Hello!
So which one is healthier? -
butter has 45g of saturated fat in 100g of serving
and
margarine has 18g saturated fat, 30g monounsaturated fat and 12g polyunsaturated fat.
I know that in general both butter and margarine are unhealthy, but as i use butter for max 2 sandwiches a day i wondered which one is healthier?
​
Thanks for answering!
Margarine is basically low cost and inferior version of Butter, Napoleon Bonaparte invested in margarine and it became a staple in France and other countries because butter was really expensive back then.
Margarine has this weird chemical taste that I can’t get over. I actually grew up on it but when I finally switched to butter, I couldn’t eat it again. It’s just nasty
That being said this really is a very argued subject and I don’t think the experts have a real conclusion. Margarine no longer has trans fats but now they are going on about the risk of vegetable oils.
The lack of nutritional science in some of these comments is surprising.
> Margarine usually tops butter when it comes to heart health.> > 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.> > But not all margarines are created equal — some margarines contain trans fat. In general, the more solid the margarine, the more trans fat it contains. So stick margarines usually have more trans fat than tub margarines do.
>Today the butter-versus-margarine issue is really a false one. From the standpoint of heart disease, butter remains on the list of foods to use sparingly mostly because it is high in saturated fat. Margarines, though, aren’t so easy to classify. The older stick margarines turned out to be clearly worse for you than butter. Some of the newer margarines that are low in saturated fat, high in unsaturated fat, and free of trans fats are fine as long as you don’t use too much (they are still rich in calories).
Butter is largely alright as long as you don’t use too much given that our best current understanding suggests limiting saturated fats, and margarine can be okay, but any with trans fats should be avoided entirely. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are, generally speaking, considered to be the healthier of the dietary fats, so margarines with those should be preferred.
It’s also important if cooking with butter or margarine that you pay attention to the effect temperature can have on the fats. Raising the temperature of cooking oils can cause oxidation of the fatty acids, and in sufficient quantities the resulting compounds are not particularly healthy.
TL;DR limit butter but a bit is fine, stick with margarine free of trans fats and high in poly and monounsaturated fats, pay attention to appropriate cooking temperatures for oils.
I would choose butter. Organic/grass fed, what have you. I think it’s very nutrient rich and I know through intuitive inclinations, it feels physically good. Not to mention the abundance of vitamins butter contains.
It continues:
> Taken together, our results suggest the importance of restricting intake of trans-fat containing margarines to decrease the incidence of cardiometabolic diseases.
Butter performs worse against seed oils every time. The argument has been done to death here with the butter/SFA proponents dismissing all epidemiology and presenting widely criticized, debunked, or even re-interpreted to find the SFAs are actually bad, studies as their only scientific evidence.
Now for margarine, the study implies if the trans fat is removed, it should be a favourable alternative. That should check given the lower SFA values. I’ve also seen some scant evidence that plant-based SFAs aren’t as atherogenic but let’s ignore that. I have a few articles on my to-read list on how margarine production has changed since the trans-fats days because I’m interested to see what the deal is and how it could be better. If anyone knows, please feel free to drop some citations.
Also, here’s an RCT of margarine (no trans fats) vs butter
> In the total study population, the PUFA diet compared with the SFA diet lowered LDL cholesterol
Margarine resulted in lower cholesterol than butter. With more marked differences in those of normal weight than those who were obese.
We go with butter. I’ve found few reliable sources to indicate that vegetable solid fats are good for a person. They are more highly processed, and that always gets a negative from me when I am making my choices. We eat plenty of butter, and it’s had zero impact on my lab results for fats or cholesterol (that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t impact someone else).
