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Butter/Margarine

A

Alberta

Super Moderator
Staff member
My daughter in law has never eaten margarine.

She has always told us that if you leave margarine/low fat spread where there are flies they will not land on it because it is not a food,she calls it plastic spread.

I have never taken any notice and continue to eat low fat spread.

I have just read an article that says that the structure of margarine is not found in nature and the body has a difficult job to break it down and that butter is much better for us.

I hope Steve doesn't read it,he tends to give all these bits of advice a go but just my luck Asda were doing 2 for the price of one on our spread so I stocked up.
 
Esters. No, not that woman from the TV with all the teeth, but compounds formed from the reaction between alcohols and acids.
See https://home.clara.net/rod.beavon/efo.htm

There is a very good (but highly technical) article about 'Modern fat technology', its association with heart health and cholesterol, sub titled 'The ticking time bomb: the metabolic syndrome' at
https://journals.cambridge.org/down...67a.pdf&code=0bc8aecd4c32ec35589a28152cc6112a

Anyway, I could never spread butter without tearing a huge hole in the slice of bread!
 
Alberta
There are lots of things around "not found in nature ". The structure of cooked meat is not found in nature till man decided to cook it. There are some people that think anything not "natural" is not good for you and should be avoided. At the same time sellers of butter seize on any adverse publicity to try to increase the sales of their product. Before my retirement my speciality was chemistry of fats and it is now thought that the old style hard cooking type margarines , if used in excessive amounts, were probably not good for you. Butter is probably better for you than those, but excessive quantities should be avoided. Modern soft spreads are nothing like the old sort of margarine, and in fact legally most cannot be called margarine as they have had their fat content reduced to help you reduce your fat intake. Butter undoubtably tastes better than spreads, though the difference is decreasing, but should be used in moderation where it matters. Try to keep your fat intake down but use whatever is most appropriate. Don't be fooled by being attracted to spreads with "magic" oils in. Virgin Olive oil probably is good for you, but a spread claiming to be an olive oil spread which has 10% olive oil (which is probably not virgin, but even if it was wouldn't make much difference) is a con.
Special spreads like Benecol are useful, though expensive, for those who have high cholesterol levels. They do work in reducing the levels, if taken regularly, and i use them, though not that particular one as it tastes awful.
Mike
 
I'm with you 100% Norma, every thing tastes so much better with butter and you can use it sparingly with out loosing the taste. Mike Benicol shares have nose dived.
 
Among the vegetable oils used for food are those extracted from safflower seed, cottonseed and olives. Safflower oil is rated as containing the most linoleic acid, which is thought to work in decreasing cholesterol in the blood. Most of the cottonseed oil produced in the United States finds its way to the table. It may be prepared for margarine, cooking oil, shortening, salad dressing or mayonnaise. Many salad lovers and cooks prefer olive oil due to its delicate flavor and its being easily digestible.
Dr. Peter O. Kwiterovich, of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Substitute foods low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol for foods high in these fats.” Use vegetable oil and soft margarine in place of animal fat, solid shortening, or ghee—a clarified butter commonly used in India. Avoid the use of such vegetable oils as palm oil and coconut oil, which are high in saturated fats. And drastically limit your consumption of commercially made bakery products—doughnuts, cakes, cookies, and pies—since they commonly contain saturated fats.

Most sunflowers today are grown for their seeds, which produce an excellent oil. Sunflower oil is used for cooking, in salad dressings, and in margarine. The seeds have a high nutritional value, containing 18 to 22 percent protein and other nutrients.

Thinking back “ when I were a lad,…” we very rarely had butter, mom simply couldn’t afford it. If I recall we had Echo margarine.
 
The old Echo contained hydrogenated fats and was definitely one that today we would recommend to avoid. In fact today we would probably say the same about virtually all the margarines and cooking fats available back then
mike
 
I wonder what William Shakespeare thought of Butter?

Henry 1V, Part, Scene 11, Act 4: Carrier: “As fat as Butter.”

But What did the Bard think of Echo margarine?

Macbeth V, 3 "I would applaud thee to the very echo."
 
You just can't beat a good dollop of Lurpak on hot crusty toasted bread, maybe with Marmite or cheese or..........mmmm! How about dripping with a tiny sprinkle of salt. Kids nowadays would surely turn their noses up, not good for you I know, but absolutely scrummy. It's making my mouth water just thinking about it :-) I'm off for my tea!
 
From the last war until the rationing finished, my Gran used to mix the butter and margarine allowance in a bowl and that was what we had on our bread. We were so used to the taste that butter on it's own has always seemed too creamy, especially Lurpack. Where I come from we did like a Wiltshire butter called 'Moonraker' as a treat after rationing but haven't seen or tasted that for many years.
 
