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By Diane Hanson
Which is better, butter or margarine? Butter versus margarine is definitely not a new debate. In fact, argument over "butter is better than margarine" has been going on for years ever since the buzzword – trans fats – took center stage.
The reason to resurrect this issue again (yawn) is, I overheard a mom telling her
daughter to pick a tub of margarine and not butter because "it's plant-
Yes, she's right to a certain extent. Margarine is manufactured from vegetable oils
and therefore margarine contains zero cholesterol. Additionally, margarine is also
higher in "good" fats – polyunsaturated and monounsaturated – which keep your arteries
healthy and help decrease "bad" cholesterol or low-
On the contrary, butter is manufactured from animal fat, so it contains cholesterol and high levels of saturated fat. Having high levels of saturated fats in your diet is dangerous; it puts you at risk for heart and circulatory diseases, such as coronary heart disease, heart attacks,angina and stroke.
Sounds logical but here's the trap – not all margarine are made equal. Surprisingly, some may even be worse than butter.
Most margarine are processed using a method called hydrogenation whereby hydrogen is bubbled through liquid vegetable oils to render them solid at room temperature. Hydrogenation results in unhealthy trans fats.
Similar to saturated fats, trans fats increase “bad” cholesterol and your risk of
heart disease. Trans fats also decrease “good” cholesterol or high-
As a general rule of thumb, the more solid the margarine, the more trans fats it contains. Those stick margarine are not going to be your heart's friends. More often than not, they have more trans fats than tub margarine. A tablespoon of stick margarine has approximately 1.9 grams of trans fats while a tablespoon of regular tub margarine has around 0.8 grams of trans fats.
Margarine can be better than butter but the trick is to choose the right type of margarine.
The next time when you grocery shop, choose a margarine with no or lowest trans fat content possible, with less than 2 grams total of saturated fat and trans fats per tablespoon on its nutrition label.
Also, look for liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient on the ingredient list. Sometimes, the specific vegetable oil may be identified such as canola oil or corn oil.
With diet/"light"/trans-
These days, you can also find margarine fortified with omega 3 or plant sterols. Margarine with plant sterols can help lower "bad" cholesterol levels by more than 10 percent. However, you need at least 2 grams daily to achieve such results.
The American Heart Association recommends foods fortified with plant sterols for
people with levels of LDL cholesterol over 160 milligrams per deciliter (4.1 mmol/L).
Omega 3 maintains healthy brain function, is anti-
There are numerous healthy margarine brands available to consumers today, and some
of these soft margarine and cholesterol-
Having said that, there are other alternatives to margarine and butter. Take olive oil for an example, it's just as tasty and may even be lower than saturated or trans fats.
Which is Healthier? Butter or Margarine
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