Is butter better than margarine?

Whether or not butter is better than margarine probably depends in no small part upon your health status. For people with elevated blood cholesterol levels, particularly low density lipoprotein levels, we know that a decrease in saturated fat content and dietary cholesterol can help reduce these levels. Because butter is some 68% saturated and contains cholesterol, it makes sense for butter consumers to switch to using plant oils more often. Plant oils range from 7% saturated (canola oil) to approximately 15% saturated (soybean oil). The bonus is that plant oils do NOT contain cholesterol. However, as you well know, vegetable oil is not too appealing a spread for toast and so many people decide to use small amounts of vegetable oil margarines when they need a "spreadable" plant oil. Margarines made from partially hydrogenated plant oils are not the best choice as trans fatty acids are formed during the process of hydrogenation (re-saturation of the unsaturated plant oil). These trans fatty acids have a similar or worse effect than saturated fats on blood cholesterol levels. Margarines that have NOT been hydrogenated have super saturated tropical fats and oils added to them to turn them into that "spreadable" form. Although these tropical fats and oils are not great for us either look for those margarines that have no more than 1.1 grams of saturated fat in the 8 grams of total fat in a 10 gram (2 tsp) serving size. AND do watch how mush you use! Most of us could afford to take it easy on added fats in our diet.