credit photo source: http://www.diffen.com
Which one is better for health? Both butter and margarine are water-in-oil emulsion, with fat content (approximately 80%) and water content (approximately 16%). Both contain roughly the same number of calories but there is a raging debate on which one is more nutritious and better for health.
Comparison chart</> Embed this chart
 | Butter | Margarine |
|---|---|---|
| Etymology | From the Latin butyrum, which is borrowed from the Greek boutyron. | Greek word for pearl margarites or margaris. |
| History | Usage dates back to thousands of years ago. | Invented in 1869 as an inexpensive substitute for butter. |
| Ingredients | Butter is made by churning milk or cream. It is a diary product. | Margarine is made by emulsifying vegetable oil with skimmed milk or by hydrogenating vegetable oils. It may be a plant product or a combination of plant and dairy product. |
| Cholesterol | High | Low |
| Fat content | Butter contains high levels of saturated fat and no trans fat. | Margarine contains mostly vegetable oil; High levels of unsaturated fat and trans fat. |
| Saturated Fat (per 100g) | 51g | 23g |
| Monounsaturated Fat (per 100g) | 21g | 8g |
| Polyunsaturated Fat (per 100g) | 3g | 37g |
| Total Fat (per 100g) | 81g | 71g |
| Protein (per 100g) | 1g | 0g |
| Types | Cultured, sweet cream, raw cream, spreadable, whipped | Traditional, blended, hard Low fat, no trans fat, light, light spread |
| Taste | Butter tastes really good | Margarine varies largely in taste, depending on brand, but rarely if ever has the full taste of butter |
Butter
- Butter is created from cream which rises to the top of milk if it sits for a period of time. Through the process of churning the cream, a chemical reaction takes place which makes the cream begin to solidify.
- Butter is an excellent source of vitamins A, D, E, and K. None of these fat-soluble vitamins are found in margarine.
- The best quality butter is made from certified raw cream. Certified raw butter is made up of healthy fatty acids.
- Toxic metals or trans-fat is not found in butter.
- It is a dairy product, but is actually easy to digest to even the most dairy sensitive people. Butter doesn’t contain milk sugar or milk protein which are the main allergens found in dairy products.
- Contains dietary cholesterol as well as saturated fat. These are two cholesterol raising components. Dietary cholesterol is found in animal-based products not plant-based.
- According to the Cleveland Clinic, a healthy person should intake up to 200mg of cholesterol each day. Butter has 33mg of cholesterol in one tablespoon.
- When it comes to saturated fat, butter has plenty and that could be a problem. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature and found in high-fat dairy products as well as red meat.
- A saturated fat increase in diet can contribute to heart disease.
- A healthy intake of saturated fat is 10-15 grams a day. One tablespoon of butter has over 7 grams of saturated fat.
Margarine
- Margarine is made from vegetable oil that has been extracted chemically and refined.
- In order to actually make margarine, the oil must be solidified to some degree.
- The solidifying process begins when hydrogen is bubbled through the vegetable oil at a high temperature. This saturates some of the chemical bonds, resulting in a solid product at room temperature.
- It has less saturated fat than butter.
- Margarine contains trans fats that lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol.
- According to the Cleveland Clinic, one tablespoon of margarine has 3 grams of trans fat and 3 grams of saturated fat.
- Vitamin E is destroyed in the oil.
- Margarine contains nickel as well as other toxic chemicals if consumed in great proportion. If Nickel is consumed in excess, it could lead to kidney disease, lung cancer along with other conditions.
- The more solid margarine is at room temperature, the more trans fat it contains. Margarine in a stick form has 3 grams of trans fat while margarine inliquid form or in a tub has 1-2 grams.
- The Truth: The heart of this eRumor, the comparison between butter and Margarine, has been circulating since 2005. Later versions added the tidbit about Margarine being manufactured to fatten turkeys.
We'll go through the email one fact at time but it needs to be kept in mind that not every Margarine product is the same. There are other spreads that are loosely called Margarine but may, for example, be part vegetable oil or a fat-free Margarine product.
