There is a big Debate out there what do you think? if you had to choose 1 of them what would it be and why? some say butter some say Margarine but what are the facts? do you care? or do you know why 1 is better then the other in your opinion? i looked up it and read tons on it even phoned companies that made Margarine but lets hear what you think THANKS Cheers

Aren't the polyunsaturated animal fats in butter really bad for you? Don't they contribute to heart disease?

Butter only here.
I have heard that anything that is solid at
room temperature is bad for you.

But then, I asked a doctor about it one time.
He said, "I had two grandfathers. One was a
church-going, non-drinking, non-smoking gentleman.
He lived to be 96. The other was a boozing, smoking,
womanizing, eat-whatever-you-want kind of fella.
He lived to 97.

Do what you want."

If I had to choose...I'd go with which ever one is more natural. Although since I don't have to choose. I stay away from both.

It was a while ago when I went through health class and science class but as I recall the manufactured butters do not break down like real butter does so it becomes stored as fat easier. For me I just do not use butter or margarine if I do not have to, there is not really a reason to put more butter on biscuits and breads. I know it is already in food I eat and if I am going to make it myself (rarely) I use real butter.

We're always being told that natural is best and it would seem that milk from cows is, well, natural. So, what about the butter made from that milk? Shopping shelves are filled with substitutes to butter - such as margarine. It claims to be a healthier alternative, but is it really? You can exercise and watch what you eat, but when it comes to slathering something tasty on your toast or English Muffin, you probably still ask what's better for me: Butter or margarine?

We've heard conflicting reports over the years, so we're going to find out once and for all what's better for us - butter or margarine?

Eleven recent studies that directly evaluated the health effects of margarine versus butter have all confirmed that soft margarine is healthier. These 11 studies, involving more than 70,000 individuals, clearly demonstrate the cholesterol-lowering benefits of margarine products compared to butter.

Health professionals recommend that we reduce the total amount of fat in our diet, but some fat is essential. It is important to pay attention to both the amount and type of fat eaten. Both butter and margarine are 80% fat and are made with many of the same ingredients, namely fats and oils. The type of fat they contain is the difference between them. Butter is made from milk/dairy fat which is high in saturated fat and also contains trans fat. Blood cholesterol levels are raised by both saturated and trans fat.

Switching to margarine from butter can greatly reduce blood cholesterol levels according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Keeping blood cholesterol under control is a key factor in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Health professionals recommend choosing margarine instead of butter as one of the simplest ways people can improve their diets to become more heart-healthy.

Natural vegetable oils are the key ingredients that margarines are made from. If they are hardened by hydrogenation then trans fats will be formed. It is therefore best to choose a margarine/spread that is non-hydrogenated, low in saturated fat and contains mono and polyunsaturated fat that help lower blood cholesterol levels. Not one of the Unilever Margarine and spreads contains any trans fats.

Margarine is clearly the heart-healthy choice recommended by health professionals and leading health organizations. The heart foundation has given the tick to margarine's that have removed those trans fatty acids. So, just because butter comes straight from nature doesn't mean it's healthier for you.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<ok but then theres a debate some say butter :)better:) i think my self it depends on the butter or the margarine you use

Real butter and bacon grease makes everything taste better..........

Choose non-hydrogenated soft margarine.

butter margarine Choose soft margarine: The American Heart Association recommends the use of margarine as a substitute for butter. We are excited that many brands of soft margarine do not contain trans fat anymore. Check the Nutrition Facts label and choose one with zero trans fat and no more than 2 g of saturated fats per tbsp and with liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient.

Here are some brands of soft margarine and cholesterol-lowering spread that meet the criteria:

* Becel
* Benecol
* Blue Bonnet Soft Spread



* Canola Harvest Non-Hydrogenated
* I Can't Believe it's not Butter
* Promise
* Smart Balance Light

lolllllllllll well years ago they use to save all the fat and lard and use it for cooking over and over haha guess they loved the flavor too haha but then again they never had all the crap we have out there now as in snacks and fast foods that is even worse then butter or margarine lolllllll haha

Butter vs. Margarine Showdown
I came across a gem of a study the other day, courtesy of Dr. John Briffa's blog. It's titled "Margarine Intake and Subsequent Coronary Heart Disease in Men", by Dr. William P. Castelli's group. It followed participants of the Framingham Heart study for 20 years, and recorded heart attack incidence*. Keep in mind that 20 years is an unusually long follow-up period.

The really cool thing about this study is they also tracked butter consumption. So it's really a no-holds barred showdown between the two fats. Here's a graph of the overall results, by teaspoons of butter or margarine eaten per day:



Heart attack incidence increased with increasing margarine consumption (statistically significant) and decreased slightly with increasing butter consumption (not statistically significant). That must have been a bitter pill for Castelli to swallow!

It gets better. Let's have a look at some of the participant characteristics, broken down by margarine consumption:



People who ate the least margarine had the highest prevalence of glucose intolerance (pre-diabetes), smoked the most cigarettes, drank the most alcohol, and ate the most saturated fat and butter. These were the people who cared the least about their health. Yet they had the fewest heart attacks. Imagine that. The investigators corrected for the factors listed above in their assessment of the contribution of margarine to disease risk, however, the fact remains that the group eating the least margarine was the least health conscious. This affects disease risk in many ways, measurable or not. I've written about that before, here and here.

Can this study get any better? Yes it can. The investigators broke down the data into two halves: the first ten years, and the second ten. In the first ten years, there was no significant association between margarine intake and heart attack incidence. In the second ten, the group eating the most margarine had 77% more heart attacks than the group eating none:



So it appears that margarine takes a while to work its magic.