For hot toast it has to be butter as many spreads make the toast soggy due tot he high water content. Like Norma I eat so little butter that changing to another form of spread would make little difference. My wife on the other hand is determined to control her diabetes and cholesterol without recourse to tablets so in our fridge you will find Bertolli Spread (Olivio as was) - may not be the ideal but seems to work for Linda.
 
I love unsalted butter the best in one of Pete's jacket potatoes cooked under the open fire. Only have butter once every two weeks as my cholesterol was high but it runs in the family unfortunately. I have flora pro-active every day and my last blood test revealed my level had dropped to below 5 and most of those were the good cholesterol [whatever they are]. It tastes much better than benecol and I quite like it. Jean.
 
I love butter, my mom used to roll it into little balls and then in sugar if you had a sore throat, I threaten the grand kids with it if they don't take their cough medicine, they don't like butter that much. Jean do you remember going to Mr Maggs to get butter? he used to cut a piece off and weigh it , then keep patting it with these 2 wooden paddle things till it was the right shape, then wrap it in greaseproof paper
 
I had forgot [like the chimney sweep] till you reminded me. I can see him now patting it into shape. I never had the sugar butter ball treatment though Pat. Jean.
 
I had butter rubbed on my forehead when I bumped it,either to stop it bruising or to bring out the bruise?
One of my grans many remedies.

Also when I was a child people put butter on cats paws when they moved house to stop them from running back to the old address,presumably they spent so much time licking their paws they forgot where they were.LOL
 
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Remember both those things Alberta. When Tigger our old cat from years ago was ill he wouldn't take his pills unless popped inside a lump of butter. Our dog is more expensive have to wrap his in pate. Jean.
 
[ame="https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0MsbvGmLaU4"]YouTube - Vicar of dibley (I cant believe its not butter)[/ame]
 
My Dad only ever ate Echo marge. Smoked all his adult life, drank beer daily, frozen peas were the only veg he ate on a regular basis and the only fruit he ever ate was in a bar of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut. At one time I was thinking of taking out shares in Cadbury because he ate so much of it. He lived until he was 88 years old when he died. So much for eating healthy and taking exercise, which walking to the pub and back.
 
Patty said:
I love butter, my mom used to roll it into little balls and then in sugar if you had a sore throat, I threaten the grand kids with it if they don't take their cough medicine, they don't like butter that much. Jean do you remember going to Mr Maggs to get butter? he used to cut a piece off and weigh it , then keep patting it with these 2 wooden paddle things till it was the right shape, then wrap it in greaseproof paper
Click to expand...

There you are Patty a Pat for Patty


https://www.objectlessons.org/ol/in...12&component_id=35&component_type=&tab=larger
 
I went for a check up at my Surgery with the Nurse about four years ago.

She asked the usual questions about Drinks & Smoking and she also did a test for cholesterol, on going back a month later she said she was most surprised that my cholesterol test was normal. So I took the test again, once again a month later she said its the same and I'm most surprised.
As is my way and the Nurses are almost used to me now I asked why shouldn't it be, well its your lifestyle, well I don't think I've changed it over the years I replied just eat what I like and smoke when I like and drink when I like.
Then they told me it can be Heredity Cholesterol. No answer to that.
 
That's right Alf. My identical twins were used to research cholesterol at the University of Birmingham. These tests could only be done on identical twins. At the end of the study with loads of twins they printed their conclusions and said that unfortunately cholesterol runs in families. It does help to eat healthy though as I have said flora pro-activeAPPEARS to have helped reduced mine. Had the test done before and twice since and it is now fine. Jean.
 
Be good for giving someone a clip round the ears with Norma, as my mom would say. Tryed to send you message on F B but it wouldnt go
 
My choresterol is 4,I love chips,crisps and chocolate and I am overweight,so technically it should be high.
The only things in my favour,I have never smoked,I do not eat meat or meat products or drink alcohol
 
I have found this thread so interesting. Like so many of you I remember all the remedies butter was used for.
One of my favourites things was on bread with sugar sprinkled on it.
From a fairly young age I would have dreadful pains suddenly come on in my stomach and until about 25 years ago had no idea what it was. Tests proved I had a hiatus hernia and so some foods would irritate it. I realised every time I ate butter or anything with butter within a short time it would start. So I went to margarine made from Corn or Sunflower oil. What a difference it made, although still having some problems. Since giving up beef completely it is very rare I have a problem. So in my case a bit of what I fancy does not do me good!!!
Lloyd I watch the Vicar of Dibbley all the time I just love it. "No, no, yes, yes I do" LOL Mo
 
my mom had the healthiest spread, maybe not technicaly.if you asked for a piece she would say bread and scrape it. in other words you put it on and scrape it off
 
There is nothing like a crust off the end of the bread, loaded with Stork margarine !!
(and a bit of jam if you have any).
Did anyone else like bread and marg sprinkled with sugar??
 
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