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?
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Fat molecules are kinda like drinking straws. Saturated fats (like butter) are solid because the straw isn’t bent/kinked and can pack together closely with a bunch of other straws. Unsaturated fats (like vegetable oils) are liquid because the end is bent/kinked so they can’t pack together tightly anymore. BUT, you can straighten out the bend so that they fit tightly together again (liquid oil is “hydrogenated” to a solid margarine).
However, the straight, saturated form can initiate a chain reaction that triggers your liver to produce “bad” cholesterol, which gunks up your blood vessels and causes heart disease.
The “one molecule away from plastic” thing is a scaremongering nonsense statement. It’s completely meaningless and you should ignore it.
The reason margarine is considered unhealthy is that it often has elevated levels of trans fats, which are worse for you than other types of fats.
Old school margarine (possibly still common in some countries) was made from excess soybean oil originally. The oil would be extracted, filtered and then put into a chamber where very hot hydrogen gas would be bubbles through it. This would ‘saturate’, or straighten out the fatty acid chains by adding hydrogen to the kinks. This lets the fatty acids pack more closely together and lets the oil be solid at room temperature.
Now the original stuff when saturated would be 1) rancid from being superheated, 2) smell gross, 3) be a weird grey colour, so following hydrogenation the newly made solid would be bleached and deodorized so it looked white and odourless. Then margarine was (originally) sold with a packet of yellow dye, or (later) coloured yellow in the factory. Sometimes diacetyl would be added to give it a more buttery smell and taste.
Issue with this margarine is that hydrogenation can straighten out the fats in two ways, 50/50 shot: cis and trans. This type of trans fat doesn’t exist in nature and our bodies DO NOT handle it well, with just a couple grams a day massively increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and other illnesses. Never ever eat synthetic trans fats. There are ‘trans fats’ in dairy called conjugated linoleum acids, those are fine – but the hydrogenated stuff is poison.
More modern margarine generally uses plant oils that are solid at room temperature (like coconut or palm oil), mixed with liquid oil, flavours and colours to make it look more buttery and give it the right consistency.
Hydrogenation of oils to produce shortening, under most circumstances, produces by-product substances called *trans fats*, which are known to be detrimental to health. The body has no enzyme that can fully degrade a trans fat, and the configuration of the fat readily inserts itself into important cellular membranes. As a result trans fats are strongly implicated in coronary artery disease when consumed.
Unfortunately it’s not possible to remove the trans fat from hydrogenated vegetable oils, or to hydrogenate oils without creating trans fat. You can only substitute non-hydrogenated oils, such as palm oil, that have a similar melting and smoke point. But those oils are safe and not generally harmful to health. Margarine, a butter replacement made from water and vegetable oils, can be safely made from palm and other oils but when made from shortening is likely introducing trans fats into your diet.
There have been studies that showed margarine was worse than butter for heart health. However they have changed some of the ingredients since then. There is a ton of data on various types of vegetable oils and how they effect your health, but the effects are pretty small in most cases. It’s very hard to prove the effects of one single thing in your diet. It can take decades of research to find even a small change, and even then, the research may be overturned later.
I would say it’s safe to assume that all things being equal, a vegetable source of fat probably is better for you than an animal one. Olive, avocado oils, and nut oils seem to be better for us. Solid fats from plants sources in small amounts are probably ok, and you cannot assume that because they are saturated that they carry the same risks as saturated animal fats. Also margarine doesn’t have that much fully saturated fat, only enough to keep it roughly solid at room temperature.
tl;dr Nobody knows exactly what dietary patterns lead to heart disease. Vegetable oils are an environmentally beneficial and affordable source of calories worldwide.
My lodger moved out so I called her electricity company and said she’s left. They asked for my name, and now I have a bill for £1500.
Easier than chasing the debtor I guess.
Name and shame: Octopus.
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