# Pass The Butter ... Please.



## David H (Jan 4, 2013)

This is interesting and very frightening. .. . 

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 colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings.... 

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 for margarine. 

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 and only because they are added! 

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours 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.

Triples 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 times..

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 AND FRIGHTENING! 

Margarine is but *ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC*... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.

These facts alone were 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). 

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice 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 weeny 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?

*"Pass The Butter ... Please."*


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## Northerner (Jan 4, 2013)

Didn't I read somewhere that you can no longer get margarine here? Pretty shocking history  I was brought up on Stork too!


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## trophywench (Jan 4, 2013)

Yes, you couldn't bake or cook ANYTHING without a slab of Stork and another one of lard, could you?

Yet here we both are .......


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## Vicsetter (Jan 5, 2013)

Don't know where you dug that one up David.
1.  I can't find one product on the market that is labelled Margarine, maybe they changed the name to protect the innocent.
2. Vegetable fat products no longer contain trans fats.  Trans Fats cause the problems with cholesterol levels.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide H2O2 is one molecule away from Water H2O but you wouldn't want to drink it.  one molecule can make an enormous difference.
4. vegetable fat spreads contain 65% less saturated fat then butter. Mind you some of them contain 40% water
5. NHS recommends eating reduced fat spreads instead of butter (http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/eight-tips-healthy-eating.aspx).  Not necessarily a reputable source?

Most of this is old arguments and based on very bad science.  For instance it is the consumption of carbohydrates that is bad for your cholesterol and not the consumption of fats.

You did not list that fact that some fat spreads are supposed to be good for you because they contain Omega 3 !  Omitting to say that the Omega 3 is added from plant sources and is not the same as the fish based Omega 3.

I found this South African website, margarine manufacturer which would put you off vegetable spreads and I quote: BUTTERBAKE YELLOW (25KG) A specialized bakery emulsion, made exclusively for bakers from pure fully refined, bleached, deodorized and selectively hardened oils.

Yummm, Yummm, bleached and deoderized, luvvly. Have a look: http://www.willowtongroup.com/brands.php?cat=Baking+Fats,+Pastries+&amp;+Others&brand=42

Ha, found it 2003:
For further detail see Snopes:http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

What I couldn't find is when the word 'Margarine' was dropped from vegetable products.


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## Northerner (Jan 5, 2013)

Vicsetter said:


> What I couldn't find is when the word 'Margarine' was dropped from vegetable products.



I remember reading an article about it a couple of years ago and it was only then that I realised they had stopped calling the spreads that any more!


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## mcdonagh47 (Jan 5, 2013)

Northerner said:


> Didn't I read somewhere that you can no longer get margarine here? Pretty shocking history  I was brought up on Stork too!



Sounds like Professor Kerry Gold did the research on this butter thingie


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## Andy HB (Jan 6, 2013)

I get the impression that it is way out of date.

Many of the fat spreads that are on the shelves these days are light-years away from the old margarines.

Also, as Vicsetter says, something only one or two molecules away from something else can be a very different beast all together. Actually, something with the SAME atomic content can be totally different too (just look at carbon).

I'm not impressed by that post David but, as always, it is interesting to debunk it! So keep 'em coming. 

Andy


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## Northerner (Jan 6, 2013)

Andy HB said:


> ...I'm not impressed by that post David but, as always, it is interesting to debunk it! So keep 'em coming.
> 
> Andy



As you say, out of date in our times, but it does show how things used to be and a valid comparison of its subject matter!


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## robert@fm (Jan 6, 2013)

David H said:


> Margarine is but *ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC*... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.



Sorry, but the above (at least the first part) is an old urban myth which has been debunked many, many times.  Water is one _atom_ away from being an explosive gas, but that doesn't mean that it _is_ an explosive gas, or at all likely to turn into one, or that we should stop drinking it. 

I suspect that the second part is also the same kind of rubbish.  Many things share multiple ingredients with other things; but so what?  In most cases, that's probably no more meaningful than the fact of someting being one atom/molecule away from being something else.


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## Andy HB (Jan 6, 2013)

Northerner said:


> As you say, out of date in our times, but it does show how things used to be and a valid comparison of its subject matter!



Yep!

It also brings to mind that awful stuff Cadbury's Smash. My parents used to buy it when it was on offer. The thing is, I remember that it vaguely tasted of chocolate (but that may just have been my imagination at work).

No doubt I also had it with a knob of margarine!

Andy


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## Pumper_Sue (Jan 6, 2013)

Here you go all the facts! about margarine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine


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## robert@fm (Jan 6, 2013)

Andy HB said:


> It also brings to mind that awful stuff Cadbury's Smash. My parents used to buy it when it was on offer. The thing is, I remember that it vaguely tasted of chocolate (but that may just have been my imagination at work).



One thing I like about my friend and next-door-neighbour William is, when he does mashed potatoes, he always does them properly.  I don't know if the instant rubbish is still available, but even when it definitely was, Wills never used it.

To my mind, instant mashed potato is like instant coffee; the real thing doesn't take all that much more time or effort, and the improvement in quality is so vast as to be worth any improvement...


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## Northerner (Jan 6, 2013)

robert@fm said:


> One thing I like about my friend and next-door-neighbour William is, when he does mashed potatoes, he always does them properly.  I don't know if the instant rubbish is still available, but even when it definitely was, Wills never used it.
> 
> To my mind, instant mashed potato is like instant coffee; the real thing doesn't take all that much more time or effort, and the improvement in quality is so vast as to be worth any improvement...



I actually like instant coffee, although admittedly I'm much more of a tea drinker  Smash was a novelty when it came out, I think what you now tend to see is proper mash in the chiller cabinets at some huge mark up price. 

