Which is better, butter or margarine?

Which of butter and margarine is healthier is a common problem for many, and a clear answer can be obtained by examining the latest medical scientific facts. Butter is a natural food with a very long history, and about 20 liters of cow's milk are used to produce 1 kg of butter.

This is a solid mixture made from cow's milk containing about 88% saturated fat, and history states that butter was accidentally discovered in the past when travelers riding horses or camels carried milk while shaking it.

On the other hand, margarine is an industrially processed food whose origins date back to 1800s France. During the Napoleonic Wars, a butter shortage led the government to offer a prize to anyone who could produce a long-lasting substitute for butter for the French navy. As a result, a white substitute with the color of a pearl was produced using beef tallow, and it was named 'margarine' after the Greek word for pearl. However, modern margarine is often made using vegetable oils.

With the arrival of margarine on the market, it faced strong opposition from dairy producers in America, who tried to prevent it from being colored yellow, as its natural color was white. At the time, some proposals even argued that margarine should be colored pink, but eventually, the law allowed for a packet of yellow coloring to be provided with margarine for consumers to mix in themselves. However, later, due to world wars and economic depressions, butter shortages made margarine popular among the public.

From a health perspective, the old margarine production used a process called hydrogenation, which created harmful trans fats. Trans fats directly contribute to blocking blood vessels and causing heart disease, making them very detrimental. Although butter naturally contains some trans fats, doctors point out that it is not as harmful as artificially produced trans fats.

In modern margarine production, this harmful process has been changed, and today, most types of margarine contain polyunsaturated fats and plant sterols. These compounds have the ability to lower blood cholesterol levels. Research indicates that if someone has a risk of heart disease or high cholesterol, using modern margarine may be more beneficial than using butter.

According to the latest large-scale research on butter, dairy-related saturated fat has been found to be less harmful to the heart than the fat found in meat. Consuming butter in moderate amounts, for example, spread on a slice of bread, does not significantly raise bad cholesterol levels in the blood. Scientists believe that certain bioactive compounds in dairy products mitigate the adverse effects of fat.

Finally, if you are someone striving to control high cholesterol, choosing margarine with plant sterols is most suitable. However, if you are in normal health, there is no harm in adding a small amount of natural butter to your diet. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that both types are high-calorie foods, so excessive consumption can lead to weight gain and diseases like diabetes.
(Source: ABC Science)