ABSTRACT: We have been led to believe that margarine and most cooking oils, since they don't have saturated fats, are healthier for you. However, any margarine of cooking oil made from Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils have risk factors.
CONTENT: I'm a real stickler about reading the labels of any food product I buy. Like most people, I'm trying to eat healthier, not only to maintain my weight, but to try and reduce the possibilities of developing health conditions, such as cancer or heart problems.
As you may know and realize, that unless you buy foods in their more "natural" state, that is fresh produce and meats, most of our foods are heavily processed, especially our convenience foods, such as any prepared frozen and canned foods and so forth. I try to minimize buying such food products, since it's my belief, that if you can't even pronounce the ingredients in processed foods and need a chemist degree to understand just what is in food, then one shouldn't be buying them, which is also why, I prefer to cook the vast majority of my meals from scratch, that way I at least I know what is going into my meals.
One of the greatest controversies I find is the battle of which are the better fats that we use in our day to day lives for cooking or baking. Is it butter? Is it margarine? And which are the better cooking oils? Once again, by reading the labels of any of these, one will be amazed by the differences. More important, one has to ask, which of these are safer to use?
Read the label ingredients of any pure butter product. I give the ingredients of Land O Lakes butter here as an example, and they are simply, "Sweet Cream, Salt. Contains: Milk"...that's it. Plain and simple. Below are the Nutrition Facts for their butter, which can be seen on the package and also on their website. Land O Lakes Butter
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 tbsp (14g)
Servings Per Container: Will depend on package size.
Amount Per Serving
Calories 100 Calories from Fat 100
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11 g 17%
Saturated Fat 7 g 37%
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 30 mg 10%
Sodium 95 mg 4%
Total Carbohydrate 0 g 0%
Dietary Fiber 0 g 0%
Sugars 0 g
Protein 0 g
Vitamin A 8 % Calcium 0 %
Vitamin C 0 % Iron 0 %
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Now over the years, butter has gotten a rather bum reputation as being the more unhealthy fat to use for cooking or baking, due to the cholesterol and saturated fat levels which can increase the risk of heart problems. As you can see by the nutrition facts, butter has 30mg (or 10%) of cholesterol, and 7 grams (or 37%) of saturated fat in just one Tablespoon serving.
But does this necessarily mean that butter is really unhealthier to use? In terms of it's purity factor, butter wins hands down despite the cholesterol issue and, if you'll notice, according to the nutrition facts label, there are no trans fats. I say this because once one starts getting into reading the labels of margarine and cooking oils, even though they may not contain high levels of cholesterol or saturated fats, they often contain ingredients that are now proving to be worse health factors than butter and have been linked to cancers, heart problems to even respiratory diseases.
For instance, going back to the Land O Lakes website, and reading the Nutrition Facts, here is where one has to start feeling like a chemist to understand just what is in your typical type of margarine.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 tbsp (14g)
Servings Per Container: About 32.
Amount Per Serving
Calories 100 Calories from Fat 100
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11 g 17%
Saturated Fat 2 g 11%
Trans Fat 2.5 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 105 mg 4%
Total Carbohydrate 0 g 0%
Dietary Fiber 0 g 0%
Sugars 0 g
Protein 0 g
Vitamin A 10 % Calcium 0 %
Vitamin C 0 % Iron 0 %
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
INGREDIENTS: Liquid Soybean Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Water, Buttermilk, Contains Less Than 2% Of Salt, Soy Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Vegetable Mono And Diglycerides, Artificial Flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate, Beta Carotene (Color). CONTAINS: MILK AND SOY
As you can see, both butter and margarine actually have the same amount of Total Fat content of 17%, and while butter does have a higher saturated fat level, there still is saturated fat in margarine, also the sodium level is higher in margarine. The one big difference is, where butter has no trans fat, margarine does!
The real controversy however in margarine and cooking oils is the addition of the Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils and is thought to create more health problems then can be imagined possible. For instance, it has now been known for years, that these Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils, which are found not only in margarine and cooking oils, but in so many processed foods, can actually raise the the LDL or bad cholesterol levels and decrease the HDL which is the good cholesterol levels. There are also links that Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils can increase the risk factors of heart disease, cancers (including breast, prostate and colon cancer), increases blood pressure, can cause gallbladder and liver diseases, there are even possible links that these oils can create ADHD. (1)
I'm only listing a partial listing here of the known health risks that these Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils can create, but the Truth Publishing.com website contains a staggering list of other health risk factors that can be created by using these oils Truth Publishing. This is not the only source of information concerning the detrimental effects of such oils, but I found other websites to confirm this same information as well, and I have provided a listing of websites to go to verify these facts.
Now one also may be puzzled as to which cooking oils may be truly safe. Once again, the purer the product, in my mind the better it will be. I do happen to have a preference for Olive Oil, which is the least processed cooking oil of all. One will not find either Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated ingredients in Olive Oil, while all the others do. Also, once again, since other cooking oils do have as in their process the blending of either Hydrogenated of Partially Hydrogenated, many of these oils are unstable at high cooking temperatures and can even release toxins that can affect and promote respiratory ailments (2) Cooking oils especially those stored in plastic containers are also known to become rancid at a faster rate, and if have been on the shelf for any length of time can also have the chemicals of the plastic containers leech into the oil itself, which is why the best choice is to at least get cooking oils that are stored in tinted glass bottles instead.
In my mind the worse cooking oil to use is Corn Oil...there have been higher incidences of breast cancer found in women who use this oil as opposed to women in the Mediterranean area who exclusively use Olive Oil. (3) Cottonseed oil which is also found in a variety of processed foods is also not safe, as it is the by product of the cotton industry, and of which cotton is highly sprayed with pesticides, thus those pesticides are in the cottonseed oil itself.
Any and all Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated oils whether found in margarine, almost all cooking oils (except Olive Oil), or processed foods, will have trans fat in them, which as you know is another health risk we're trying to avoid and has also been a big topic in itself lately.
Per cost, margarine is a lot less expensive than butter, just as almost all cooking oils are cheaper than olive oil, which has probably been one of the factors of margarine and other cooking oils' popularity, plus of course, all the hype that margarine and most cooking oils did not have saturated fats, thus supposedly healthier. To my mind, however, and in consideration of all these health factors involved with margarine or most cooking oils that contain Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils, whether it be soybean, cottonseed, canola, coconut, sunflower, safflower and so forth, I can't help thinking that the wiser choice to simply go back to using butter and olive oil as they are the purest, less processed fats to use for all one's cooking and baking needs.
Hydrogenated Oils:
http://www.truthpublishing.com/poisonfood_p/yprint-cat21284.htm (1)
http://www.rmhiherbal.org/review/2000-4.html#mar
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/women/breast_cancer.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/344277_diacetyl21.html(2)
http://www.chelationtherapyonline.com/articles/p122.htm
http://www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_100/148b_eating_well.html
Corn Oil
http://macrobiotics.co.uk/cornoil.htm (3)
Cottonseed Oil
http://www.newconnexion.net/article/05-04/cottonseed.html
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