It amazes me when I open up people’s fridges these days and see a tub of margarine sitting there. Margarine is the butter-alternative that we were advised to use during the anti-fat days, when eating foods high in fat was the enemy accused of making people overweight.

Here are 5 things you NEED to know about margarine.

1. Margarine is not real food. It’s a man-made food product that was created as a “low-fat” and “healthier” alternative to butter during the days when fat was being criticized as the cause of making people fat a.k.a overweight.

As a side note - eating real food doesn’t make us overweight (unless you’re over-consuming food). What makes us overweight is eating fake food and food-like products with ingredients that we can’t pronounce and the body doesn’t recognize to break down and use for energy, therefore the body stores it as fat cells.

2. Margarine originated in France. It was made as an alternative to butter made from beef tallow for the lower classes and military.

3. In modern day, margarine is made from refined vegetable oil. The refined vegetable oil is commonly made from genetically-modified soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, safflower, which is chemically extracted and exposed to high heat temperatures, which causes the oil to become rancid. The oil is then bleached with hexane and other chemical solvents. Any nutritional profile of the fatty acid is destroyed by the excess heat and bleaching process. Do you ever notice the words "cold-pressed” on extra virgin olive oil bottles? That's due to high heat damaging the chemical structure of oils when trying to extract it from its whole form.

4. The oil then has to be hardened in order to make it a butter-like consistency, yet soft enough to spread. This is when it goes through the process of hydrogenation, which means adding hydrogen at a high temperature into the vegetable oil in order to alter the chemical bonds of the fat structure and solidify it. The high temperatures in the process flip the bonds and alter some of them to trans-fat. Emulsifiers are then added like preservatives and milk products to help stabilize and give it the ideal texture. It then goes through an odourization process to mask the rancid smell and then goes through a process to add colour, flavour, and shape before being packaged. That’s a lot of steps!

5. This can worsen health conditions, as we know trans-fat is linked to:

• Increased risk of coronary heart disease, cardiac death, and metabolic syndrome (obesity)

• Higher levels of C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the body

• Increased risk of diabetes

• Adverse effect on the brain and how the cell neurons communicate with the nervous system

• Can increase LDL cholesterol (“bad cholesterol”) and decrease HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol”)

• Affects the composition of breast milk

Why Butter Is Actually Better For You

Butter is a dairy product that is made by churning the cream that rises to the top to separate the fat from the milk. The cream hardens when chilled or at room temperature and liquefies when heated.

Butter has been used for thousands of years in cooking, and is rich in vitamins and minerals, like vitamins A, D, E, and K and the minerals iodine, selenium, zinc, and copper, which are all crucial minerals to regulate our bodily functions. It also contains butyric acid, which is a fatty acid that has an anti-inflammatory effect in the gastrointestinal tract. This can help with irritable bowel syndrome. Butter contains essential healthy fats for human health, and does not contain trans-fatty acids and other toxins like margarine does.

During the anti-fat era, we were advised that butter was bad for us because it’s high in saturated fat and will increase our cholesterol. Firstly, cholesterol is essential for our survival. We wouldn’t be alive without it because our bodies produce cholesterol. It’s production by our livers is necessary to produce hormones, Vitamin D, and bile acids. Only 20% of cholesterol is influenced by our diet.

We were previously advised to avoid saturated fat but we now know that saturated fat has little effect on cardiovascular disease and mortality. In fact, quite the opposite, as high-fat diets, such as the ketogenic diet, has many therapeutic benefits to treat illness.

As with any food, having 10 pounds of it in one sitting is probably not a good idea. To have a moderate consumption of healthy protein, fat, and fibre (like 1 teaspoon of butter melted on your dinner) is not the just cause of a health problem. Remember that natural foods are recognized in the body and play a crucial role as it’s digested and utilized by the cells. Man-made foods aren't recognized by our cells, hence they get stored as fat cells.

What type of butter to consume is also an important factor. Organic, grass-fed butter has a better nutritional value and is healthier for us, the animals, and environment. Organic milk has more beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and a lower ratio of omega-6 fatty acids. Both are essential to our health but we do want a lower ratio of omega-6. Also, organic milk does not contain ruminant growth hormones or antibiotic residues, as they have not been given these drugs.

Are you dairy-free? A great dairy-free option to butter is organic ghee. Ghee is clarified butter, which has also traditionally been used in cooking for thousands of years, predominantly in South Asian cuisine. Ghee is made from melting a block of butter, allowing the white milk solids and proteins to rise and float to the top and is then removed. Similar to butter, it’s rich in Vitamins A, E, and K and butyric acid, however it’s casein and lactose free. It also contains medium-chain fatty acids (healthy fat), which help to assist in weight loss.

This is my personal preference but I prefer the smell and taste of organic ghee versus conventional ghee from the grocery store. I cannot get past the smell of conventional desi ghee to even eat it! Whether it’s the processing, manufacturing, or milk used – I prefer to use the two brands of organic ghee that I have tried (Lee’s Ghee and Prasad Ayurveda Organic Ghee) or I make my own by using grass-fed butter.

Want more great reading on butter? Here’s a link to Dr. Weston Price’s research on why butter is better! https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/why-butter-is-better/

So, go ahead – enjoy your melted butter/ghee on rye toast and in your cooking!