Butter vs. Margarine

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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.

Now for Margarine, very high in trans fatty acids triple risk of Coronary Heart Disease, Increases total and LDL ( This is the bad Cholesterol), Lowers HDL cholesterol and this is the good one, Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold, lowers quality of breast milk, decreases immune response, and decreases insulin response.

Contrary to the claim, margarine not invented as a turkey fattener. It was formulated in 1869 by Hippolyte Mege Mouries of France in response to Napoleon Ill's offering of a prize to whoever could succeed at producing a viable low-cost substitute for butter. Mege Mouries' concoction, which he dubbed oleomargarine, achieved by adding salty water, milk, and margaric acid to softened beef fat. By the turn of the century, the beef fat in the original recipe had been replaced by vegetable oils.

In 1886, New York and New Jersey prohibited the manufacture and sale of yellow-colored margarine, and by 1902, 32 U.S. states had enacted such prohibitions against the coloration of the spread. {Folks got around this by mixing yellow food coloring into the white margarine.) In 1950 President Truman repealed the requirement that margarine be offered for sale only in uncolored state, which led to the widespread production of the yellow margarine that has come to be the norm.