Margarine or Butter? Seriously?
I couldn't help myself. I read through October's Issue of “Good Health” magazine today. Our ideas on what constitutes good health couldn't be much further apart.
I thought conventional wisdom was starting to come round to realising that natural, animal fat maybe isn't so bad after all. Clearly not.
So, let's compare the ingredients: –
Butter
- Cream
Margarine (this example is Flora)
- Water
- vegetable oils (including sunflower oil) (so other vegetable oils are also in the mix, with a high omega 6 ratio)
- plant sterol esters (12.5%) (this is an additive that reduces cholesterol, but interferes with absorption of fat soluble vitamins & hormones)
- modified tapioca starch, salt (1.0%) (this is a chemically altered thickener)
- buttermilk
- Emulsifiers: Mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids, sunflower lecithin
- Preservative: Potassium sorbate, citric acid, vitamin E, flavouring (often synthetic chemicals), vitamin B6, folic acid
- Colour: Beta carotene, Vitamins A, D and B12
So, this article specifically mentions trans fats. Well, as Julianne Taylor clearly explains, “trans fat free” margarine doesn't sound too great either. And as for the trans fat in butter – natural trans fats are created in the stomachs of ruminants (like cows) – and have a completely different fatty acid profile to trans fats found in artificial foods. A lot of evidence suggests that these natural trans fats may actually be beneficial.
Margarine, seriously?