They didn't publish a breakdown of heart attack incidence with butter consumption over the two periods. Perhaps they didn't like what they saw when they crunched the numbers. I find it really incredible that we're told to avoid dairy fat with data like these floating around. The Framingham study is first-rate epidemiology. It fits in perfectly with most other observational studies showing that full-fat dairy intake is not associated with heart attack and stroke risk. In fact, several studies have indicated that people who eat the most full-fat dairy have the lowest risk of heart attack and stroke.

It's worth mentioning that this study was conducted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s. Artificial trans fat labeling laws were still decades away in the U.S., and margarine contained more trans fat than it does today. Currently, margarine can contain up to 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving and still be labeled "0 g trans fat" in the U.S. The high trans fat content of the older margarines probably had something to do with the result of this study.

That does not make today's margarine healthy, however. Margarine remains an industrially processed pseudo-food. I'm just waiting for the next study showing that some ingredient in the new margarines (plant sterols? dihydro vitamin K1?) is the new trans fat.<<<<<<<<<<<<now i found this but remember thats when margarine had all that trans fat in it:) i eat matgarine a lot now:) but butter some times depends

now look at this 1>> lollllll who do you believe? How Safe is Trans fat free Margarine?
Posted on August 12, 2010 by julianne

Some years ago margarine was made from vegetable oil hardened by a process called partial hydrogenation. The process involved bubbling hydrogen through vegetable oil with nickel shavings added as a catalyst, in order to force hydrogen atoms into the fat molecules to artificially saturate them so like natural saturated fats they set solid instead of liquid. Some of the fat molecules though are partially hydrogenated and the usually C shaped cis bend is forced into a Z shaped trans bend. This chemically altered trans fat does not occur in nature. Studies have since shown that consuming trans fats causes a marked increase in the risk of heart disease.
By the way you can still find trans / hydrogenated fats in our food – have you ever considered how they get peanut butter to stop separating and have a nice solid consistency? Or how you keep meusli bars from going rancid? Partially hydrogenated fats!

In order to remove dangerous trans fats from margarine, a process is used called interesterification is now used. Since learning of this process I’ve done a little research to find out how this works and if these new fats are likely to cause any health problems.

So here is how interesterification works. Take an oil molecule, called a triglyceride. The structure of a triglyceride is 3 long fatty acid strands (hence tri) joined at one end by a glycerol backbone. Chemicals are used to snip the fatty acid strands off the backbone. They are then mixed with chemically saturated oils (fully hydrogenated oil) and reattached to the backbone in groups of three in an order that simply does not occur in nature. True – there are no trans fats, the nasties linked to heart disease. Instead we have a new type of chemically constructed fat. Studies have been done on this new fat and the evidence is mixed. Some studies show it does not cause an increase in cholesterol like trans fats. However others studies show this new interesterified fat increased blood sugar by 20% in just one month, and greatly increased insulin resistance. It also decreased HDL and increased LDL like trans fats do. This is not good for those of you who may be prone to diabetes, heart disease or weight gain. It will only increase your problems. Barry Sears says “I consider this type of new trans-fat free fat to be far more dangerous than standard trans-fat derivatives.”

So my recommendation is – because they are so unnatural and not proven safe – AVOID MARGARINES!

What should you use instead?

Do what the Spanish do – drizzle or spray olive oil on your bread (of course I don’t actually recommend eating bread) or use a small amount of butter.

You could also make your own spread by softening butter and whisking in olive or macadamia nut oil until you get a balance you like (about 1/2 butter to 1/2 oil)

I'll stick with butter. Salted sweet butter here, thanks.

Everything is better with butter, makes the butt nice and plump

So what i read is some say butter is better and some say margarine is better lollllll guess it depends on what the persons health problems they have and how much butter or margarine you eat or what type too:)))))))) now i think both are bad in their own way haha oh well theres more bad junk food out there and new crap worse then butter or margarine i cook with extra virgin olive oil and some say thats bad to do cause you should not heat it up i do all the time oh well

The American Heart Association recommends the use of margarine as a substitute for butter but then again if you use natural butter:)organic wonder if its better haha

well theres a big debate on butter and margarine if you read it anywhere over the net some health doctors say butter others say margarine :) and thats what i am asking you if you look it up whats your opinion on it? thanks for your response Cheers

well maybe depends on the bodies of people too and in their life the stress too:)for that age apple is solid at room temperature but its good for you lolll so not anything i think you meant types of oil or grease or margarines or butters or lard :)

Wow, thems some hardcore dietary guidelines!

Here is my two bits.

Don't eat any cooking fat that isn't non-hydrogenated. Hydrogenated oils are very bad for you.

Oils like olive are full of EFAs and try to eat them when possible when given a choice but in moderation.

Butter tastes the best and when a dish calls for it, eat it.

All things in moderation.

Except pork ribs of course with are always "all you can eat"!!!!!

There is this horrible rumor going around that: people should stay away from olive oil because it has a lower smoke point than many other oils and is therefore supposedly more prone to forming carcinogens when heated. People are running around saying "olive oil is bad for you, it causes cancer" which is just totally stupid.

All oils form a huge variety (in tiny quantities) of new hydrocarbons when heated, some of which are probably carcinogenic.

Yet, olive oil has anti-cancer properties. It might (?) be that olive oil lowers your risk of cancer even when heated.



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205113743.htm