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pst

Member
posted December 01, 2003 06:47 PM
This information came to me from my daughter-in-law. If this is all true, I'll never use margarine again!!



Butter

DO YOU KNOW...

The difference between margarine and butter?

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)

Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol) ....

Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold...

Lowers quality of breast milk ...

Decreases immune response...

Decreases insulin response.

And here is 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?

Paula
Paula's Cooking for You




Chef Veggie
Member
posted December 01, 2003 08:42 PM
Wow Paula,
I never use margarine having grown up on butter. After this I will never use margarine. Very interesting article.
chefveggi




GoldenGoose
Member
posted December 02, 2003 05:49 AM
It's all pretty true, although the last bit about plastic is misleading. A lot of things are only one molecule apart from each other. Say oxygen and water...

So, that's no reason to swear off margarine -- but the others...yeah, you betcha.

Not everyone will agree with the following statement, but the preponderance of evidence suggests (there, is that vague enough?) that your best choice would be monunsaturated vegetable fat (olive oil), then polyunsaturated vegetable, then saturated vegetable, then saturated animal fats. There are plenty of experts who would juggle the order. But trans-fats belong at the bottom of the desired list, every time, unless it's one of the few experts who still believe that saturated animal fats are an instrument of Satan. (Er, that would be tongue in cheek. Which is would be a saturated animal fat in duplicate....)

Not a reason to wallow in butter (although that's fun) but certainly a smear of butter would be a better choice than a smear of margarine.

There are margarines that are supposed to reduce cholesterol -- and they do show signs of being effective -- but a certain amount must be eaten every day and I think that cooking with it negates the effects.

Meredith
Whisk For Hire
Kensington, MD




chefcandy
Candy Wallace - Executive Director
posted December 02, 2003 07:33 AM
I once had a client who demanded that I use only NON FAT cheeses etc. in her meals.
She asked me once why the NON FAT cheeses didn't "melt nicely". I replied that is was because NON FAT cheese was made from ground up panty hose....She laughed so hard I think she actually got the point.
Candy




pst

Member
posted December 02, 2003 08:09 AM
ChefCandy,

And I laughed as well! Great come back! Thanks for your interest!

ChefPaula

Paula Taylor
Paula's Cooking for You
Waxahachie, TX





eganearl

Member
posted December 02, 2003 11:02 AM
I saw a doctor on TV who said that in his opinion margarine is the worst "food" you can put into your body. As the saying goes, "I'd rather trust a cow than a chemist"

Brenda Koeppel,
Comfort Food




roberta1016

Member
posted December 03, 2003 07:44 AM
I once read about the origins of margarine (partly created for the "health-conscious" and partly for cost reasons because butter is so expensive). I knew that it is a chemical-ladden man-made product, but I did not know it is one molecule away from being plastic.

All I can say is "Eeeeeewwwwww."

Chef Roberta
A Whisk In Time




thecooktoo

Member
posted December 06, 2003 06:56 AM
When I was kid (way back in '02)...actually during WWII, the margarine came white, in a plastic squeeze bag, with a little color ampule that you broke into it. Then you squeezed it around to mix in the color so it would look like butter. Mixing the "oleo" was always my job.

During a cooking class not long ago a lady was questioning why I only used butter and never margarine...I had her read for the class the ingredient list off a tub of Country Crock (could that be "crock-o-shit")then the ingredients off the butter package. The tub listed all the ingredients that you could not pronounce and went on for at least a dozen or more items. The butter ingredients were "cream and salt."

She admitted that the butter not only tasted better but was probably better for you.

Jim Davis
The Really Good Food Co.
A Personal Chef Service




chefhl

Member
posted December 06, 2003 07:36 AM
I lived in Wisconsin "America's Dairyland" as a kid and we used to go to the Illinois border to buy "oleo". Now there is a name I'll bet you have not heard of in a while.Well at least not since Jim's post.

HOWARD LUNT
CHEF@HOME.INC
LIBERTYVILLE IL.
chefhl@personalchef.com
WWW.HLPERSONALCHEF.COM






cooking alilbit

Moderator
posted December 06, 2003 12:18 PM
I have always preferred butter..whether it's whipped or stick form....salted & unsalted (more for baking). In fact, some baking recipes clearly state "[b]butter[/] then they state in parentheseis "not margerine".

Price of butter is not really bad here (starts at $1.99 per lb)....but the margerine, they are practically giving away (margerine sticks starting for 35 cents...tubs for $1.00 depending on brands)....the only time I buy margerine is if a client specifies it...one of my "low cholesterol" clients wants me to only use "balance" in place of butter. That being said, I try not to even use that junk...I try to flavor their foods with broths, herbs & spices (especially since they want low cholesterol). Geez, ever seen margerine melted? Looks pretty disgusting to me! Give me the real stuff...