I imagine something that doesn't happen very often nowadays is people preparing and frying their own chips - peeling and cutting and deep frying. Oven chips are the way to go!


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## LeeLee (Jan 6, 2013)

Instead of oven chips, you could try this: cut a spud into chips (leave the skin on), parboil for 5 minutes, drain, spray with Fry-Light and bake like shop-bought oven chips.  Yummy and lower fat.  I like my chips dipped in garlic mayo, but use fat-free fromage frais with a squirt of lemon juice, crushed garlic and a pinch of mild chilli powder stirred in.  Antisocial but delicious!


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## Twitchy (Jan 6, 2013)

Is this a bad time to admit eating cubes of un-rehydrated smash as a treat as a kid?  oh well, sweets were obviously off the menu...


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## LeeLee (Jan 6, 2013)

Back to margarine, I was told years ago that Unilever was formed when Lever Brothers (who made soap and detergents - remember Sunlight?) merged with Dutch company Van den Bergh (who made margarine).  Logical, given that the raw ingredients are the same.


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## fencesitter (Jan 7, 2013)

I once had a boyfriend who worked for Proctor & Gamble selling by products of their soap making business ... he used to introduce himself as 'a fat salesman' 
Twitchy, didn't try the un-rehydrated smash, but we used to nibble away on oxo cubes.


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## Caroline (Jan 7, 2013)

I wonder how many people still call it margaine thoe? We certainly do when making the shopping list, although I what I actually buy is olive spread which we all like. I'd like to get butter but hubby has a dairy intolerance and we don't have room for two types of spread in our fridge.

STORK: You can still buy hard stork although I think it is vegetable based now, we get it when we are baking. I wont use soft spreads for things like pastrty


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## bennyg70 (Jan 7, 2013)

There was a Tv show which covered this the other night. I panicked and told the OH we were to stop eating our Flora light from now on..> But she said that it wasnt Margerine. Im confused. What have I been eating!


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## Andy HB (Jan 7, 2013)

I've just realised that margarine and migraine are almost spelt the same!

I wonder if that is significant? 

Andy


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## Vicsetter (Jan 7, 2013)

Technically margarine is 80% fat - same as butter.  The spreads you buy are a lot less than that, with fat replace with water so don't use them for cooking in recipes that call for margarine.


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## AlisonM (Jan 7, 2013)

The only good thing about Smash was the adverts and as for margarine we only used it in our house for oiling wheels (cos I couldn't find the proper stuff and my bike chain needed lube). Mum hated the stuff so we used olive oil (living overseas had it's advantages) for cooking and butter for baking.


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## mcdonagh47 (Jan 7, 2013)

bennyg70 said:


> There was a Tv show which covered this the other night. I panicked and told the OH we were to stop eating our Flora light from now on..> But she said that it wasnt Margerine. Im confused. What have I been eating!



Polyunsaturated vegetable oils ?

Same as modern "ice cream".


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## HelenM (Jan 7, 2013)

As confirmed by Wiki, you have to blame the French for margarine; a product for the use of the armed forces and 'lower classes'. 
(round here, going by the size of the area in the Supermarkets, the locals still don't use much of either butter or 'margarine'. They certainly don't spread it on bread)
As a child we ate butter but used margarine for cake making and pastry. It took a very long time before I discovered that butter was better.


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## Twitchy (Jan 7, 2013)

Anyone remember that awful spread - pale yellow stuff, seem to remember it had a blue cross on the lid?! Tasted VILE!!!  Think it was a diet version or something...? Haven't seen it for years...Krona or something maybe?!


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## David H (Jan 7, 2013)

*Vintage Brucie and Stork Marg*

*http://youtu.be/1zUq6ZWhT8U*


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## David H (Jan 7, 2013)

*Low fat spreads rapped.*

*http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1421211.stm*


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## Northerner (Jan 7, 2013)

Twitchy said:


> Anyone remember that awful spread - pale yellow stuff, seem to remember it had a blue cross on the lid?! Tasted VILE!!!  Think it was a diet version or something...? Haven't seen it for years...Krona or something maybe?!



Yes! I remember that now! We used to use it a lot


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## Northerner (Jan 7, 2013)

David H said:


> *http://youtu.be/1zUq6ZWhT8U*



Haha! Full of dreadful '70s innuendo, 'Stalking' people and trying it with nothing on. Also cringed at 50yr old Brucie mentioning getting the young girl's phone number


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## Austin Mini (Jan 7, 2013)

When I was a kid, just after the War, thats all you could get. Butter was in short supply thats if you could get it. By the way there were no tubby size people around them days either. It didnt do us any harm and it tasted quite good too!


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## caffeine_demon (Jan 7, 2013)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yf6UCK67gY

St ivel gold - 40% fat!


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## Twitchy (Jan 8, 2013)

St Ivel!! Ah, the memories come flooding back...!


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## bennyg70 (Jan 8, 2013)

Walking down the fridge aisles in Sainsburys last night and theres a big sign saying Butter and Margerine hanging off the ceiling! Can I sue them?


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## Northerner (Jan 8, 2013)

bennyg70 said:


> Walking down the fridge aisles in Sainsburys last night and theres a big sign saying Butter and Margerine hanging off the ceiling! Can I sue them?



Did it look like the sign was made in the 1970s?


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## Caroline (Jan 8, 2013)

lots of people say it is maragarine when they use things like olive or sunflower spread. I think theses days margarine has become a generic term for the things we spread on our bread in place of butter.

Thinking about it, jam, peanut butter, nutella, pate, meat and fish pastes and some cheeses amongst other things are spreadable but don't all live in the same supermarket aisles...


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## David H (Jan 8, 2013)

More to read:

*http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/65333*


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