Do you people butter or margarine and why? I’ve always bought margarine because it has fewer calories, and a lot less saturated fat and cholesterol. But I notice most people prefer butter. When I ask them why, a lot of people believe that margarine is “full of chemicals” and they prefer the taste of butter. If I mention cholesterol and saturated fat, they don’t consider that a problem as long as a person’s total calorie, saturated fat, and cholesterol consumption is not excessive.
I thought about that. I keep a food log using an online tool called myfitnesspal.com. I notice just two servings of butter is 15 grams of saturated fat. That over the American Heart Association’s daily limit of limit of 13 grams per day — link. To me, that indicates it doesn’t take much butter to be eating too much saturated fat.
Also, the Mayo clinic website says that margarine is better for heart health . From the article:
Margarine is made from vegetable oils, so it contains unsaturated "good" fats — polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. These types of fats help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad," cholesterol when substituted for saturated fat.
Butter, on the other hand, is made from animal fat, so it contains more saturated fat.
In the 1980’s health experts began to recommend margarine over butter because of the connection between saturated fats, increased cholesterol levels, and heart disease. But in the 1990’s research discovered the trans fat in margarine was worse for heart health so in recommending people switch from butter to margarine the medical community had inadvertantly increased people’s risk for heart disease instead of lowering it.
But trans fat in margarine no longer seems an issue. After it was discovered trans fat was worse than saturated fat, many food manufacturers and restaurants stopped using it in their products. There’s been a 78% decrease in trans fat consumption since 2003. In 2015 the FDA banned the use of trans fats within 3 years. In the grocery store, trans fat is listed as 0 grams in every margarine product.
What chemicals are used in margarine that make it more unhealthy? If I look on the ingredients of margarine products I see ingredients like “soybean oil” “water” “palm kernel oil” “soy lecithin” and “vinegar.” The ingredients seem to be largely vegetable oils, not chemcials. Is the concern because we don’t recognize these ingredients or because they are proven as harmful to our health? In butter we do recognize the ingredients “sweet cream” “pasturized milk.” I’m asking- not stating.
I also notice in margarine there is little saturated fat and mostly the healthier fats polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat.
The one advantage I do see with butter is you can get unsalted butter which has no sodium and every margarine brand has sodium although not a lot of it.
There is also some room for discussion. For example, the linked CNN article quotes an expert as saying saturated fats are “neutral” while it’s the now banned trans fats that are bad.
In regard to cholesterol, years ago people were told to not eat eggs because one large egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol but today some people in the medical community believe it’s not the actual cholesterol in a food that raises your LDL bad cholesterol but saturated fats, but that discussion is ongoing and may not be settled. I love scrambled eggs. I told my physician I eat 12 eggs a week. I thought she would tell me to stop but instead she replied “I also eat 12 eggs a week.”
I didn’t ask her about butter vs. margarine and I’m not due back until September.
My average daily saturated fat intake is right around the American Heart Association recommended amount. My daily cholesterol intake is more tricky. On days I don’t eat scrambled eggs, it’s very low around 50 to 150 mg below the AHA 300 mg suggested limit. But days I have my 4 scrambled eggs it’s over 800 mg.
I don’t have a cholesterol problem, but I don’t want to get one either. Here is my latest blood work (note: now that I’m thinking about it I’d like to get the LDL a bit lower even though it’s in the normal range):
TOTAL CHOLESTEROL 171 (normal range 0-199)
LDL bad cholesterol 109 (normal range 19-130)
Triglycerides 92 (normal range 4 -149)
HDL good cholesterol 44 (>39)
Note: I am not a nutritional expert or medical professional. I wrote this diary to both present some information, ask questions, and invite discussion.