Chef Jackie Alejo
APCA TX Chapter President
Cooking For You!
cookingforyou@personalchef.com


"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all." - Harriet Van Horne




pst

Member
posted December 07, 2003 06:59 AM
Hi,
My grandmother used to send a list to the grocery store and always ordered oleo. Not sure what that is really. I always thought it was just margarine. This was a real change in our family because grandma always made her own butter! Guess I'm not too old to remember that one, huh?

Paula Taylor
Paula's Cooking for You
Waxahachie, TX

Paula Taylor
Paula's Cooking for You
Waxahachie, TX





GoldenGoose
Member
posted December 08, 2003 05:56 AM
The name was originally oleomargarine, and got shortened to oleo. It was much cheaper than butter -- and a big threat to the dairy industry. It was taxed extra to make it more expensive and the dairy industry was the driving force behind making it illegal to color it yellow, so it came with little packets of coloring that could be mixed in at home.

It may well have fallen out of favor, but war shortages of dairy made it much easier to get oleomargarine. Then the concerns about cholesterol and eating too much animal fats gave it a boost. The extra taxes were removed, which made it even cheaper -- I forget when the dye thing was dropped, although Wisconsin held out until the late sixties I think.

Oleo was dropped from the name because of it's associations with war and added coloring.

Meredith
Whisk For Hire
Kensington, MD




chezvous
Member
posted December 09, 2003 01:19 PM
As a kid, my mom always bought margarine for day-to-day use, because at that time in Montana (an it wasn't that long ago), butter was so much more expensive. (I never could understand that since it's such a big dairy state.) However, she would only use butter for baking. But we also lucked out, since we had milk cows and she usually made butter from the milk.
And to this day, my grandmother, who's in her 80's, still refers to margarine as "oleo"

Joyce Pierce
Chez Vous
Your In-home Personal Chef Service

Back to the chemical makeup of margarine, it is essentially dubbed an edible plastic, being made up of very long chain molecules that closely resemble the makeup of plastic. Other products that are also edible plastics are CoolWhip and shakes like those sold at MacDonalds, which explains why CoolWHIP doesn't melt and why these shakes are so hard to sip from a straw.

Elise's Specialty Catering

Thank you everyone for this fun discussion! A great nutritionist said in her lecture that she felt margarine was the single largest cause of the increase in cancer over the last 20 years. Good reason to stay away from it. Plus if we are cooks we want stuff to taste good. By the way, shortening isn't a great option either, because of the hydrogenated fats in it. So most commercial baked goods suck because that's what they use.
Yeah olive oil and butter!

I have one client who has to avoid dairy. Butter is out of the question. She has me cook with EVOO or "Smart Balance" which I find is a good tasting buttery "spread" that is supposedly capable of lowering cholesterol. It's not as watery as some margarines I have used, and you can saute with it. The use of margarine or "spreads" is often a requirement of a client. I say butter is better, of course! But I won't give up a nice sum of money from a client by saying "I refuse to cook with that guckie stuff" If they want "Promise" or "I Can't believe It's Not Butter" that's what I use. I just pump up the herbs and fresh ingredients to mask the taste. Rather than say margarine is poison, read the labels and make good choices if you have to use it. The Smart Balance seems to be the best of all flavor wise, to me, and does not have trans fats. Please don't confuse it with something called "Smart BEAT" which is VILE stuff.

Aaah butter $1.99 lb, not here unless it's on sale $3.99 is the going rate aren't those Texans lucky. Well as for the margarine I buy some to use at home because my kids tend to go "hog wild" with butter and they know my butter is off limits to them unless previously approved. As for clients butter or olive oil. I have even used olive oil in cakes ooo so moist and delicious. I love olive oil! I also love Canola oil. I have heard great things about Rice oil but haven't had the opportunity to try some yet. I also recently read a comparision between butter and maragarine and butter seemed to win out overall. I guess it's just a matter of preference what the client wants the client gets but I would definitely make a suggestion. I know people who still ONLY swear by lard!

We might get butter for $1.99 a lb, but there are some things in Texas that are just outrageous..like red, orange or yellow bell peppers...they sell for $1.50 each. Even the green bell peppers we get either 3/$1.00 or worse yet 50 cents each.
When I went to visit my grandmother in Clifton, NJ, I was floored that they wanted only 39 cents a lb for them at the farmers stand...& even at Corrados, they only wanted 59 cents a lb. You can bet I stocked up...bought 6 lbs of red peppers alone. I'm sure the ariline thought I was nuts when they scanned my carry on bag!

Bottom lining-it, there are people who have used margarine since WWII and they can't get over it. They think butter is Satan. My younger clients seem to prefer butter and EVOO, my older clients with heart ailments and high cholesterol want me to use margarine. Like I said the trick is buying a "spread" or margarine that isn't watery and tastes buttery..and hopefully is healthy with no transfats. That would be the Smart Balance. I prefer to cook as a "chef" and not a "dietician" though. Clients with special diets (like my no dairy Lady) add to my income, but hamper my creativity. But...if they want to pay me $50 an hour to steam asparagus and slap margarine on it, they GOT it!!