Health advice seems to be changing over the years.
Which is healthier or tastes better when added to meals?
Certain foods are bland without the addition of one or the other:
Oatmeal, toast, mashed potatoes, fresh steamed vegetables. What is your take?

Butter. Wrapped with bacon and fried. Everything is better with bacon!

i only use butter and if that shortens my life span so be it can you imagine butter shortbread not made from butter

Margarine...ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Slap my azz and call me grease.

i'll slap your azz and call you darlin'

Personally I rarely use either..if I do at all it's real butter. I think the ingredients in margarine are worse than real butter, neither are healthy at all though.

It's been said..everything tastes better with butter on it, as it plugs up your heart and increases your cholesterol level.

Not a thing I indulge in.

I use margarine for cooking (cooked veggies, toast, grits, rice...). I use butter for baking (cookies, muffins...). And sometimes I use both (1/2 and 1/2) for baking. It makes the taste richer somehow. But overall, my parents keep Smart Balance in the house for cooking. I use that when I want to save the margarine for baking.

I read something somewhere that said margarine is one molecule away from being plastic...I haven't touched the stuff since.

Butter is fine in moderation, if you're health conscious...Me, I'm a bit like Paula Deen and think butter is effing great.

Did you see Guy Fieri's show when he
visited that diner that fried everything?
The fav was fried Twinkies !!!

Twinkies fried in butter? Would that be healthier than fried in margarine or not?

Only Butter in my house I dont eat artificial edible oil products. That I think has to be waaaay unhealthier. Eeeeee

Butter ... ! No trans-fats in it, either. Oh - EVERYTHING is just 'one molecule away' from being 'something else' ...

Oooooo, that's soooo romantic!! : )

If anyone hits you up with this argument about why they use margarine instead of butter, you might consider letting 'em know that's not really true ... and here's why ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2004-01/1074274923.Ch.r.html

Any truth to margarine being close to plastic in molecular structure?

Date: Thu Jan 15 15:27:51 2004

Posted By: Todd Whitcombe, Associate Professor, Chemistry

No.

Okay, that is the simple answer. The full answer will take a little longer and I will need to make clear some definitions and history. 

First, "plastic" according to the Oxford English Dictionary means "moulding, giving form to, clay, wax, or other yielding solid". That is, something is "plastic" if it is malleable. And in this sense, then, the statement that "margarine is plastic" is correct. Margarine can be moulded and shaped. It is quite a good material for artistic work. Our local culinary program spends some time creating "margarine" sculptures each year.

But I don't think that that is what you mean by your question. I gather what you would like to know is - is margarine "one molecule" away from being a polymeric substance exhibiting the properties of synthetic "plastic" compounds, like polyethylene or PET? It is to that question that the answer is "no". You could not simply add a molecule to margarine and make plastic milk jugs or pop bottles.

Both butter and margarine owe their origins to animal fats. Butter is made from milk fat. To make butter, it is necessary to take all of the fat that is dispersed through the liquid component of the cream and to get it into a single lump. Agitation results in the formation of bubbles and the fat is thought to conglomerate in the walls of the bubbles. When enough fat is collected together, the bubbles collapse and creamy, smooth butter is formed. Butter has a composition that is essentially 80% animal fat and 20% water with traces of other components. As it is made from animal fat, there is a percentage of cholesterol found in butter - a natural component of animal fat.

Margarine was developed in 1869 by the French pharmacist and chemist, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries, after Napoleon III offered a prize for the formulation of a synthetic edible fat. It was originally made from animal fats which are semi-solid at room temperature. Mege-Mouries was not the first to give suet a buttery texture but he was the first to make it palatable by flavouring it with milk. 

It was not until 1905, after hydrogenation had been discovered, that margarine could be conveniently made from the much more plentiful vegetable oils. Hydrogenation results in a "saturated" fat. And saturated fats have higher melting points than unsaturated fats. By hydrogenating vegetable oils, a solid could be obtained. Modern margarine was born.

Margarine was developed in 1869 by the French pharmacist and chemist, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries, after Napoleon III offered a prize for the formulation of a synthetic edible fat. It was originally made from animal fats which are semi-solid at room temperature. Mege-Mouries was not the first to give suet a buttery texture but he was the first to make it palatable by flavouring it with milk. 

It was not until 1905, after hydrogenation had been discovered, that margarine could be conveniently made from the much more plentiful vegetable oils. Hydrogenation results in a "saturated" fat. And saturated fats have higher melting points than unsaturated fats. By hydrogenating vegetable oils, a solid could be obtained. Modern margarine was born.


Hmmm, ok.

For goodness sake...I was simply stating I read it somewhere. You do not have to be an *** HAT about it.

Oh come on ... this is just providing information ... there really are more important things in life to get upset over ...

Oh - you can use the word 'assshat', too, if you spell it right ...

the best foods to eat are those that have the purest ingredients, thus butter over margarine anyday..as long as moderation is your guide, you can eat anything...

i bet you have a deep fried twinkie recipie that is to die for...

i wonder what im one molecule away from being...