Food of the Week: Margarine

Have you ever wondered what exactly is margarine, and whether or not you should be eating it? Is it better or worse than butter? Today, margarine is available in a wide range of types, low Calorie, low-sodium, non-hydrogenated, with omega-3's, etc, etc. No doubt, it can get a bit confusing even for the nutrition-savy shopper.

Here's the low down on the stuff in the tub...

Margarine was invented in the 1800's when Napoleon III offered a reward to the first person who could come up with a suitable substitute for margarine that he could feed to the military and lower classes. Today, margarine is a household staple for many, and is made up of primarily vegetable oils. The margarine crazy took off when we discovered that butter was high in unhealthy saturated fat. So we took healthy vegetable oils and put them through a process called "hydrogenation", which produced what we now know to be even worse... trans fats. So, for a while, margarine was actually worse than butter in terms of health. Since then, nearly all margarines on the shelf are non-hydrogenated, putting them back to par or better than butter in terms of fat.

HOWEVER, although margarine now mainly contains healthier fats, the proportion of fatty acids has been altered, and we're really not sure if that has an effect on the body or not. Possibly, this could be a harmless issue, but no one can say for certain.

My opinion, use unsaturated oils, like olive and canola, as much as you can when cooking. As I've mentioned many a time before, I'm not a fan of foods altered a lot by people in lab coats, so I tend to stray from margarine myself. It may not be my first choice, but please don't buy into those crazy email forwards claiming margarine is the root of all evil, and one molecule away from plastic(though it's good for a laugh).

The fact is, if you have a healthy heart and you're dying for a spread, a thumb tip size spoon of the real stuff (butter) won't hurt. That said, if you've got high blood pressure, cholesterol, or other heart or kidney conditions, low sodium, low fat margarine is your best bet. Of course, always check with your doctor.

I'll leave you with a few last tidbits on the yellow stuff:

• Margarine was actually banned in Canada in the early 1900's.
  


• It was not legal to sell "butter-coloured" margarine in Ontario until 1995.
  


• Margarine is naturally white or near-white in colour, and it was illegal to add artificial colour in many countries for many years, due to pressure on governments by the dairy industry.

Share