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Articles by Chef Nick

What Is Better Butter Or Margarine?
by Nick Cavataio

What is better to use in a healthy diet,
butter or margarine?

I can understand your confusion with all the
debate about these two products! The facts
can stand for themselves.

Butter

Let's tackle the facts about butter first.
Research from the American Heart Association
and many noted Health Clinics tells us that
butter has two cholesterol raising ingredients:
dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. To
understand these two ingredients better let's
look at them one at a time.

Dietary Cholesterol - Dietary Cholesterol can
only be found in animal products! You will NOT
find any cholesterol in a plant-based food or
food product like margarine. As you know we
where all created unique and some of us can eat
a high cholesterol diet without it affecting are
blood cholesterol one way or the other. On the
other hand some of us just need to look at butter
or margarine and our blood cholesterol levels are
on the rise. It is recommended for a healthy diet
we consume no more than 200 milligrams of
cholesterol each day. Butter has 33 milligrams
of cholesterol in one tablespoon!

Saturated Fat - Saturated Fat is our biggest enemy
in any food product. Saturated Fats are solid at
room temperature. Red meat is the largest carrier
of saturated fat along with high-fat dairy products
like butter. Coconut and Palm oils are also high
is saturated fat. When we eat excessive amounts
of saturated fats it increases our "bad"
cholesterol (LDL) and "good" cholesterol (HDL).
The problem is it doesn't increase are "good"
cholesterol enough to justify eating it.
Eating saturated fats buts us at a higher risk
for Heart Disease. Research says a healthy
amount of saturated fat is 10-15 grams per day.
Considering one tablespoon of butter contains
over 7 grams of saturated fat, as always it is
better in moderation or not at all.

Margarine

Margarine COULD also clog up the arteries. The
problem with margarine has always been the levels
of Trans Fat. Trans Fat is not what we would call
all natural; it is largely a man-made product.
Trans Fats are made with a process call
Hydrogenation. This is when Hydrogen is added to
vegetable oils, making the oil more solid and
stable. This process lends to fact that
margarine is less prone to spoil compared to our
dairy products, like butter. Trans Fats when
eaten in large amounts not only increase the
"bad" cholesterol, they tend to also lower the
"good" cholesterol. As of date there are no
standard intakes of Trans Fat, but one tablespoon
of stick margarine contains 3 grams of trans fat
and 2 grams of saturated fat.

With all that said there is still light at the
end of the tunnel. Margarine manufacturers have
wised up and are reducing the amount of trans fats
in their products to almost nothing. Now at your
local super market you can buy margarine with less
than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving! With these
low levels, the manufacturers are allowed to claim
"trans fat free or zero-trans fat" labels. They do
this by switching their first ingredient from
partially hydrogenated vegetable oil to water or
liquid vegetable oil. This is why more people are
making the healthier choice of tub or liquid
margarines over the stick margarine because the
trans fats are a lmost cut is half in the tub
and liquid margarines! So, margarine in the trans
free tub or liquid is recommended over butter.

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Chef Nick Cavataio is the author of 'Conquering
Healthier Recipes and Beyond,' an cookbook packed
with more than 300 mouth-watering recipes you can
cook quickly at home.
http://www.conqueringhealthierrecipes.com

Nick Cavataio 99 Hall Road Owego NY, 607-687-5654 mailto:ncavataio@stny.rr.com