Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Butter vs Margarine

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?

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.

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 trans 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 forlife 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 weenie 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?

(Is bad for your arteries because since it's an unnatural substance your body doesn't know what to do with it.)

2 comments:

Dostoy said...

Except for Fabio, I think most people out there actually CAN believe it's NOT butter...

And to think, for years and years it was sold as a HEALTHY alternative to butter. Go figure.

Emma said...

Yuck, who wants to eat plastic! Let’s get technical for a moment. Plastic is a polymer, whose ingredients may include polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, acrylic, silicone, and urethane. Margarine is an emulsion of naturally processed vegetable oil, water, salt, vitamins, and other functional ingredients that ensure the safety and quality of the finished product. Emulsions consist of two or more ingredients that naturally do not remain blended or “in suspension”; and need added ingredients to keep them together; think of it like oil and water. Other types of emulsified foods that you may eat include deli meats and salad dressings.

Living a healthy lifestyle includes eating moderate amounts of various types of foods. The margarine industry has been in the forefront of reducing the amounts of trans fat, and adding more functional ingredients to its products to support health. I've been working with the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers so I've learned a lot about this particular topic. In addition, heart disease runs in my family so I have a personal interest in the subject as well. Check out the links below for more information:

http://www.margarine.org, http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp, http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#choice1 and
http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/cholmonth/q_a.htm.