Butter vs. Margerine

I checked this out on snopes.com and they say its TRUE, so I thought I'd pass this along... :eek:

Margarine one step away from ????

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?
* 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)
* Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
* Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold.
* Lowers quality of breast milk.
* Decreases immune response.
* Decreases insulin response.
And here is the most disturbing fact....
* Margarine is 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 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?

Oh dear God!!! :eek:

Why would anyone eat margerine instead of butter? Why? Bill's kids do this. Open the fridge and its all margerine all the time. I'll go out to the 24 hour grocery store for a stick of butter before I eat that stuff....

...and what's with cold butter with bread at restauraunts? They can't stick it in the nuke box on defrost for 10 seconds before they bring it out? Geesh...

Why would anyone eat margerine instead of butter? Why?

Don't know. Always been a butter person myself. Having read this though, I'll never ever ever ever ever EVER venture to try margerine. EVER!

Ewwwwww gross. I've always preferred butter but lately Hubby keeps buying margerine (thinking it's healthier). I just emailed him the article. Ugh. :( Thanks Phossy!

Ive always enjoyed butter much more then margerine. And its whats ALWAYS in my fridge, though I do keep a yogurt spread for my kids which they seem to love because it spreads so much easier.

I grew up in a household where my mother was born in Kentucky, and raised in an orphanich in Virgina with all her siblings after her mom passed away and her dad couldnt afford to feed them back in the depression. The stories she told were terrible but she brought them into our daily life.

Cheap margerine...buying day old bread at the day old bread store and then freezing it, she wouldnt throw a thing out that refridgerator.........yikes, Im sure you get the picture!

I always said my kids will NEVER eat like that...and they dont.

Ewww, just reading about it makes me feel like my arteries are clogging. Thanks for the scope fos4snt. I'm gonna try that test and see how it holds up.

I never gave margarine much thought. Now I don't want to think about it.

I grew up eating margerine...but since moving in with Alec...I'm a new butter convert.

I love the stuff. *grin* Tastes so good!!! Makes everything taste good!!!

Only thing I don't like is that Alec likes to leave it out...and I like to put it in the fridge. Plus he hates it when I nuke it for a few seconds to soften it. (so I do it when he's not looking...lol)

Nadine.

Haha, Nadine, my ex always kept it in the fridge and that drove me nuts! I tried to get him to leave it out but he wouldn't.

I love butter, hate margarine, I think it tastes like plastic.

It's easier to cook with if i leave it in the fridge!!! :D

I only like the way it spreads on bread when we leave it out.

Usually what I do is compromise...we leave a stick out and keep the rest in the fridge...when I want some from the fridge...there it is! :D

Nadine.

Yep, butter's the best!! Growing up my mom refused to use margerine even though it's cheaper. Instead, she'd blend butter together with veggie oil and then put that in the fridge to harden. Looking back now, I think it's a great idea though I'm either too lazy or too busy to do it myself :rolleyes: . Oh, and you can keep it in the fridge and it doesn't get too hard to spread on bread/toast ;) .

I grew up in a house of Margarine worshipers. Though I always preffered butter and to this day get into weekly arguements over the fact that butter is BETTER for you!!!
Hard butter is easier to cook with, as for spreading, what I do is melt butter in a double boiler then spread it with a paintbrush. (I have a special butter brush!)

I am for butter. :)

Give me butter or give me death.

Actually butter is healthier than margarine....

I don't have a preference... I use it like once a year, maybe at a restaurant. I don't buy either of them... We dont cook with them... we don't use them on bread of muffins or anything (I like everything plain... bri uses hummus or peanut butter) so it really doesn't matter to me.

let's stir this up a bit


what about SMART BALANCE spread?

let's stir this up a bit


what about SMART BALANCE spread?


We use Brummel & Brown, which is supposedly a yogurt-type spread.

Mainly, though, we just use it on pots and pans but I'm pretty sure it's not TOO deadly.

MmmMMmmmm HUMMUS!
~phos

Oh man! :eek: This makes me very glad that some years ago I decided I really hated margarine and just started using butter (or olive oil) for everything.

After reading that, margarine scares me.

~Crysania

I LOVE HUMMUS!

My mom uses 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter'. (LMAO... and way not... IT ISN'T!)

I copied and sent her the post.

Her husband had triple bypass way back when...... and she has always thought butter was bad.......

'Hey, Mom....... ';)

:eek: Salt... :cool: Hope she listens!

I didn't need to send my Mom that. She's always hated margerine. ALWAYS. Prolly cuz she grew up on welfare with two siblings and a deaf mother. :eek: All they had usually was lard that they got to mix with some butter for flavor.

They just buy a big ole tub of Land O Lakes Whipped butter and let it sit on the counter. Soft... AND delicious. IF we went through butter that fast, I'd do that... but we also have DAMN CATS. :rolleyes:

Are you all catching the theme of my present life attitude towards pets? NO MORE! NO MORE PLEASE! TAKE MINE!!!

~phos

Butter is dairy. It can go rancid. I refridgerate. So what it's hard.

I keep a 2 stick [Land-O-Lakes lightly salted] pack in the freeze - I hate to run out. :D

I know it can, which is why I refrigerate it... but my folks LITERALLY go through a tub of butter in about 2 days between the 2 of them and my kids. You know, those semi-small whipped butter tubs from yummy yummy Land-O-Lakes? (That is THE best butter)

It's kinda funny, to be honest. They butter their morning toast or bagels, butter their sammiches, toss butter in with veggies, butter the bacon pan before cooking the bacon, butter in every dish at night and butter their bread, too. Lickity quick, that tub is EMPTY. They don't ever have "rancid" butter issues. :eek: All my life they've left the butter out. And there's never been a problem.
~phos

Yep, when used fast enough. But it's just me sooooo.......

anyway, dairy is a major staple for me.....

cheese, milk, butter, eggs..... and chocky milk

My blood pressure is 120/70.

Don't know my cholesterol. :rolleyes:

You can leave butter out for a long time before it goes bad. G would leave it out all day and then overnight and it never went rancid. And when his mother was here - I swear she'd leave it out for days at a time and it was fine.