One of my favorite activities is making homemade bread.
Something about the tantalizing smell and taste of freshly-baked bread forces all the worries of the day aside.
If you enjoy this as much as I do, you are surely wondering which is the better substance to spread on top of a warm slice of bread.
Some opt for margarine, hoping to avoid the saturated fats found in butter.
The other half of you may be partial to butter, not only for its fabulous taste, but to avoid the transfat in margarine.
So which is really the better option? Or is there another appealing option that is better than either of these? First, it is important to define what I mean when I say margarine.
Any kind of spread, including low-fat spreads, that include oils instead of simply cream, are considered to be margarine.
The origins of margarine date back to the mid-19th century when it was purchased as "poor man's butter.
" The 1930s brought an amazing change to the production of margarine when the process of hydrogenation was developed.
In the 1950s, it was discovered that the hydrogenation process could be stopped short, resulting in the dreaded partially-hydrogenated oils we know so well today.
This process saved money and so became the standard process of making margarine.
Today, margarine continues to outsell butter, probably because it is often half the price of butter and tastier than ever before.
When the dangers of transfats came to the surface a few years back, along with their connection to partially-hydrogenated oils, low-fat butter-like spreads became available.
These advertise excellent health benefits, with traces of fish oil to provide you with Omega-3 fatty acids.
These brands claim to provide the best things for your health since sliced...
butter.
So who is right and who is wrong? I'll play devil's advocate here by saying they both are.
Of course, butter is butter - apart from the salted and unsalted versions - but there are different kinds of margarine.
If you choose to spread "poor man's butter" on your bread, choose those made with sunflower oil, soya, olive oil, or my personal favorite, rapeseed oil - also known as canola oil in the US and Canada.
Of course, you can always choose butter, but use it sparingly and as a luxury, since half of it is saturated fat.
If you love the taste of fresh bread, and the choice between butter and margarine stresses you out, you could always forgo either and simply eat it plain.
Something about the tantalizing smell and taste of freshly-baked bread forces all the worries of the day aside.
If you enjoy this as much as I do, you are surely wondering which is the better substance to spread on top of a warm slice of bread.
Some opt for margarine, hoping to avoid the saturated fats found in butter.
The other half of you may be partial to butter, not only for its fabulous taste, but to avoid the transfat in margarine.
So which is really the better option? Or is there another appealing option that is better than either of these? First, it is important to define what I mean when I say margarine.
Any kind of spread, including low-fat spreads, that include oils instead of simply cream, are considered to be margarine.
The origins of margarine date back to the mid-19th century when it was purchased as "poor man's butter.
" The 1930s brought an amazing change to the production of margarine when the process of hydrogenation was developed.
In the 1950s, it was discovered that the hydrogenation process could be stopped short, resulting in the dreaded partially-hydrogenated oils we know so well today.
This process saved money and so became the standard process of making margarine.
Today, margarine continues to outsell butter, probably because it is often half the price of butter and tastier than ever before.
When the dangers of transfats came to the surface a few years back, along with their connection to partially-hydrogenated oils, low-fat butter-like spreads became available.
These advertise excellent health benefits, with traces of fish oil to provide you with Omega-3 fatty acids.
These brands claim to provide the best things for your health since sliced...
butter.
So who is right and who is wrong? I'll play devil's advocate here by saying they both are.
Of course, butter is butter - apart from the salted and unsalted versions - but there are different kinds of margarine.
If you choose to spread "poor man's butter" on your bread, choose those made with sunflower oil, soya, olive oil, or my personal favorite, rapeseed oil - also known as canola oil in the US and Canada.
Of course, you can always choose butter, but use it sparingly and as a luxury, since half of it is saturated fat.
If you love the taste of fresh bread, and the choice between butter and margarine stresses you out, you could always forgo either and simply eat it plain.
Source...