1. 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-Fiction!According to the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers, Margarine was the idea of a Frenchman named Hippolyte Mege-Mouriez in response to a request from Emperor Louis Napoleon for ideas for a substitute for butter. In 1869 he used margaric acid and the name of his formulation became known as Margarine. It became a hit in the United States in the late 1800's.2. Both have the same amount of calories-Truth!A tablespoon of butter is 100 calories. A tablespoon of Margarine is 100 calories.3. Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study-Truth! But Updated!We didn't find the "53%" study, but Harvard School of Public Health has published a report on this. It says that more than 30 years ago research indicated that saturated fat (such as in butter) was bad for the heart and people were told to switch to margarine. A Harvard study of women between 1980 and 1994 found a significant reduction of heart disease risk by reducing smoking, hormone treatment, and dietary improvements including reducing or eliminating saturated fat (such as in butter.) Further research has shown, however, that some margarines contained trans fat, which was even worse for the heart than saturated fat. The report cautions us not to make decisions as a result of just one study but to consider the body of recent research about an issue like butter versus margarine.4. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 Grams-Truth!A tablespoon of butter is 7g of saturated fat. A tablespoon of margarine is 2g of saturated fat.5. Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other Foods-Unproven! We could not find anything definitive about this.6. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added! It depends on what you are measuring. The advantage of butter is that it is a more natural product than margarine and does have more vitamin content. But butter is high in saturated fat, which is associated with increased heart attack risk. Saturated fats are the ones that are solid at room temperature and increase the "bad" cholesterol (LDL) as well as the "good" cholesterol (HDL). The disadvantage of true margarine is the trans fat level. The more solid a margarine is at room temperature, the more trans fat it contains, as much as 3 grams per tablespoon. Margarine makers have responded to that by releasing tub or liquid products that have either reduced or eliminated trans fats. Watch for the labels. Heart doctors recommend butter over normal margarine but recommend trans fat free margarines over butter. It all gets very confusing. There are even margarine products now that say they actually lower cholesterol.
7. Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods-A Matter of Personal Taste!
8. Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for Less than 100 years- Fiction!Margarine was introduced as an inexpensive alternative in France in 1869, according to a history found in the Margarine and Spreads Association in the United Kingdom.
9. Margarine is high in trans fatty acids-Truth!10. Margarine triples the risk of coronary heart disease-Unproven!Although trans fats are to be avoided, we did not find any research that says that the use of margarine triples the risk of heart disease.11. Margarine ncreases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)-Truth!12. Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold-Fiction!We could not find any substantiation of this claim.13. Margarine lowers quality of breast milk-Truth!We didn't find any research on this but there are studies on how a mother's eating of trans fats affects the level of trans fats in her milk. One study, for example, comparing Canadian breast milk to Chinese breast milk found that Canadian mothers had 33 more trans fats in their milk than the Chinese mothers. So the quality of the breast milk can be affected by the consumption of trans fats.14. Margarine decreases immune response-Truth!We found several references to this including an article by nutritionist Dr. Mary Enig that said that consuming trans fatty acids "Affects immune response by lowering effeciency of B cell response and increasing proliferation of T cells."15. Decreases insulin response-Truth!Actually the trans fat can increase blood insulin levels, which increases the risk for diabetes.16. Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC-Fiction!We found no support for this. Perhaps whoever wrote this heard a discussion about the "plasticity" of margarine. It is "plastic" at room temperature meaning that the shape of it can be changed when pressure is applied. That doesn't mean it is composed of what we normally think of as plastic. It was originally made of animal fats but increasingly now is made from vegetable oils.Updated 3/29/07A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
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.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women
by Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8
grams compared to 5
Grams.
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 t otal 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.... HERE IS THE
PART THAT IS VERY
INTERESTING!
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?
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."
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/butter-margarine.htm#.U0itidKQY_M
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Butter_vs_Margarine
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/the-difference-between-butter-and-margarine.html
http://www.truthorfiction.com/
http://www.diffen.com/
http://www.fitday.com/
