Monday, August 3, 2009

Butter wouldn't melt ...

You know how you have those on-going family disputes? I don't mean arguments, exactly, or bad spirited feuds -- I mean more like long-standing, good-natured disagreements that you like to rag one another about... Do you have any of those in your family? We have a few -- because we're a talkin' bunch, and all of us opinionated. One of the oldest I remember is the butter vs. margarine discussion. My Dad has always preferred butter. He always said he just liked the taste better and stubbornly insisted that butter always be served at the table, even though my mother liked the lower cost of margarine and, always dieting, preferred the lower calories. The rest of us kids (the seven of us) split off into margarine, butter, and "don't care" camps. I've always been in the butter camp with my Dad. I just like the taste of butter better, and have always inclined toward natural instead of processed, I think. Anyway, these last few years, we in the butter-camp have science to back up our side of the argument.

Here are the facts (from a recent forward, which originated here):

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.

The difference between butter and margarine: Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams. 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 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. Triple 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 fold..Lowers quality of breast milk. Decreases immune response. Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact..... Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC.. This fact alone was 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 in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note 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?


So, there ya go, margarine-camp-people-who-shall-remain-nameless. Stop eating that junk, will ya? And, we'll go light on the butter, us butter-camp folks. Because, yeah, I admit it. Too much of a good thing is not very good, either. And I have weight to lose before Paul's wedding in October!

11 comments:

Gae said...

Dear Lisa,
We are a big butter family here too.
Love the taste and some brands taste better than others.

I have tagged you for the current Meme: Queen of all things Awe-somm on my blog
God Bless

Diana said...

This is awesome news, I love butter! Actually all I eat most of the time is smart balance. I wonder which category this falls into?

Blessings each day said...

Uh oh...things just go from bad to worse for me her in the aholics arena! Guess I should never have said that I have few addictions because they are all insiduously sneaking in on me from other blogs (frig magnets from Cathy, then something else form somewhere that I can't remember irght now and now yours with the butter thing.

My name is Marcy and I am in need of help in spreading and using butter (margarine...pshaw)...it is so totally awesome, so I just slather it on...slather, slather, slather. The gene went down to my 5 yr. old grandson whose parents have to stop him from eating it as is, no frills and no slathering!

blessings and hugs,

marcy

Blessings each day said...

As you can tell butter gets me SO excited that I can't even spell or else dyslexia strikes me!

Anonymous said...

I remember growing up with butter on my bread. I hated eating it then, but now bread and butter are always on my table. Margarine? Ew.

Mama to much! said...

We are total butter family here...no margarine in my house! I don't even think my kids know what margarine is. haha!

Aimee said...

We are BUTTER people :) My mother and grandmother have always extolled the virtues of real butter over margarine, which my granny still calls "oleo"

Because she grew up very poor in a family with 13 kids, my granny always had to eat "oleo" instead of butter. Once she got married, she vowed to only have real butter.

I have never seen margarine in her house. :)

MightyMom said...

we always cook with butter...but for spreading on stuff we use a spread.

it isn't margarine though...actually most of what's found in the store these days ISN'T margarine. read the labels...it's a "spread" of some kind...basically a creamy vegetable oil.

we like country crock ourselves

Ellen aka Ellie said...

Interesting! I grew up with Parkay, my grama worked for Kraft in Chicago, and since I was a picky eater, butter grossed me out. I have developed a taste for it, and now I will buy it instead of margarine.

Admittedly, I don't use it for much either way, but the whole flies won't go near it thing--oh, and the heart disease thing--got my attention. Oh, and the one molecule thing, and...

Charlotte (WaltzingM) said...

What about something like Smart Balance? We switched to that when my husband had a bout with high cholesterol. It says non-hydrogenated. I use butter for cooking but for spreading on toast and things like that we use the Smart Balance. Should I quit?

Aubrey said...

Wahoo! That makes me feel better about preferring butter. I always have. Forget the calories; my great-aunt grew up on a farm during the depression drinking whole milk, eating real butter and other natural things and she lived to the ripe old age of 95 without diabetes. That's what I want to do!

On a different note, a great-uncle (who also grew up during the depression on a farm with whole milk) scorned skim milk, saying, "that's the leftovers that we would go give to the pigs after milking!"

So we compromise--2%. ;)