Monday, October 02, 2006

Butter Vs. Margarine

BUTTER VS. MARGARINE
By John Ross Harvey

I received an email recently
It pointed out the various differences between
Butter and Margarine

Margarine has 5 grams of Fat
Butter has 8 grams of Fat

Eating margarine will increase heart disease in 53% of women
Eating butter will increase the absorption of other food nutrients

Butter has nutritional benefits
Margarine has them, but they are added

Butter enhances food flavours
Margarine, …not so much

Butter has been here for centuries
Margarine for less than 100 years

Margarine is high in trans fats tripling your risk of coronary heart disease
Increasing your risk of cancer up to 5 fold
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (the bad kind)
Lowering HDL (the good one)
Lowers breast milk quality
Decreases Immune response and Insulin response

But worse than all of that
It is one molecule away from being PLASTIC

It’s an edible oil product
Plastic is made from oil

In George Carlin’s theory of our existence
We were created to make Plastic

We did that already, it’s time we left.

But before we do
I’ll have some hot buttered popcorn with Real Butter

6 comments:

Emma said...

Yuck, who wants to eat plastic! Let’s get technical for a moment. Plastic is a polymer, whose ingredients may include polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, acrylic, silicone, and urethane. Margarine is an emulsion of naturally processed vegetable oil, water, salt, vitamins, and other functional ingredients that ensure the safety and quality of the finished product. Emulsions consist of two or more ingredients that naturally do not remain blended or “in suspension”; and need added ingredients to keep them together; think of it like oil and water. Other types of emulsified foods that you may eat include deli meats and salad dressings.

Living a healthy lifestyle includes eating moderate amounts of various types of foods. The margarine industry has been in the forefront of reducing the amounts of trans fat, and adding more functional ingredients to its products to support health. I've been working with the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers so I've learned a lot about this particular topic. In addition, heart disease runs in my family so I have a personal interest in the subject as well. Check out the links below for more information:

http://ww.margarine.org, http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#choice1 and
http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/cholmonth/q_a.htm.

John Ross Harvey said...

I've also been told the same for Processed Cheese being a molecule away from Plastic, (the source being a drug company scientist), I tend to agree, makes it less desireable to eat, but $ wise it's what I use anyway, Becel, non-soya, canola variety. Kids have not grown to appreciate real cheese so processed will still be bought. As for chemical makeup, we are only different by 1 chromosome.
Makes you think what else may be related at a molecular level.

Anonymous said...

first of all, with what emma said about plastic being a polymer, they are made up of a bunch of repeating carbon carbon chains with other molecules attached on. Saying something is different by one molecule is not a correct statement, what you really meant was that at the ATOMIC level they vary only slightly by a few carbons in their repeating chain. Your previous statement is about as valid as saying that vegetable oil is one molecule away from a plastic chair. this article is very biased and does not provide a very good view about the contrasts between margarine and butter at all, i would suggest doing a bit more research before posting random facts you've found or heard floating around.

John Ross Harvey said...

I've published your comment
but it would hold more water if you weren't anonymous. Anyone can say anything without backing it up, as you have done. Emma at least had research. It's a blog not the New York Times, if you believe everything you read, you cannot have a good imagination.
Next time identify yourself.

Amy said...

My ex's mother told me that margarine was whipped plastic and I never beleived her. Partially becasue she was a nut jobn. But I guess she was pretty close on tis one. I am so glad we have always eaten butter!

John Ross Harvey said...

Here is the email that made the rounds again:


Pass The Butter ... Please.

This is interesting ...

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings ...

DO YOU KNOW ... The difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end ... gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine ...

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk.

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact ... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC ... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

You can try this yourself:

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Share This With Your Friends ... (if you want to butter them up)!

Chinese Proverb:
When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.


Pass the BUTTER, PLEASE.