POLOKWANE – Is butter a more natural fat than margarine? Here are some facts to think over in order to make an informed decision.
Butter is perceived by some to be healthier than margarine, as it’s made from a mechanical process rather than a chemical process. It is important to note that natural occurring fats are often the unhealthy fats (like beef fat, pork fat, chicken skin or even coconut oil).
Butter consists of 82g fat per 100g serving, which means that you eat one teaspoon saturated fat when you spread two teaspoons of butter on your bread. Scientific research have shown that saturated fat is not essential, meaning that we do not need to get it from our diet and high intakes of saturated fats are linked to various lifestyle diseases like heart disease, some cancers, overweight and obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Substituting butter for a good quality plant product providing essential unsaturated fats is an easy way to reduce your total saturated fat intake in a society which tends to eat a diet high in animal fats and subsequently saturated fats.
Butro has a saturated fat content that is similar to that of butter (4g saturated fat per 10g Butro vs 5g saturated fat per 10g butter). With only 1g more healthy unsaturated fat than butter, it is not a much healthier choice when compared to butter.
Margarine
On the other hand, margarine was invented in 1869 by French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries when Napoleon wanted an alternative for butter to be used by the armed forces and lower class people. In contrast to butter, which has remained constant, margarine has been adjusted over the years, based on research and our health needs. Margarine is also viewed as being more chemical than butter, when in fact it has only onbe more step in its production process, which is the first step of extracting oil from seeds.
Natural plant oils have varying amounts of saturated present, but have mostly healthy unsaturated fats. The problem is converting liquid healthy unsaturated fats into a substance that is more spreadable (e.g. margarine).
A simple version of making margarine would be to beat together liquid plant oil (canola/sunflower oil) with a harder plant fat (saturated fat like palm oil or hydrogenated plant oil) under cold temperatures to solidify the fat. Salt, emulsifiers, and stabilisers are then added to prevent the margarine from separating. The source of the evil in margarine would be the solid fat that is used determining the amount of saturated fat and even worse, the presence of trans fat, if hydrogenated fat is used.
Luckily margarine has gone through may developments in recent years to improve its healthfulness and most brands have phased out the use of hydrogenated oils and are now virtually trans-fat free (<1% of trans fat). ). In a recent study done by the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa), 40 different margarines were selected from supermarkets, and all, including bricks of margarine, contained less than 2% trans-fat as specified by Cansa.
To conclude: brick/hard margarine has more unhealthy saturated fat compared to soft spread margarines, which have more healthy unsaturated fats. All brands of margarine available in South Africa are virtually free from very unhealthy trans fats, but butter contains 46% trans fats. If healthy unsaturated fats prevent chronic diseases, while unhealthy saturated fats and trans fat increases the risk, what do you want to spread on your sandwich?
For more information on healthy/unhealthy fats, visit www.adsa.org.za to find a registered dietician in your area.
