Butter vs. margarine - which is best?
Butter vs. margarine
An age old debate.. Which is better? Well it depends a lot on your current health profile. Let’s say you have high cholesterol, a margarine with added sterols would be a better choice for you over butter, due to its cholesterol blocking ability. But if you’re in good shape (health wise) and enjoy butter, then a little here and there won’t hurt. Like anything though the poison is in the dose. So small amounts in an otherwise plant-abundant low processed food diet will be fine, but adding more butter into an unhealthy diet already high in saturated fat probably isn’t a wise idea.
Lets take a look at the two products…
Butter, a dairy spread – made from cream, water and salt. Most ‘butters’ on the Aussie shelves will actually be a butter blend, containing both oil (like vegetable or canola oil), vitamins (A&D), preservatives. emulsifiers, flavour and colours. So why would they add all that stuff in? If you have ever used real butter (or made your own) you will notice that it is not very spreadable. Adding in things like emulsifiers and oils makes it more spreadable. Preservatives stop the butter from going rancid due to the water content in buttery blends which reduces the overall fat content.
Butter is very high in fat (80% fat); a 10g serve contains 8g of fat. It is also high in saturated fat (about 69%) which is a type of fat we should limit. Finding the least processed butter requires some careful label reading (which I’ve done) – so I personally use and recommend Mainland Butter Soft Salt Reduced spreadable butter which contains only cream and salt – no nasty additives required.
Margarine or spreads on the other hand can be a more processed product – remember too that some butter blends are just as processed as margarine. Margarine has a different lipid (fat) profile compared to butter. Most will contain a little less fat (6.9g fat/10g serve) and a higher amount of unsaturated fats – poly-unsaturated (sunflower oil) or mono-unsaturated (olive or canola oil). The thing you need to be aware of when it comes to margarines is trans fats which have been implicated in increasing LDL (bad cholesterol) and heart disease. So it is recommended that you remove all trans fats from your diet.
Calories wise they are similar; butter contains 73 calories/10g and margarine 62 calories/10g. Taste wise I reckon you can’t go past pure butter!
What is best? Well, that is a tough one. Again, it depends on your current health profile and your own health ethos. If you enjoy butter and can use it sparingly then go for it but use a pure butter (not the blend). Because it isn’t as spreadable you have to be careful not to overdo it. Some margarines contain preservatives like sodium benzoate (211) which I personally prefer to avoid. Whichever you chose, go easy on how much you use because it is very easy to overdo it.
