Butter vs Margarine: The Big Fat Butter Lie
Is butter bad for you? For decades, the food processing industry has used advertising campaigns to successfully lie about the urgent and proven need to replace “unhealthy” butter with “healthy” margarine. But now we know that this teaching was nothing more than made-up. In the battle of margarine vs butter, you may now be surprised which comes out on top.
Even back in the 60s and 70s sufficient scientific evidence indicated that butter was far better than margarine for good health. Who knew? Nevertheless, the industrial fake food industry relentlessly convinced millions of us to eat margarine for health reasons. The commercial processed fake food industry merged with Madison Avenue, the AMA, and mainstream media to instill a whopper of a lie by reinforcing margarine as better for you. They claimed in unison that saturated fats made you fat and promoted cardiovascular disease.
Damage from Fake Fats that Replace Favorable Fats
Partially hydrogenated fatty acids in margarine damage arteries and blood vessels. They lower good cholesterol, and raise blood levels of triglycerides and lipoproteins leading to cardiovascular damage. They also raise C-reactive protein, an inflammatory and cellular dysfunction marker. Worse yet, they inhibit the utilization of essential omega 3-fatty acids as wells a prostaglandins, which eliminate blood clots. Additionally, a diet high in partially hydrogenated fatty acids has been linked to insulin resistance and type 2 Diabetes.
The NY Times covers hydrogenated oil health issues while still promoting saturated fat nonsense. In order to function properly, your lungs, heart, immune system liver, bones, hormones and cell membranes all require high quality saturated fats – in moderation of course. Fatty acids and cholesterol are needed for healthy cell membranes, hormone and vitamin D production, and the transport and utilization of important vitamins and minerals. Now even mainstream media is spreading the truthful real news on butter.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently solidified the link between trans fats and heart disease. Even low levels of trans fats consumption (1%-2%) substantially increase heart disease.
Butter vs Margarine: Butter Hierarchy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
So what should you be looking for?
- At the top of the pyramid is organic butter made with raw milk from grass fed cows.
- The middle level is organic butter with pasteurized milk from grass fed cows and without rBGH, rBST, or antibiotics.
- The pyramid’s base is butter made from pasteurized milk from confined, grain fed, factory farmed, antibiotic and likely rBGH or rBST injected cows.
Amazingly, the butter at the bottom of the pyramid is still better for you than margarine! Margarine is merely a lab created plastic food-like substance, not by any means a real food. It’s cheap to make, lacks nutritional merit, and damages health. But it has a longer shelve life and a higher profit margin than real butter.
Five Reasons to Eat Real Butter
- 1. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) – Raw organic, pastured butter has loads of anti- tumor CLA. It inhibits the growth of cancer cells in the skin, colon, breasts and lungs. It’s anti-fungal and it stimulates muscle growth while preventing weight gain.
- 2. Butyric Acid – Butter contains 4% butyric acid – a short chain fatty acid that research indicates can inhibit tumors. It also signals the immune system into action when an infection is brewing.
- 3. Vitamin K2 – Raw, organic, pastured butter and cream contains vitamin K2 – a necessary co-factor in vitamin D synthesis. K2 also ushers calcium out of your blood stream and into bone cells which increases bone density instead of calcifying arterial and heart tissue. Check out Mike Barrett’s article on vitamin K deficiency symptoms.
- 4. Fat–Soluble Vitamins – Butter is a good source of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, and E. It’s also an excellent vehicle for their assimilation.
- 5. The Wulzen Factor – Raw, unpasteurized butter, cream and milk contain the “Wulzen factor” an anti-stiffness agent. It protects against calcification of the joints (osteoarthritis) as well as cataracts, and the calcification of the pineal gland. Pasteurization destroys the Wulzen Factor.
Raw, organic butter is a superfood that won’t make you fat if consumed in moderation. It fact, it consists of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and medium chain fatty acids(MCFA), which are not significantly stored as fat but easily used as energy.
This may finally be the end of the butter vs. margarine battle.
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Hard to believe there are still people who think margarine is better!
I have known Thaís, but a read again blecaute this articule is Good write . Congratulations
Maybe I need to make a stink when restaurants SAY they are serving 'toast and butter' or 'pancakes and butter' etc. Nowadays too many menus use 'butter' meaning 'whatever kind of fat spread we are using from our distributor'. I hate to cause a scene, but I really don't want to be served fake butter presented as real butter.
