Got this from a friend in an email. The source document is at http://healthyfishies.com/2008/10/12/please-allow-me-to-butter-you-up/.
Bottom line is I'll take real butter in and smeared all over my sour cream pound cake please!
Vernon
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.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams..
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
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 total 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")!
After reading this I could believe it, I still wanted more facts, So, I started digging … in the digging I found information that margarine is used in placed of butter in many instances to "reduce" the saturated or animal fat a person consumes - especially in those cases of heart disease, in an attempt to eliminate the clogging of arteries.
BUT– in the process they found that the molecules used in making margarine that turns polyunsaturated oils into semi-solid margarine also creates trans fats. The artificial trans fats created by the hydrogenation process turns out to be just as bad (or worse) for our arteries as the saturated fats found in butter. The inflammation caused by the trans fats in margarine may also affect our immune systems and has been associated with increased rates of allergies and asthma.
There are some delicious and healthier alternatives to both butter and margarine. Here are some tips:
* Use olive oil, grape seed oil or canola oil in place of butter when you cook. Both of these oils have been shown to be good for your health and they stand up to high temperatures quite well. Neither of these oils contains saturated fats or trans fats.
* Instead of using butter or margarine on your white bread, try dipping some deliciously crusty whole grain bread into a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
* Top your baked potato with low calorie, anti-oxidant rich salsa. Don't replace butter with sour cream. Sour cream contains saturated fats too.
* Replace the butter or margarine on your cooked green vegetables with olive oil, lemon juice and a sprinkle of nutmeg.
* Make your cinnamon toast better by using walnut oil instead of butter or margarine.
* Serve your banana nut bread with a dipping oil like walnut oil with a dash or two of cinnamon and nutmeg.
* Look for specially formulated spreads in your grocery store such as Benecol, which has just a trace of trans fats and has plant sterols which has been shown to actually help lower cholesterol.
* Use Clarified Butter in your cooking instead of butter. Clarified Butter separate the milk solids from the butter.
To Clarify Butter:
1 stick butter, heavy saucepan and 10 minutes.
1. In a heavy 1-quart saucepan, melt 8 ounces of butter over low heat.
2. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it has just about stopped crackling.
3. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. Milk solids will settle to the bottom.
4. Strain the clear liquid into a container. Keeps well in the fridge for about a month.
