Butter vs. Margarine?

Grady

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I use butter. But, lately I've noticed that some brands of margarine have eliminated transfat, and many are available with much lower calories. So, I'm thinking of trying a margarine again, because I miss putting a nice layer of this stuff on bread and baked potatoes.

Any recommendations? Or stick with the butter? :)
 
Armed'nHammered said:
Depends. Who do you trust more, the chemist or the cow?


Haha, seriously, how much do you trust cows? I hope you are joking. Its chemists that found out cows milk don't have trans fats, so if you like butter you are still agreeing with the chemist. Although one time I did get really wasted and a cow told me margarine, but I think because the cow was sick of giving milk every morning.

To the question, I would try it. Nonsaturated fats (better for you) are liquid at room temperature. So, some chemist thought it would be good saturate the fat (put double bonds into it) so you can have a solid nonsaturated fat. This is because solid fats are easier to work with and I think hold foods together better. So, they introduced double bonds. This was a problem because the double bonds com in two forms, cis and trans. Cis double bonds are all over in nature, but no trans (via the nature of the attachment of the fatty acid chain). When the bonds were introduced they had no control, so approx 1/2 were cis, and 1/2 trans. Then came concern whether the body knew how to deal with transfat since it never occured in nature. If believe chemists (cis/trans testing is hella easy, it would be hard to mess up) it should be fine.

So, for those who didn't read what I posted above, I think it should be fine. You get all the positives (solid, no saturated fat, better for you, you don't have to interview cows), and none of the negatives (trans fat).
 
Rjkd12 said:
Haha, seriously, how much do you trust cows? I hope you are joking. Its chemists that found out cows milk don't have trans fats, so if you like butter you are still agreeing with the chemist. Although one time I did get really wasted and a cow told me margarine, but I think because the cow was sick of giving milk every morning.

To the question, I would try it. Nonsaturated fats (better for you) are liquid at room temperature. So, some chemist thought it would be good saturate the fat (put double bonds into it) so you can have a solid nonsaturated fat. This is because solid fats are easier to work with and I think hold foods together better. So, they introduced double bonds. This was a problem because the double bonds com in two forms, cis and trans. Cis double bonds are all over in nature, but no trans (via the nature of the attachment of the fatty acid chain). When the bonds were introduced they had no control, so approx 1/2 were cis, and 1/2 trans. Then came concern whether the body knew how to deal with transfat since it never occured in nature. If believe chemists (cis/trans testing is hella easy, it would be hard to mess up) it should be fine.

So, for those who didn't read what I posted above, I think it should be fine. You get all the positives (solid, no saturated fat, better for you, you don't have to interview cows), and none of the negatives (trans fat).
Thanks Rjkd12. Do you or anyone recomend a particular brand of margarine? I want one with zero transfats and decent flavor.
 
Butter. Butter is better.
 
Neither!

Butter is pure fat, did you know a large movie popcorn contains over 1600 calories because of butter?!
http://www.dietfacts.com/html/items/23670.htm
194% DV of fat, and 365% DV of saturated fat!

You might say some stuff NEEDS butter, I used to think so too, but once you go off it for awhile, you get used to it, and never need butter again. To me, butter tastes GROSS now, I can strongly taste even a small amount if it's in something I'm eating.
 
Both are bad for you.

No, Terumo and BoxingFanNoMore had an epic argument over this. Terumo never got back to settle it. I wish he would.
 
GODAMNIT EAT YOUR FUCKIN BUTTER AND LIKE IT! MMMMM!!! STEARIC ACID IS GODAMN TASTEY! Actually despite its health benefits, the short chain fatty acids contribute more to the flavor of butter than stearic acid. However, unlike most long chain fatty acids, stearic acid is known to either leave cholesterol levels unchanged or may even lower cholesterol levels... that's right bitches, BUTTER IS GOOD FOR YOU!
 
Butter = yummy goodness
Margarine = Fabio = teh ghey
 
bacon said:
Butter = yummy goodness
Margarine = Fabio = teh ghey

LOL.

Dammit, c'mon, I'm a butter person trying to Fabio-tize my toast topping now! Gimme some recommendations as to a good flavored margarine brand. Everyone in here eats only butter? Or I'll just go for the bucket of Shed Spread or whatever crap I see first.
 
I have no clue what margarine brands are good, 90% of the time I use olive oil or that spray stuff. I only use actual butter/margarine if my girlfriend comes over and she bakes cookies, or pie or some crap.
 
Go Urban, you tell those bitches. Remember its hard to tell people the truth, since they are already brain washed by the goverment that butter is bad. People cannot handle the truth!!!!
 
Rjkd12 said:
I have no clue what margarine brands are good, 90% of the time I use olive oil or that spray stuff. I only use actual butter/margarine if my girlfriend comes over and she bakes cookies, or pie or some crap.
Which you then eat off of her?

Sorry, very frustrated right now, been several months since I got off my mission, let myself go a bit. But I'm not worried, I'm playing email tag on MySpace with a little hottie right now. Hope that pans out.
 
Good luck with that madmick.

