Which is healthier for Butter or Margerine?

I read Women's Fitness mag, and the last one did a comparison between the two. It said that butter was the best out of the two, for the reasons you've put in your post. Natural is often better

 

The thing about 'official' medical advice, when it comes to diet, is that the advice seems to me to be about 20 years behind the research (but then I'm not an expert).

For example, take the low fat spreads, often containing 'trans fats' or hydrogenated fats. In lab conditions, they look brilliant, but the body is not designed to cope with the artificially modified fats so some of the recent research shows them to be actually worse than saturated fats that you find in natural products like butter.

Take the modern trend (starting from the early 1980s as far as I can gather) of the 'low fat diet'. From what I've figured out from lots of reading, our bodies are evolved to have a roughly equal three way split between fat, protein and carbs. If you deviate significantly from that, then the body tries to adapt and can't work as efficiently. Take away all the fat, and apart from losing out on fat soluble vitamins, you also put your body into 'starvation mode' so no matter how much you eat, your body thinks it needs to stockpile.

I'm not an expert at all, and to be honest I don't eat in a way that fits any advice (unless there is some research that says its best to just eat what you feel like ), so I'm probably not the best person to offer an opinion in these matters.

 

Rats won't eat Margarine, but they will eat Butter. And they are not usually fussy.

 

I agree with all the previous comments, the body was never designed to process trans fats which have been heated to such a high temperature the human body doesn't recognize it.
If your Mrs has been advised to swap to lower her cholesterol, its worth understanding how the readings are read. There are two types of Cholesterol, LDL (the baddie) and HDL (the goody) and when they test your blood sample they measure both and minus one from the other. To lower your net number you can obviously eat less saturated fat but you can also increase your intake of foods such as nuts, seeds and fish which have "heart healthy" oils in them. Also exercise has proven to lower LDL in your blood too, so going for a walk after dinner isn't just good for the dog!

 

I agree with what has already been said, natural is best, so butter is best.

Val

 

Don't know about the mentality bit Woo

You need fat, as others have said.

When I've run out of butter I stick some Olive oil in the freezer for half an hour to set it, you can use that as a spread then without adding anything 'orrible to it.

 

Cool, we been munching on homemade herb bread with lashings of butter today too

Oh, sorry Woo, accidentally made you admin on GC Facebook

 

I have never thought about freezing olive oil before and use it as a spread, but it sounds like good advice.

 

Butter! It's natural, tasty and yellow.

 

It freezes!!!????

Wow, you learn something new every day!

 

I think a moderate amount of butter is perfectly healthy. As well as delicious.

Tastes far better than that awful marg stuff.Big business have a vested interest in making us believe it's healthier because it enables them to make big profits from the cheapest, nastiest ingredients. Only one step away from plastic in chemistry terms, is marge, I've read. Or was it the Butter Marketing Board that said that??

Does this mean extra-thick double cream is also now officially Good For You? I'm sure it must have loads of vitamins dissolved in it.

Are you quite sure you're not wilfully refusing to take the hint, FC?