UmneyDurak

So I switched from butter to "I can't believe it's not butter' it tastes good and I was hopping it's somewhat healthier then butter with 8 grams of fat (Actually soon I will switch to Light version with even less total grams of fat). When I was buying it the other day, one of my friends was with me. He saw it and started telling me how unhealthy and un-natural it is. I looked at the label 2g saturated fat (1g in light), 4g polysaturated fat ( thin it's 2 in light), 2g of monosaturated fat (I think it's 1 in light). Is it really that bad? Is regular butter healthier?

AnthonyG

This will open up a can of worms but see these articles, https://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html

I've reclaimed my health on a diet rich in traditional animal fats and I avoid man made fats like the plauge.

Regards, Anthony

supcom

First off, whether you eat butter or margarine, for the most part, you are eating 100% fat. Some margarines are blended with a bit of water to dilute them and reduce the calories. They probably make up for the reduced flavor by adding extra salt or other artificial flavor.

Regardless of whether you use butter or margarine, you should use them sparingly. A small amount of either on your morning toast or dinner roll is not going to make any health difference. If you slather it on 10 rolls at dinner, it might be a different story.

Michigander

I switched from butter to olive and walnut oil. Tastey once you get used to it, and very good for you.

superslomo

I use a non-butter spread thing sometimes, but it's a high omega-3 blend which has mainly monounsaturated fats if I remember right.

Saturated fat is worse for you than polyunsaturated fat, but monounsaturated fat is the best for overall and cardiac health.

UmneyDurak

I am. Maybe once or twice a week on a sandwitch. Actually thats my attitutde to most foods. Moderation.

CTAC

That's not healthier, only cheaper and has longer shelf life. If you need to reduce calories intake cut on quantity, not quality. If you need to cut on cholesterol intake, trans fat is a very poor substitution.

Common sense tells me that industry would do everything to maximize profit. If fat was cheaper than starch, we'd have had Atkins promoted from every shelf, and if sugar becomes chaper than HFCS we'll see large "NO HFCS!" labels on every coke can.

Using olive oil to substitute butter is a good idea, but it does not work all the time. Kashi (Russian style cereals; basically, boiled grains. I have no English word for that) is an example.

steveknight

I think our biggest health problems are not fats and all the other so called culprits but all of the food industry that makes all the garbage we Americans stuff into our faces way too often. Cut out all of the processed crap and fast foods and we would find most of the medical advice about fats and such are not valid. Humans have been eating animal fats since we were human and now all of a sudden in the last 50 or so years it is a horrible thing. But there is way too much profit in the food industry so we are told that even more pressed foods are better for us then natural foods.
Makes you wonder who gets paid off to say such things?

Roody

Smart Balance is the best tasting margerine--but still not as tasty as butter.

supcom

For the record, a person born in 1900 had a life expectancy of only 47.3 years. A person born in 1950 (just over 50 years ago) had a life expectancy of 68.2 years. Many diet related health problems do not appear until past age 50 - especially heart disease. So, those early humans didn't need to worry about clogged arteries, even if they knew what they were.

[EDIT] Added link to substantiate statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus05.pdf#027

Roody

Good point. Since we're unlikely to die of starvation or overwork, nowadays we need to eat food that will sustain health for up to 80 years or more. Also, even the most fanatical cyclists today get less exercise than did our ancestors, who performed strenuous physical labor from dawn to dusk, six days a week.

caloso

We've been eating butter and lard for tens of thousands of years, margarine for only the last hundred or so. When it comes to saturated fats, I'll take the natural animal fats rather than hydrogenated (chemically altered) vegetable oil.

Besides, it tastes better and more intense so you need less.

steveknight

I doubt that we can say the way we eat now is why we are living longer. Our foods have less nutrition and are far more processed with far worse things in them then what nature puts in our foods. So you’re saying fast food makes us live longer? Come on now does that really make sense? Or is it just better medical care better hygiene and such that makes us live longer? Look what happens to old people nursing homes are a very big business. Is that really a good indication that our lifestyle now is better?
A lot of the medical myths that are out there like foods with cholesterol are bad for us. Well unnatural foods are but real foods with natural cholesterol tend to lower our cholesterol levels.
Marking and lobbyists keep us eating crap because they make money doing so. Think the FDA cares about health? There are so many loopholes and ways past our health it is pathetic.

