Pass the Butter Please.

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

This email about butter and margarine facts. Well I asume they are facts. And I just thought I would share.
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Pass the Butter . . . PLEASE
This is interesting . ..Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they
put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with
no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings….
DO YOU KNOW.. the difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end…gets very interesting!
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) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold..
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And here’s 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 weenie 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?

Share This With Your Friends…..(If you want to ‘butter them up’)!
Chinese Proverb:

‘When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.

Pass the BUTTER PLEASE…

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Cool! I never knew that. Thanks for sharing with me!

 

[Miss Sebright]

I already knew that it is molicule away from being plastic, but I didn't know the rest.

 

[alicefelldown]

Most of those are (you were correct) not actual facts...

1 - turkeys?

Margarine originated with the discovery by Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1813 of margaric acid (itself named after the pearly deposits of the fatty acid from Greek μαργαρίς, -ρῖτης or μάργαρον (margarís, -îtēs / márgaron), meaning pearl-oyster or pearl). Scientists at the time regarded margaric acid, like oleic acid and stearic acid, as one of the three fatty acids which, in combination, formed most animal fats. In 1853, the German structural chemist, Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz, analyzed margaric acid as simply a combination of stearic acid and of the previously unknown palmitic acid.

In 1869, Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France offered a prize to anyone who could make a satisfactory substitute for butter, suitable for use by the armed forces and the lower classes. French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés invented a substance he called oleomargarine, the name of which became shortened to the trade name "margarine". Mège-Mouriés patented the concept in 1869 and expanded his initial manufacturing operation from France but had little commercial success. In 1871, he sold the patent to the Dutch company “Jurgens”, now part of Unilever.

As early as 1877, the first United States had passed laws to restrict the sale and labeling of margarine. By the mid-1880s, the U.S. federal government had introduced a tax of two cents per pound, and manufacturers needed an expensive license to make or sell the product. Individual states began to require the clear labeling of margarine. The color bans, drafted by the butter lobby, began in the dairy states of New York and New Jersey. In several states, legislatures enacted laws to require margarine manufacturers to add pink colorings to make the product look unpalatable, but the Supreme Court struck down New Hampshire's law and overruled these measures.

By the start of the 20th century, eight out of ten Americans could not buy yellow margarine, and those that could had to pay a hefty tax on it. Bootleg colored margarine became common, and manufacturers began to supply food-coloring capsules so that the consumer could knead the yellow color into margarine before serving it. Nevertheless, the regulations and taxes had a significant effect: the 1902 restrictions on margarine color, for example, cut annual U.S. consumption from 120 million to 48 million pounds (54,000 to 22,000 tons). However, by the end of the 1910s, it had become more popular than ever.

2 - calories? As we all know, there are TONS of different butters and TONS of different margarines... salted, unsalted, spreads, blends, whipped, et cetera. Here is a link to the calorie counts in all of those. http://calorielab.com/foods/butter-and-margarine/48

3 - heart disease in women. Snopes says this is a "kinda": http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

In 1994, Harvard University researchers reported that people who ate partially hydrogenated oils, which are high in trans fats, had nearly twice the risk of heart attacks as those who consumed much less of the substance. Several large studies in the United States and elsewhere, including the Nurses' Health Study conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, have also suggested a strong link between earlier death and consumption of foods high in trans fat.

The Food and Drug Administration, the National Academy, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the American Heart Association all recommend consumers limit their intake of trans fat wherever possible. Moreover, the federal government passed regulations requiring that by 2006 all food labels disclose how much trans fat a product contains.

ince the issuance of warnings and regulations about trans fats in the last few years, many margarine producers have reformulated their products. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, for example, now (in 2006) bears a notice on its label proclaiming "NO TRANS FAT," and the amount of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat per serving has dropped from 4.5g each to 4g (polyunsaturated) and 2g (monounsaturated) per serving.

4 - plastic? It isn't a question of being 'one molecule away from plastic - it is a question of how those molecules are arranged. I mean, you’re not going to stop drinking water (H2O) because it’s only one atom away from being Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2), are you? http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html

It is not true that margarine is "but ONE MOLECULE from being PLASTIC," and, even if it was, this doesn't mean that eating margarine is like eating plastic (though some would argue it tastes like it). Many items in nature are chemically similar to one another, but that doesn't make them similar in appearance or effect. It's not the molecules that a substance is made of that defines it, but rather how those molecules are arranged.

