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For years, butter was considered unhealthy. Several studies have now disproved butter’s bad reputation. Which is now healthier: butter or margarine?
It seems to be a question of faith and taste whether you prefer butter or margarine on your bread. Some people prefer to eat margarine because it is supposedly better for blood cholesterol, while others prefer butter because it tastes better and is a natural dairy product. We wanted to know what’s behind all the myths and whether butter or margarine is the healthier spread.
Differences between butter and margarine
The main difference between butter and margarine is easily explained: butter is obtained from the fat of milk and is therefore of animal origin, while margarine is produced from vegetable oils. The production process is also different: butter is obtained mechanically by beating milk cream until the fat separates from the remaining liquid (the buttermilk). The resulting butter grains are washed, kneaded and formed into butter pieces.
Margarine is more complex, using oil whose consistency is chemically altered and hardened to make it a spreadable fat. In addition, natural colors, flavors and fat-soluble vitamins are added to margarine to make the final product look good, taste good and be healthy.
What’s in butter and margarine?
As different as the production of the two spreadable fats is, so are the ingredients. Butter contains predominantly unsaturated fatty acids as well as vitamins E, B12, K and especially high levels of vitamin A. If cows are fed a lot of green fodder, the butter obtained from their milk may also contain more healthy omega-3 fatty acids – does this make it healthier than margarine?
In the case of margarine, the composition of fatty acids depends heavily on the oils used. But overall, it offers significantly more unsaturated fatty acids than butter and only a few saturated fatty acids. Some margarines also contain olive oil or omega-3 fatty acids. Vitamins A, K, E and the important vitamin D are often added.
Why was butter considered unhealthy?
Butter was considered unhealthy especially because of its high content of saturated fatty acids. These were suspected of increasing the bad cholesterol in the body (LDL-C) and thus increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.1 However, this has now been disproved in long-term studies. It has now been confirmed that saturated fatty acids do not increase the risk of heart or cerebral infarction.
In addition, the prejudice that butter makes you fat and is therefore unhealthy per se persists. But a major evaluation of several studies has shown that milk fat (such as butter) and other high-fat dairy products neither lead to obesity nor increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. On the contrary, scientists found that eating plenty of dairy fat actually lowers the risk of obesity.
Why was margarine considered unhealthy?
Margarine, in turn, had another problem. During production, the oils used must be hardened so that they can be spread. This hardening process could produce dangerous trans fatty acids, which have been shown to be bad for your health. But the industry has adapted manufacturing processes so that margarine hardly contains any trans fats, as the German Nutrition Society explains.
Conclusion: What now – butter or margarine?
There is still no clear answer as to whether margarine or butter is healthier. At least from a scientific point of view, there is little that speaks against either butter or margarine. Except for the high calorie content (1 tablespoon of butter has 100, 1 tablespoon of margarine 75 calories).
At the end it remains probably a question of faith whether one would prefer a hardly changed, but animal fat (butter) or a strongly processed, but therefore vegetable fat (margarine) to spread on the bread. If you want to be on the safe side, you should dip your bread in cold-pressed olive oil, which has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality.
— fitbook.de/picture: pixabay.com
Sources
1 Clarke, R., Frost, C., Collins, R., Appleby, P., Peto, R. (1997). Dietary lipids and blood cholesterol: quantitative meta-analysis of metabolic ward studies. BMJ.
Worm, N., Weingärtner, O., Schulze, C., Lechner, K. (2021). Saturated fatty acids and cardiovascular risk : is a revision of dietary recommendations indicated? [Saturated fatty acids and cardiovascular risk : Is a revision of the recommendations on nutrition indicated?]. Heart.
Astrup, A., Magkos, F., Bier, D.M. et al. (2020). Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-Based Recommendations: JACC State-of-the-Art Review. J Am Coll Cardiol.
Kratz, M., Baars, T., Guyenet, S. (2013). The relationship between high-fat dairy consumption and obesity, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease. Eur J Nutr.
Ginter, E., Simko, V. (2016). New data on harmful effects of trans-fatty acids. Bratisl Lek Listy.
Guasch-Ferré, M., Hu, F.B., Martínez-González, M.A. et al. (2014). Olive oil intake and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in the PREDIMED Study. BMC Med.
German Nutrition Society. Trans fatty acids and their impact on health. (accessed 10/7/2021)
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