One thing I wanted to note is that you cannot cancel a bad diet with an active lifestyle. Obviously, being active is way better than being sedentary. But as the saying goes “you cannot outrun a bad diet” and that is true. People who we view as the most healthy but who eat bad diets still suffer the effects of bad diets. I’ve known Ironmen who died of heart attacks because they thought their highly active daily training life meant they could be more loose with their diet and it’s simply not true. Plenty of US football players who are highly athletic are also unhealthy. Even those who are highly muscular but still high weight suffer health problems. Those who have high BMIs are still at increased risk of heart attack despite numerous hours every day spent exercising. Most of them are athletic in ways the rest of us can’t comprehend, and it doesn’t necessarily protect them from bad health outcomes.
Margarine is high in omega 6. If your concern is only risk of metabolic syndrome, you might favor margarine (though frankly you can just use olive oil). An increase in the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio can lead to obesity.
Notice that rates of vegetable oil consumption have absolutely skyrocketed over the last century, while rate of saturated fat consumption has not. Obesity has also risen in tandem. Ultimately it pays to minimize consumption of boxed foods which have added oils. It’s good to have some fat included in the diet, it has its purpose, but it can easily lead to excess calories in processed foods, let alone high omega 6 content.
tldr don’t eat high amounts of either. Butter can fit into your diet, margarine can fit into your diet, but ensure you understand and mitigate the risks associated with either.
more papers - https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/93/5/950/4597940?login=true , https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnme/2012/539426/, https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-10-50, https://www.cmaj.ca/content/186/6/434.short
In the common usage for food, the term “natural” has no meaning. The trans fat era of margarine is over. How is using the oil from smashed seeds instead of milk fat less “natural”? Both are then mixed with water and then churned to incorporate air. It seems especially odd considering the state of our dairy industry.
The “butter is back” movement was nothing more than a few flawed meta-analyses that included the trans fat era. They concluded small to neutral negative effects of butter. The authors themselves discussed how the meta-analysis were limited in value and could not be used to justify any dietary advice about butter. One, because there was no direct comparison between butter and margarine. Two, because detecting any negative effect of a food eaten only in small quantities in the typical American diet, given its horrid state, is nearly impossible. Again these limitations are in addition to the analysis including the trans fat era.
Supported by the dairy industry behind the scenes, the media took these studies and pumped them at max volume. “Butter is Back” made the cover of Time magazine based on nothing more than a flawed and flimsy rejiggering of old data. This gave the public what they already wanted to hear and they loved it. I have supreme confidence I could make more headlines with “Ice cream shown to cause weight loss” vs “Kale shown to cure cancer”.
Here is a reasoned answer to you question OP. We don’t know for sure which is better, butter or margarine. There are data to suggest butter is slightly worse. The data indicating neither is that great is stronger. I’m also pretty sure the worst thing on your sandwich is neither. Maybe only have one sandwich per day?
In college I was told there is a study that showed margarine will actually make lower children’s IQ? Idk but if you are interested in FATs watch this. No sales, just interesting facts from a great cardiologist Dr Aggerwal nutrition detour
Use bacon grease, tastes sooooo much better, and leaves no residue in pan for cooking. A lot of mixed signals from the health community on what to be considered healthy. So moderation, do cardio, lift weights and try to no eat past 8pm
The healthiest dietary fats for humans are from fatty fruits; olives, avocados, & coconuts. The fruit fats contain the best bioavailable nutrients for our organ health(organs are made of fats). The second most healthy and bioavailable fats for humans are lards from animal flesh. Milk fats and egg fats are healthy for those who can tolerate them, but they are not the healthy superfoods that fatty fruits are, and aren’t as healthy as lards in general. Margarine won’t kill you but it is not healthy; our bodies do not process or make use of the fats in margarine especially well. Canola oil is the nonfood fat that no human should ever eat. Canola is indigestable for humans; our bodies are not built to process or utilize canola whatsoever which is why canola fats sit on our bodies as bodily fat instead of doing what healthy fats do, which is nourish our organs. Fats should make up 10%-15% of our daily diets :) Butter and ghee are not nearly as unhealthy as the rumours about them make them out to be. (I blame those dirty dogs, the grain lobbiests, for all the nutritional liabel that smears good fats’ good names)
I’ve read a lot about the negative health effects of margarine but it seems like there is a wide definition of what people are talking about as margarine. I’m looking at the ingredient list for “I Cant Believe it’s Not Butter” and it looks fine. Nothing really raises a red flag. Then there are other varieties that are Vegan, so those don’t have the same ingredients.
