Margarine v Butter

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Andy2112

On a new journey
Jan 4, 2007
1,874
0
West Midlands
Got this on an email, what do you think? Trutch or ficton?


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 colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings....


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


Read on to the end ... this 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 flavours 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 micro-organisms 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
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,972
4,621
S. Lanarkshire
Load of mince that email.
It's been doing the rounds for years.

The original margarine was a way of making other fats appealling for people on restricted incomes, as well as creating fats with different properties for long life, spreadability, baking properties, etc.

Whale oil for instance, fish oil, suet, rape seed oil, sunflower oil, olive oil.......all perfectly edible, all with different melting points, vitamins, minerals, etc., and resistance to rancidity.

Leave butter out in the hot sun for two days and it's rancid, margarine just turns to oil..........flies are optional extras :D

At the end of the day fat is fat.
All the processing does is make it into a solid substance that folks are prepared to eat, bake with, cook with.

cheers,
Toddy
 

Tadpole

Full Member
Nov 12, 2005
2,842
21
59
Bristol
Margarine was not invented as a turkey fattener. It was formulated in 1869 by Hippolyte M'egrave;ge Mouri'egrave;s of France in response to offering of a prize to whoever could succeed at producing a viable low-cost substitute for butter
 

gregorach

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 15, 2005
3,723
28
50
Edinburgh
According to "E-Numbers: An Edible Adventure", margarine was invented for the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon needed a good source of fat to keep his troops going, but couldn't afford butter, so he launched a competition to find a cheaper substitute. Some bright spark figured out how to emulsify beef suet with water, and margarine was born.

I'm guessing the original email was put out by the black-ops division of the Milk Marketing Board... There is a legitimate health concern with trans-fats, I believe, but that's about it. Me, I only use butter, but that's purely because it tastes better. Well, that and the fact that I noticed that rats will eat soap, but not margarine... ;)

There's some real "red flags" in there too:

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Up to? So, anywhere between "zero" and "five" then... Oh, and which cancers?

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC

What does that even mean? Plastics are molecules. Which plastic are we talking about? Not to mention that lots of things are chemically very similar to plastics... (E.g the ethylene which triggers ripening in fruit and vegetables is the monomer used to make poly-ethylene, more commonly known as "polythene".)

and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

Oooh, scary! What sort of paint? Anybody want to bet against the idea that one of these scary, scary paint ingredients is the deadly compound known as dihydrogen monoxide?
 

dwardo

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 30, 2006
6,454
476
46
Nr Chester
I remember hearing something on the radio that said when margerine first became common place the government were pushing its use, only to find out later that it was far worse for us than butter. This was kept quiet and the ingredient changed. Now i beleive its far better than butter due to its fat type and content
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,186
1,557
Cumbria
IT was actually on that E-numbers show last night. Margarine was invented by a French chemist in order to win a competition set by Napoleon. He wanted a cheap replacement for butter for his armies. Anyway the chemist got beef fat (cheapest fat he could), he heated it up until the fats and water came out leaving the solid waste. Filter it out. Then he took cow's udders and milk watered down about 90% and boiled them together and then filtered solids out. This was to make it taste buttery. He then effrectively churned it to form as close to an emulsion as he could. This is basically what margarine is. This process has been refined and uses better sources of fats. It also has E-number additive called lecithin in it. This can easily be obtained from egg yolk BTW but is in every living tissue. They currently make it from soya beans. It is an E-number but one that is natural and healthy to eat, like a lot of other E-numbers. Anyway Lecithin is used to keep the emulsion in that state. The way that French chemist made it the water in that margarine would start to separate out straight away so the marg would not keep long.

So there you now know the truth. It was a product made for Napoleon's army to spread on their bread and to use as a readily avaioable and cheap source of fats. This was important as butter was actually running low I think hence the competition to find its replacement or something that can be used alongside. It also saved Napoleon money which could be directed elsewhere in his war effort.
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,186
1,557
Cumbria
I personally think in the butter / marg debate the answer lies in the middle. Both are good fro us and both are bad for us. That means eat the one you like but in moderation. Like everything. Heck wine and beer is good for you but probably not in the sorts of volumes a lot of people drink them in.
 

lostplanet

Full Member
Aug 18, 2005
2,124
244
53
Kent
I prefer butter now after hearing what gets chucked in some cheaper spreads,

The Only thing that worries me is the Trans-fats or Hydrogenated Vegatable Oils the food Industry still allowed to be put in our food. I believe it is banned in The netherlands and a huge lawsuit against the makers of oreo's reduced it use in the USA.

I just cannot understand why it's still not banned in the UK apart from the profits that are continuing to be made. I remember 'Clover' being full of the stuff then it disapperead from the shelves for a while until it reappered with new labeling. I used to enjoy Krispy Creme donuts until I found out they were soaked in HVO and haven't eaten one since.

Old paper article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...fats-why-are-we-still-eating-them-843400.html

http://www.bantransfats.com/
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,972
4,621
S. Lanarkshire
Last edited:
Snopes taking the spoof apart :D

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp


and here, 1836..........for the name margarin, long before Napoleon 111, used for the pearl like lustre on the substance obtained from animal and vegetable oils.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/margarine

Apparantly Unilever have been making margarine since 1878 when it was made from whale oil.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/07/09/f-margarine.html

yep tiz al in Wikpedia ................isnt everything ;)
 

Loenja

Settler
Apr 27, 2008
718
1
forest row
and the moral of this story is....
check for a scientific backing for claims and check for counter claims,
also i avoid those articles that try and scare you one way or another, they almost certainly have an agenda other than informing you
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,133
2,870
66
Pembrokeshire
Everybody know the stuff that is good for you. It tastes like cardboard or baby sick.

It might not make you live any longer but it will certainly feel longer.

I'll stick to eating the stuff that tastes like food and die a happy man.

I wish my wife would let me - cholesterol busting spreads are all I am alowed these days....:(
 

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