The toast and pancakes will cause you much more harm than whatever’s atop them.
Just eat REAL food.
More people need to know this, but one note, "moderation" is also buying into the "bad fats" theory. What we believe or have been told to be moderation, may actually be too little. As is well known by anyone who has followed a low carb eating lifestyle, it's not necessary to cut back on healthy fats ( real, not fake ) when you don't eat refined carbs or sugar. The carbs are a major factor in raising insulin levels and inflammation levels. Not that anyone should eat gluttonous amounts of anything, but generally when you cut out refined carbs, your appetite and cravings tend to regulate and you don't end up eating excessive amounts of anything. It's amazing, and no acid reflux either, it tends to cut acid down to nothing. As soon as I eat carbs more than a day in a row, I notice I can get acid, when I don't eat any refined carbs, I never get acid.
Tell me the old, old, story; the information on the benefit of butter has been around for years which shows how most people are easily influenced by propaganda. Even with current knowledge there will be the diehards who will not change their beliefs.
So happy to see this article. Right on par. Thank you for spreading some great and honest information to the public!
The best thing to use is Olive Oil in a Mediterranean Diet. However if you are baking and need to grease a pan then use Parve Kosher (Non Dairy) margarine. But really how often and how much margarine will you be using to coat a pan, unless you are planning to bake a Wedding Cake? A stick of Butter normally lasts a year for us and a stick of Margarine about 3 months. Try replacing Butter with Apple Sauce in baking or Hummus on Bread.
I lived in Europe where yes, people ate butter, cheese, bread…. and fresh vegetables, fruits, etc…. And they ate desserts with chocolate and whipped cream. Yet no one on the streets looked over weight or obese. No one microwaved their lunch and ate at their desk. People walked. People laughed. People worked, but had long vacations. School lunches were edible. No it wasn’t a Nanny State. But it sure felt like Mary Poppins was in charge.
Saturated animal fat is highly inflammatory. No mention in this article of the “buttery spread” that is made of saturated vegetable fat which is far better than both butter and margarine. It even taste good!
Margarine was developed around WW2 and was sold as a substitute for butter because the good stuff needed to be sent to the fighting men. After the war we seem to have stayed with it.
I guess we lost.
Of course all of the-low fat propaganda is a huge lie. All one has to do is look at pictures of Americans on beaches in the 60’s. They were almost all skinny. Now almost all are fat. I would say to the Diet/Food/Pharmaceutical/Medical/Industrial/Complex: “job well done”
all i see here in england is very fat very unhealthy people, i have done my whole life
You refer to the industrial fake food industry. Wasn’t margarine created in the mid-19th century at the request of Napoleon III? You also mention rBGH or rBST. What’s the difference?
American’s wouldn’t be so damn fat if we just exercised more and ate less junk food. some junk food is okay but not for every meal. American portions are crazy and we have the stupid audicity to blame corporations for our obesity.
In reality, the food corporations are just giving americans what they want… bigger portions at cheaper prices. Adults should actually be eating happy meal sized lunches, but instead we order large fries, large regular soda and double cheeseburgers… when I go to a fast food place I only order one small item and a diet soda, I don’t order a whole days worth of calories in one sitting.
“Margarine is merely a lab created plastic food-like substance”
BS! Many if not most margarines are made with vegetable (plant) oils (soybean oil, palm oil, etc). Plant oils are better than animal fat used to make butter. Next you’ll be saying that red meat is better than vegetables.
Both the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association recommend margarine over butter – although not all margarines are created equal. Use soft margarine over hard margarine, and definitely look for margarine with 0 trans fats. And yes, there are now margarines with 0 trans fats. http://www.countrycrock.com/product/detail/91863/light
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/PreventionTreatmentofHighCholesterol/Know-Your-Fats_UCM_305628_Article.jsp
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/butter-vs-margarine/faq-20058152
Because it is. Both the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association recommend margarine over butter.
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/PreventionTreatmentofHighCholesterol/Know-Your-Fats_UCM_305628_Article.jsp
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/butter-vs-margarine/faq-20058152
Both the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association recommend margarine over butter – although not all margarines are created equal. Use soft margarine over hard margarine, and definitely look for margarine with 0 trans fats. And yes, there are now margarines with 0 trans fats. http://www.countrycrock.com/product/detail/91863/light
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/PreventionTreatmentofHighCholesterol/Know-Your-Fats_UCM_305628_Article.jsp
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/butter-vs-margarine/faq-20058152