I eat butter for a few reasons bc I was told margarine was one molecule away from plastic and was immo butter. I never looked up the molecule thing bc artificial things never agree with my stomach either. So always just stick to the real deal, whatever it may be…as long as it’s healthy.
Butter - tastes better, less satiates the palate. Saturated fat in moderation is better for you than monounsaturated fat.. Ghee and coconut oils Best for cooking. Olive oil best for drizzling. Margarine is artificial and highly processed and not good for ones body.
There is growing evidence that so called seed or vegetable oils are correlated with modern metabolic disease but saturated fat is not. There are several videos on youtube making a case. There is evidence that omega-6 oils and linoleic acid are bad news. Videos include those by Nina Teicholz, Prof. Robert Lustig , Dr. Chris Knobbe and a recent one by Paul Mason. Also Drcate.
It’s my opinion that butter will degrade your health less than margarine.
Hormonal cow puss or industrial lubricant in terms of preference, which would you rather eat?
The hormones are natural from the cow and the lubricant is plant based. Good buzz words but I’m not sure it has the same ring.
I have a degree in dietetics, and I use Smart Balance, but margarine would work too. Butter is also fine, It just depends on how much other saturated fat you eat. You should keep saturated fat under 10% of your total daily fat intake, to avoid getting high cholesterol and clogged arteries over the long term.
Are you using butter to make grilled cheese sandwiches? Bc cheese has a lot of saturated fat, too. I think Smart Balance and other vegetarian spreads taste fine, so I’d rather use them in my oatmeal and on my toast and save my saturated fat for something amazing like ice cream or cheesecake. Vegetarian cheesecake is not happening lol. Hope that makes sense! Feel free to ask any other questions.
The no. 1 thing to avoid is trans fat, so if it has that, don’t buy it. Next worse thing is saturated fat. The AHA recommends no more than 7 percent of your calories from it, but in general, the less the better. So it’s really, how much butter or margarine, and that’s very little. If possible, use a mono-unsaturated oil like olive or canola oil for most of your oil additions, and keep them to less than 10 percent of your calories. I use a couple pats of butter on my biscuits, but use oil mixed in them when making them.
When my wife developed gestational diabetes, she had to be put on a special diet, and one of the things that was recommended by the nutritionist was to use margarine instead of butter, although still sparingly. She said that she was fully aware of all the stories about margarine, but that it was being unfairly demonized as long as you didn’t glob it on your food, which you shouldn’t do with butter either. This was only in the last few years.
I really switched from margarine and butter to homemade cream cheese made with low fat milk. My creams cheese taste fine than butter, is healthy, and is low fat, low calories and low cost. Also, I like to put in my bread baked garlic marinate in olive oil.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/types-of-fat/
> Trans fatty acids, more commonly called trans fats, are made by heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas and a catalyst, a process called hydrogenation.
> …
> Partially hydrogenating vegetable oils makes them more stable and less likely to become rancid. This process also converts the oil into a solid, which makes them function as margarine or shortening.> For these reasons, partially hydrogenated oils became a mainstay in restaurants and the food industry – for frying, baked goods, and processed snack foods and margarine.
> …
> Trans fats are the worst type of fat for the heart, blood vessels, and rest of the body
There is no straight up answer to that question. Which food of similar use/taste is healthier really depends on how the manufacturer made it. One butter is not the same as the other brand. Same goes for margarine. More so in comparing butter and margarine. Just read the label and go with whatever you feel is more healthier.