!!Comatoa$ted

IMO one of the main reasons people are living longer is because we are learning how to deal with the symptoms of disease. Medicine has not cured much in recent history. More focus seems to be on relieving symptoms of disease and trying to make life bearable. In the old days if you had a stroke or MI it was good night Irene. Now we are able to adapt because of technology. As well in many cases when babies are born with defects or the mother has a disease that would affect the foetus there was no way to stop the spread of disease. Heck until recently it was thought that the placenta and amniotic sack protected the foetus from all harm.

I say eat butter and try to cut the other crap out of your life.

nostromo

I switched to organic meats and butter a few months ago. I ate very clean already and tried to buy good food always, but I noticed a difference in my health within a week of switching to organic.

I just felt better, my workout and cycling performance improved as well and my recovery was better. I was already in good shape and had my diet dialed in properly for me. But the change in food made a dramatic enough difference that I could actually feel it. I use organic butter every morning with my organic eggs and have never been leaner or felt better.

It's all down to what your body can absorb and use and that it enhances your health long term. Some stuff seems ok but is taking something else away from your body, or putting something in it that will make it worse. Some power drinks and supplements are like that. It's down to trial and error, there's a ton of misinformation everywhere concerning diet and fats. Labels aren't always truthful either as they don't tell the whole story.

nickw

FYI check out this link-

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15020846/

!!Comatoa$ted

It would be interesting to see whether or not the banning of trans fats really does decrease the diseases that it supposedly causes. Or is it just being made into a sacrificial lamb.

slowandsteady

There is nothing natural about butter...unless you can find a cow that dispenses it right from the udder. And not all margarines are chemically altered.

Generally speaking saturated fats and hydrogenated fats are not good for you. Butter is a saturated fat and should be eaten in moderation or not at all. Margarine can be very bad for you or not so bad at all. The more liquid the margarine, the "healthier" it is.

Spray margarines are the best as they are mostly olive oil in some cases, which is a monounsaturated fat. They may have a small amount of partially hydrogenated oils mixed in.

Stick margarines have taken a somewhat healthy oil and thickened it up with hydrogenation so that it is no better than butter.

Tub margarine is partially hydrogenated and better than stick margarine, but still not very good.

Light tub margarine is also partially hydrogenated, but at least has fewer calories and less fat.


So, the moral of the story is, go with the spray margarines if you really want a butter like taste. Otherwise, use a poly or mono unsaturated oil, which are the best and actually have cardio-protective effects.

If you do go with a spray margarine, use the ones with olive oil as the cardio-protective effects may help to counteract the negative effects(if any) of the very small amount of partially hydrogenated oils they have.

AnthonyG

Ohh come on that's going too far. Saying that butter is not natural is like saying that washing your salad greens isn't natural!!

You can make butter at home by pouring some cream into a jar and shake, shake, shaking. It will eventualy sepperate into butter and buttermilk, you pour off the buttermilk, saving it for later and then forming the butter into a mould.

What's un-natural about that?

Regards, Anthony

mlts22 

I use "Smart Balance" myself. Maybe its a placebo effect, but I like the taste of it over butter.

caloso

Thank you, Anthony G.

AnthonyG

Your welcome. Mindyou, which bit are you thanking me for.

Regards, Anthony

caloso

Refuting that butter isn't natural.

AnthonyG

Yeah it was a bit of a silly claim. I was buying some cream from a small organic producer which had traveled 1000 km or thereabouts to get to my local store and the road vibrations on the way had induced some of the jars of cream to form a layer of butter on the top. This is the reason big food companies use emulsifying agents a lot. To prevent the natural sepperation of some foods.

Regards, Anthony

TRaffic Jammer

Your body can process animals fats much easier than anything artificial, some of the butter substitutes, you might as well be surgically adding it to your arteries. This was from some date line (or some such beast) news show a few weeks ago. Butter is the easiest way to go. The olive oil mixture is indeed healtier as long as it's not heated. All the good fats in olive oil turn immediately into bad ones when heated. I found this out when taking a Thai cooking course taught by The Heart Foundation chef.