

I gotta have a say on this eternal question...butter vs Margarine.

I have a high qualification in Organic Chemistry and we studied the chemical reactions of hydrogenation to produce margarine...as a case study.

Margarine was created by a Frenchman from Provence, France -- Hippolyte Mège-Mouriez -- in response to an offer by the Emperor Louis Napoleon III for the production of a satisfactory substitute for butter. To formulate his entry, Mège-Mouriez used margaric acid, a fatty acid component isolated in 1813 by Michael Chevreul and named because of the lustrous pearly drops that reminded him of the Greek word for pearls....Margarites.

For general information, you should be aware that the advertising campaign launched by margarine manufacturers was termed "one of the most unprincipled food promotions in the past  of a century", with TV and Press commercials described as "noisy, ubiquitous, shameless and grossly misleading." They have promoted a highly processed and chemically altered compound as food as though it were a wonder drug. Margarine advertisements were directed especially to physicians. Physicians, lacking information about how the hydrogenation process negatively affects human health, or about the hazards of too much processed polyunsaturated fat, began switching patients from butter to margarine and from animal fats to vegetable oils.

Hydrogenated fats have a higher melting point than fats that are liquid at room temperature. They are less well utilized in your body. They do not circulate in the blood or move through the tissues as liquids. They may disrupt the permeability characteristics of the membranes of the body's cells and prevent the normal transport of nutrients into and out of cells. Hydrogenated fats produce a deficiency of essential fatty acids (EFA) by destroying them, or producing abnormal toxic fatty acids. Deficiency of EFA is a contributory cause in neurological diseases, heart disease, arteriosclerosis, skin disease, various degenerative conditions such as cataract and arthritis, and cancer.

The conversion of oils to the hydrogenated form actually prevents the proper formation of bile in the liver from cholesterol, and therefore can elevate blood cholesterol and have adverse effects both directly and indirectly. Margarine can raise cholesterol.

Trans-fats are formed as a result of chemical hydrogenation. They are artificially created, and margarine may contain up to 45 percent of these deleterious fats. Only in recent years have trans-fats formed a significant part of our diet. There is serious concern whether any " food" containing this high level of trans-fats could ever be more healthful than a natural product....butter.

A proliferation of articles express these scientific facts in recent issues of medical journals. But as Voltaire said, "It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion."

There is so much Marketing hype surrounding the benefits of Margarine that we mostly now actually believe it is healthy !!!...NOT.

As a Chemist, I would never dream of eating such a product, I am convinced that my body systems have no genetic capability of dealing with such a highly synthesised "food" and I would always be concerned what it was doing to me over the long term.

[Willy The Londoner]

That is an indepth study David.  Certainly cleared that up.

But now, is it the Butter or the Margerine that makes the ball slip out of Aussie Cricketers fingers?

Willy

[David E]

OK Willy....

There is nothing I can say to avoid admitting we were beaten by a better side in the Ashes series...butter or margarine, it would make no difference to the way our bunch of "girls" played. 

Being beaten by the Poms is such a rare occurrence that it is only right that you get to brag about it...for a while.

But you better realise that every resource we possess in this Nation is now devoted to winning the Ashes back...and we have a stong economy, plenty of money, unlike the Poms who are broke. So we intend to offer humungous bribes to all Umpires so that we win the next series...we know you will never match our resources in this way. We gave up on winning the game of cricket...now lets get dirty !!!

[Scottish_Rob]

That is an indepth study David.  Certainly cleared that up.

But now, is it the Butter or the Margerine that makes the ball slip out of Aussie Cricketers fingers?

Willy

1 - 0 Willy

OK Willy....

There is nothing I can say to avoid admitting we were beaten by a better side in the Ashes series...butter or margarine, it would make no difference to the way our bunch of "girls" played. 

Being beaten by the Poms is such a rare occurrence that it is only right that you get to brag about it...for a while.

But you better realise that every resource we possess in this Nation is now devoted to winning the Ashes back...and we have a stong economy, plenty of money, unlike the Poms who are broke. So we intend to offer humungous bribes to all Umpires so that we win the next series...we know you will never match our resources in this way. We gave up on winning the game of cricket...now lets get dirty !!!

Ohhh nice retort... 1 - 1 David.

But the umpire (me) gives an extra point to the Aussies because, well I'm Scottish and ALWAYS want the English to get beat hahahaha..

[shaun]

If you think it's butter...  but it's not...  It still isn't butter.  There is no equal substitute.   I won't touch margarine.

[Willy The Londoner]

Ok your trying to flood all of Ossland now to get the final test abandoned and save face.  But it wont work David. As far as the English are concerned if the players can walk on water they can certainly play on it.

But your right I will probably never have this sort of chance to gloat again.

Back to butter. 

Up until this morning In have not found any butter in the stores here. It has always been Flooooraaa  (sorry a blast from a past advert).  Flora and Clover.   But today I found Butter with Olive oil. I will see what that is like. says it is idea for spreading and cooking and maybe having that final south american dance in France.  So I will report back on the first two unless some else has tried it already. Just a report on first two will be fine - unless of course you have pictures!!!!

Willy

[David E]

Willy

Stay with the butter + olive oil......definitely healthier than plastic marg (no, that's not a blow up doll...)

Strange...the Eastern half of Aus is inundated with water, but the Western half where I live is having the driest and hottest year on record.

We have all got to save water...shower with a friend !!!

The Poms only played one game in Perth...and we beat them here, I think they were overcome by the sight of the sun..not enough clouds for their liking.

[Bee964]

Basically speaking, the more a "food" is processed the worse it is for your body. Butter will always be better for you over margerine. But you have to use it in moderation.

Dave C

[Philip]

In England, the butter vs. margarine issue ceased to be a talking point more than a decade ago. Glance at the shelves of most supermarkets, and you will find a wide variety of spreads as alternatives to butter. There are the popular spreads that use a combination of buttermilk and vegetable oils, the olive oil-based spreads and the vegetable oil-based spreads. These, along with butter, comprise the majority of the market. Margarine, as we once knew it is a cheap, but marginal outsider. Labelling and product awareness is very good in England. Most people know their polyunsaturates from their saturates. The debate about trans fats in England focussed on certain processed foods, like pastries. Some pastry shops put trans fats in their pastries, presumably to help preserve them, and because they are cheap. But because they do not have to label the ingredients, they have slipped past the informed public. But again, the public have been made aware of the possibilities.
The bigger problem is the mania for low-fat everything. We need fat in our diet, and butter is a very good natural food. It's a shame people associate fat with being fat. Sugar is much more damaging to a healthy diet than fat, as processed white sugar in the body causes the body to convert it into fat.