I’m from a country where margarine and solid vegetable fats (shortening and vegetable ghee) are widely produced and consumed, children used to eat slices of bread with margarine outside and TV advertorials were bombarded with margarine commercials.
It’s said that there are only one molecule of difference between plastic and margarine, and no insects won’t settle on margarine when a piece of it are left outside, and solid vegetable fats are harmful for health.
What’s the truth about margarine and solid vegetable fats and the whole margarine vs. butter battle? Are the claims I wrote in the previous paragraph (plastic and no insects) any true? Are solid vegetable fats bad for health?
In: 145
There are two primary ways to make solid vegetable fats.
The old way is to use some liquid vegetable fat and hydrogenate it, saturating it. This allows the fat to be more solid at room temperature. However, in recent years, we’ve learned that this process creates ‘trans fats’ which have additional detriments to cardiovascular health compared to naturally saturated fats.
The newer way is to use a vegetable fat that is naturally solid at room temperature like palm or coconut oil as your base. This is generally more expensive but it avoids trans fats.
Don’t know about the insect thing, but not all insects can digest fats in general. They might not settle on liquid vegetable fats either, or natural animals fats.
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