Butter or margarine?

[lyndsey66]

Is it best to give 19 month old ds butter?
We have margarine - but as butter is more fatty is he best off with that? thanks

[Janh]

Rapeseed oil is one of the best for frying with because it's high in monounsaturates - like olive oil. (Not so good for eg salad dressings where you will taste it - it doesn't taste of anything much.)

Sainsburys "vegetable oil" with the yellow flowers on the front is actually rapeseed - it says so in the small print on the back. Much cheaper than olive oil.

[hercules]

I bought m & S spreadable butter today.
Fat = 80.5g
Saturated 44g

Flors
Fat = 59g
saturated = 13g
polysat 28g

So flora has less of the unhealthy fat but more has added ingredients.
Which is healthier??

[marialuisa]

No Margarine/olivio etc. in our house. I've definitely been told it was a byproduct from plastics manufacturing by someone who works at Unilever. TBH we eat so little butter that I can't believe substituting it for marge would make any difference to our overall fat/cholesterol etc. M2T are you eating marge by the tub or something? Is it a weird pregnancy related craving?

[hercules]

I think I'm going to stick with the butter, seems far more natural.

[CountessDracula]

Butter. It's natural

[M2T]

Marialuisa - I bake cakes/scones a lot, I also put it into mashed potatoes, cheese sauces, scrambled eggs.... surely that's not THAT unusual or excessive? But I do think it's enough to make a difference to my calorie/fat intake.

Do you all use full fat milk too?

I find this odd coz I don't actually know anybody that uses real butter anymore. My family don't by GP's advice as my Dad has very high colestrol (he ate butter by the slice and I'm not exaggerating!). None of my friends use it. There is also the price aspect too. Isn't butter more expensive?

[Janh]

I have butter and whole milk - everybody else has Butterlicious (Sainsburys) and semi-skim. I lurrrrve butter!

[Northerner]

I'm with M2T on this, I don't know anyone who uses butter anymore either and find it odd that you're all championing butter.

[miggy]

This is the problem with margarine
"Hydrogenated fats are created when an oil that is largely unsaturated, such as corn oil, has hydrogen added to it, causing fat to become more solid at room temperature.
During hydrogenation, the unsaturated fat becomes more saturated.
"In addition, processed foods made with hydrogenated oils pose another health hazard: trans fatty acids."
Dr. Leonard Lopez writes, "The really bad saturated fat is called a trans fatty acid. These are chemically altered (processed) fats. You can find them in most packaged foods listed on the label as partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oil. Our bodies have a more difficult time with processed foods and would prefer foods in their natural state."

The more solid and hydrogenated the fat, the more trans fatty acids there are in the product.
What do trans fatty acids do to us?

Among other results, researchers have found that trans fatty acids significantly raise LDL cholesterol levels, the bad cholesterol, while lowering the HDL levels, the good cholesterol. In the Framingham Heart Study (a 40 year study covering 5,209 individuals living in Massachusetts) high LDL cholesterol levels combined with low HDL levels was indicative of coronary heart disease risk. "

That was taken from a bit of a cranky site but the science is sound. There have been lots of studies to show that hydrogenated fats are a bad idea.

[M2T]

Must say I do LOVE butter, but made the change to low fat spreads as part of a lifestyle change. I have real butter if I'm in a restaurant, or having a scone when I'm at work..... like right now! But I wouldn't buy it.

These spreads aren't plastic, BTW! They are made from vegetable oils or Olive oils that have gone through the hydrogenation process which solidifies them. SO basically there is no difference in eating these spreads using vegetable oil/olive oil for cooking, which I'm assuming almost everybody here does.

Plastics are made from oil....as in CRUDE OIL! There's a big difference.

[marialuisa]

M2T, i would use butter for all those things, but TBH they're not things that we eat very often. Maybe one batch of cakes a week, scrambled eggs are very rare, mashed potato once in 10 days?
I don't mind paying 80p every fortnight, compared to other food costs it's tiny. BUT, we do have skimmed milk and DD has had skimmed since she was 16 months old. DH has always had it, and i slowly moved over. We always have full-cream at meetings at work and it makes me feel ill now! DH does buy single cream for coffee though (not something I drink). Can't say i know anyone who uses marge for anything other than baking, DD's holiday childminder was very quick to tell us that she doesn't use marge. I avoid having anything that might be "buttered" when out and about as it nearly always means grease from those massive tubs. YUCK!!

[M2T]

Oops! Post crossed with Miggy's. But it's still not plastic.

[M2T]

Marialuisa - Are you saying that you don't know ANYONE who spreads Olivio, or Clover on their toast??? And where are you getting enough butter to last a fortnight for 80p?

[miggy]

By all means eat margarine if you like it or because its cheaper but dont do it for health reasons because butter is healthier. Its the hydrogenation that produces the problems so it is different from using liquid oil in cooking. (health does not equate with low calorie so if you want low fat spread for calorie control then thats different too)

[miggy]

sorry m2t crossing post crossed with mine IYSWIM

[popstar]

There was an article in the Sunday Times a few weeks ago by their nutritionist about trans fatty acids. She reckoned they would eventually be banned as they are so bad for your health for the reasons miggy stated. She advised steering clear of anything with hydrogenated fats/oils in it.
The reason I would go for butter is because it is a natural product and instinctively that just seems right.

[M2T]

lol Miggy.
Why did my Dad's GP tell him to replace using butter with low fat spread as part of a way to control is high cholestrol?? If he's wrong then I will something pretty nasty to say to him! Is he putting my Dad's life at risk?

[SenoraPostrophe]

mmm butter.

We used to have margerine because it's cheaper, but decided that butter is worth the extra cash!

[miggy]

Just in case anyone not yet bored to death
look here american fda site

[M2T]

Don't most sauces, beans, bread, etc have hydrogenated oils iin them?

[miggy]

Most processed foods do. they are (or have-not sure) changing labelling to make it clearer to see. There is some evidence that this is linked to the prevalance of heart disease in developed nations. Perhaps your dad will use less lowfat spread than he did butter though as wont like the taste so much?

[suedonim]

We use Olivio, Bertolini stuff, mainnly because dh doesn't like butter while I don't mind what we have. I can spread something like Olivio much thinner than I can butter, so I suppose some calories might be saved there?

[marialuisa]

Umm, no I don't. but then haven't asked around the office or anything! 80p is for a standard 250g pack of Sainsbury's butter, usually lasts a fortnight. Thinking about it, we probably do use less butter than a lot of people because we tend to eat rice or sometimes pasta rather than potatoes, so no butter on baked potatoes, mash etc.

[Tinker]

Oh I love butter. And have gone back to full-cream milk