Oh, and by the way, just to rub it in a bit, yes, I do eat all that stuff off her. Normally after that many things are done that cannot be typed on any message board where there are viewers under 21, or a board that can be accessed in some conservative sates. Sorry man.
 
Definitely go with the butter, and eat as much as you want. Don't believe all the "saturated fat is bad for you" crap out there. Here's an excerpt about butter from a really great article smashing all the myths and misinformation about saturated fat. Read the rest whole thing to see how bad that "healthy" unsaturated margarine spread is for you. Then go eat some butter!
http://www.mercola.com/2002/aug/17/saturated_fat1.htm


Fat-Soluble Vitamins: These include true vitamin A or retinol, vitamin D, vitamin K and vitamin E as well as all their naturally occurring cofactors needed to obtain maximum effect. Butter is America's best source of these important nutrients. In fact, vitamin A is more easily absorbed and utilized from butter than from other sources.61 Fortunately, these fat-soluble vitamins are relatively stable and survive the pasteurization process.

When Dr. Weston Price studied isolated traditional peoples around the world, he found that butter was a staple in many native diets. (He did not find any isolated peoples who consumed polyunsaturated oils.) The groups he studied particularly valued the deep yellow butter produced by cows feeding on rapidly growing green grass. Their natural intuition told them that its life-giving qualities were especially beneficial for children and expectant mothers.

When Dr. Price analyzed this deep yellow butter he found that it was exceptionally high in all fat-soluble vitamins, particularly vitamin A. He called these vitamins "catalysts" or "activators." Without them, according to Dr. Price, we are not able to utilize the minerals we ingest, no matter how abundant they may be in our diets. He also believed the fat-soluble vitamins to be necessary for absorption of the water-soluble vitamins.

Vitamins A and D are essential for growth, for healthy bones, for proper development of the brain and nervous systems and for normal sexual development. Many studies have shown the importance of butterfat for reproduction; its absence results in "nutritional castration," the failure to bring out male and female sexual characteristics. As butter consumption in America has declined, sterility rates and problems with sexual development have increased. In calves, butter substitutes are unable to promote growth or sustain reproduction.62

Not all the societies Dr. Price studied ate butter; but all the groups he observed went to great lengths to obtain foods high in fat-soluble vitamins-fish, shellfish, fish eggs, organ meats, blubber of sea animals and insects. Without knowing the names of the vitamins contained in these foods, isolated traditional societies recognized their importance in the diet and liberally ate the animal products containing them. They rightly believed such foods to be necessary for fertility and the optimum development of children.

Dr. Price analyzed the nutrient content of native diets and found that they consistently provided about ten times more fat-soluble vitamins than the American diet of the 1930's. This ratio is probably more extreme today as Americans have deliberately reduced animal fat consumption. Dr. Price realized that these fat-soluble vitamins promoted the beautiful bone structure, wide palate, flawless uncrowded teeth and handsome, well-proportioned faces that characterized members of isolated traditional groups.

American children in general do not eat fish or organ meats, at least not to any great extent, and blubber and insects are not a part of the western diet; many will not eat eggs. The only good source of fat-soluble vitamins in the American diet, one sure to be eaten, is butterfat. Butter added to vegetables and spread on bread, and cream added to soups and sauces, ensure proper assimilation of the minerals and water-soluble vitamins in vegetables, grains and meat.
 
I havent posted in awhile and I hate to post again on the butter vs. margarine topic, but here goes. Eventhough, Terumo and I disagreed on many points in the other thread, mostly about transfats, one point in which I agree with him 1000, no make that 1 million percent, dont take information to seriously from mercola.com.

Seriously, I know alot of people take that website as gospel, but it is basically just a webpage with a very high google page rank.

Basically, if you search for something health food related, his website will pop up pretty high on the results, which is why his site gets mentioned so much, because people just go google something and copy and paste something from the first result.

There are some very good articles on that website, but there are also some very bad ones as well, which is very common for publications without traditional editors. Some so bad that they completely overshadow the good ones.

There are tons of better places to get information, but people think that he is some trail blazer, when in all reality he runs an e-commerce site.

Seriously, just read the previous exercpt posted above. It subtly represents everything that is wrong with some articles posted on his website.

Seriously, how come everything that is supposed to be seen as revolutionary always comes back to vanity and fertility.
 
On a sidenote regarding the previous thread, the FDA regulations regarding transfat labeling being mandatory was supposed to go into effect, January 1st. So it should be included on the nutrional vaule labeling for most foods.
 
Spiff - the nutritional facts at http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-B00001-01c2029.html show that I'd have to eat almost a cup of butter to get more than 100% RDA of Vitamin A, and the other vitamins come in at a much lower level.

I'm not opponsed to eating some saturated fats at all, I get plenty from the animal fat sources I eat, and I have always used butter. However, I do think unsaturated are healthier. I was just recently considering, as I spread a frugal amount of butter on some toast, that I could use more margarine than butter on my foods, and increase my essential fatty acid intake, as and avoid running up the amount of saturated fat percentage of my diet.

A LOT more people in this thread are butter advocates, which took me a bit by surprise. Maybe I'll just stick with the butter. :)
 
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