Is it true that butter is better than margarine?

Question

I always thought stuff like margarine was healthier, especially flora because of the omega-3 added, but someone told me it wasn't?

Answer 1

butter is better! Just use in moderation.

Answer 2

Butter is not only much tastier, it's much healthier too. It is a natural food, whereas margarine is an artificial substance made in a factory. It's made from some sort of oil, which is liquid because it's polyunsaturated. To make it spreadable it is usually hydrogenated, forming trans-fat. We know that's bad.
Once the fat has been made solid it has to be treated with all sorts of dubious chemicals, because it's grey and doesn't smell very nice. So they bleach it etc. and then add some colouring, flavourings and stuff, all to make it seem as much like butter as possible. If they didn't, nobody would ever consider buying the stuff.
Try looking at the ingredients list on a tub of marg and a packet of butter, and remember the shorter the list the healthier the food. The more ingredients, the more likely it is that some of them are harmful.
Finally, we should be aware that we've all had the wool pulled over our eyes regarding saturated/unsaturated fat and cholesterol. Try searching for any of the above words on the Internet and you may well have your eyes opened.

Answer 3

Butter is heavy on saturated fats, which cause/accelerate cardiovascular problems (most notably, clog your arteries and raise your cholesterol, increasing risk of heart attack and stroke). Vegetable oils are unsaturated fats, so people moved to margarine, which is made from vegetable oils which are hydrogenated to solidify into a butter-like spread. However, newer research shows that the trans fats created by this hydrogenation seem to be worse for you than saturated fats -- causing a switch back to butter, or, as current health information suggests is healthier, on to liquid vegetable oils.

Fat is also dense calorically (a lot of calories for a little amount of the food), which of course tends to increase the weight/body fat of the consumer, but this is for all fats.

Current health research indicates a) cutting down on all fat consumption for most diets (most industrialized nations have an overly-fatty diet -- you need some for health, but most eat too much since fats simply taste good); b) that the fats still consumed should be primarily (unhydrogenated) vegetable oils.

Answer 4

Dr Oz on Oprah answered this question:

Q: Which is better: butter or margarine?

A: That's like asking which is better: fries or onion rings, bacon or sausage, Bonnie or Clyde? Neither, they're both bad. Butter and margarine both have aging effects—by increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, memory loss, wrinkling of your skin, and a decrease in orgasm quality (a buttered bagel isn't worth that now, ay?). If you put guns to our heads and force an answer, we'd pick butter, since saturated fat is less harmful than trans fat. But you can enjoy the taste of fat by using healthy oils, which decrease the risk of all those things and taste good, if not better. If you avoid butter and margarine for eight weeks (fat is a learned taste not a genetic one) you can make you heart's arteries and your skin younger with healthy fat (butter ages those). For healthy fat try peanut butter, walnut butter, almond butter, avocado, olive oil, canola oil, and tree and seed oils like sesame oils.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

It's the type of fats used. If you get a fat comparison table, the oils such as olive, coconut and canola are the best for you, then butters, but margarines - even ones with "good" additives are way down on the list.

Answer 6

Better for what? calorie wise there is nothing in it, if you lack omega 3 in your diet then maybe you need to suppliment it with margarine. Butter is a saturated fat so you don't actually need it at all, but then you don't need margarine either. I don't eat either of them, haven't for many years, and I'm in very good health.

Answer 7

Butter is definitely better for you.
Many margarines and spreads contain Hydrogenated fats
which are toxic and should be avoided.
This process changes fat which is liquid at room temperature to one which is solid at room temperature, and is also used in Mr Wippy style ice creams, so consider what you are feeding your children there.
Many experts agree that if the process of Hydrogenation (incidentally invented by Margaret Thatcher when she was a chemist) was discovered today it would not pass health checks and be banned.

Answer 8

That's an option, but I like butter over margarine

Answer 9

Butter is a more natural product has no "added" ingredients. maragarine...has the same fat content but is all artificial. There are Light Margarines(lower in fat) & some that do have added Omega-3's but only if it says it does.
Your call.

Answer 10

Butter is natural, animal fat, and we can digest it. Some of the margarines now are made from synthetic ingredients that are not natural foods for humans nor animals. The more processed your food is the less nutritious it is. Natural milk and butterfat are good for growing and healing.

Answer 11

Butter is a natural product made from two things milk with a little salt added to bring out the flavour. Nothing else no hydrogenated fats, no transfats just honest to goodness milk. Like everything taken in moderation it is good for you - calcium, vitamins and minerals. What more could you want?