Both butter and margarine contain fats, which are basically groupings of the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The difference is how those atoms are bonded together. (Naturally occurring fatty acids generally have one "cis" orientation, meaning both hydrogen atoms are on the same side as the carbon atoms. Trans-fatty acids, logically, have a "trans" orientation, meaning that at least one hydrogen atom is opposite the carbons. Essentially, the molecules making up both butter and margarine contain the same atoms, just in different configurations. Margarine has much more in common chemically with butter than it does plastic.

5 - non-spoiling margarine? I'm going to go with a 'no' on that as well. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/620923/is_margarine_one_molecule_away_from.html?cat=51

The letter states that margarine is like plastic in that you can leave it in a garage and not even a single fly will land on it. The truth is that margarine doesn't spoil easily because it is made out of vegetable oils that are less susceptible to bacteria and fungi that you would normally find in dairy products such as butter.​

 

[canada-goose]

Yuck.

 

[Miss Sebright]

Quote:
2 - calories? As we all know, there are TONS of different butters and TONS of different margarines... salted, unsalted, spreads, blends, whipped, et cetera. Here is a link to the calorie counts in all of those. http://calorielab.com/foods/butter-and-margarine/48

3 - heart disease in women. Snopes says this is a "kinda": http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

In 1994, Harvard University researchers reported that people who ate partially hydrogenated oils, which are high in trans fats, had nearly twice the risk of heart attacks as those who consumed much less of the substance. Several large studies in the United States and elsewhere, including the Nurses' Health Study conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, have also suggested a strong link between earlier death and consumption of foods high in trans fat.

The Food and Drug Administration, the National Academy, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the American Heart Association all recommend consumers limit their intake of trans fat wherever possible. Moreover, the federal government passed regulations requiring that by 2006 all food labels disclose how much trans fat a product contains.

ince the issuance of warnings and regulations about trans fats in the last few years, many margarine producers have reformulated their products. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, for example, now (in 2006) bears a notice on its label proclaiming "NO TRANS FAT," and the amount of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat per serving has dropped from 4.5g each to 4g (polyunsaturated) and 2g (monounsaturated) per serving.

4 - plastic? It isn't a question of being 'one molecule away from plastic - it is a question of how those molecules are arranged. I mean, you’re not going to stop drinking water (H2O) because it’s only one atom away from being Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2), are you? http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html

It is not true that margarine is "but ONE MOLECULE from being PLASTIC," and, even if it was, this doesn't mean that eating margarine is like eating plastic (though some would argue it tastes like it). Many items in nature are chemically similar to one another, but that doesn't make them similar in appearance or effect. It's not the molecules that a substance is made of that defines it, but rather how those molecules are arranged.

Both butter and margarine contain fats, which are basically groupings of the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The difference is how those atoms are bonded together. (Naturally occurring fatty acids generally have one "cis" orientation, meaning both hydrogen atoms are on the same side as the carbon atoms. Trans-fatty acids, logically, have a "trans" orientation, meaning that at least one hydrogen atom is opposite the carbons. Essentially, the molecules making up both butter and margarine contain the same atoms, just in different configurations. Margarine has much more in common chemically with butter than it does plastic.

5 - non-spoiling margarine? I'm going to go with a 'no' on that as well. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/620923/is_margarine_one_molecule_away_from.html?cat=51

The letter states that margarine is like plastic in that you can leave it in a garage and not even a single fly will land on it. The truth is that margarine doesn't spoil easily because it is made out of vegetable oils that are less susceptible to bacteria and fungi that you would normally find in dairy products such as butter.
​

You like to correct people don't you?​

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
I like to correct poorly researched email forwards. I'm sorry if you feel that I'm correcting the OP - who if I recall, at the top of the post even said "Well I asume they are facts." but wasn't certain that they were.

I also really like using google when I have a question about anything - it's such a great resource!

 

[Whispering Winds]

All I use is real butter; between Wal-Mart at a buck fifty right now and Aldi's, its not that $$, and we started using it in the unsalted version, and half and half in our coffee, because DH is diabetic badly and HnH has no carbs or very low. My chiros told me that margarine was 94% plastic, and I thought they were stretching it a bit, but after reading this, I am sticking to butter. I bake a lot of stuff at holiday time that asks for unsalted butter, so its handy to have anyway.

 

[SunnyDawn]

I vote for butter too! After reading all these posts it seems that we all agree that butter is better for you and trans fats not only taste worse but are worse for us. Besides, even if I didn't care about the health benefits of butter vs trans fats (and I definitely do) I want my baked goods to taste awesome all the time!!! Butter just tastes better.
Also, I'm going back to lard for all my recipes that don't work well with butter! BTW my cholesterol levels are the perfect balance of good and bad cholesterol, according to my doctor and I try to avoid trans fats completely (although he says this may have more to do with good genetics than with my hatred of trans fats).