Is it true, as I have read, that margarine is only one molecule away from being plastic? It must be true because I read it on Facebook, and ...
I've read that to @Ken Anderson. Also that margarine was used to fatten up turkeys or some farm animal and when it didn't work they added what was needed to put it on the market to avoid going broke. You think because the sale of butter has declined that this tidbid of information about margarine will turn consumers back to buying butter again?
The old oleomargarine of our childhoods was/is bad stuff--mostly hydrogenated vegetable oil like the old Crisco. That was almost all transfat, which has now been proven to be the worst fat of all for your body. Ironically, a lot of people switched to that in earlier years thinking it was healthier than butter because it has no cholesterol. As the real studies go on, butter is looking pretty good. Not only is it not bad for you in moderate quantities, it also has some beneficial effects...like it is antibacterial. I don't know anything about oleo being similar to plastic, though.
You would think that the Food and Drug Administration would step in and comment on something like this. Bottom line though is the individual's preference beit for health, taste, or mula.
There is always something reported negatively lately regarding food. It just blows my mind about the things mentioned on FB about margarine that I am going to make that change too.
Growing up, my Mother refused to even consider Oleo at all. Everything needing butter, got butter. She did a lot of the cooking using it, baking, too. After all those years of wrecking my arteries, here I am almost 76 and my combined cholesterol runs a tad over 200, 207 last check. High density much higher than needed, Triglycerides rock-bottom low. I'm happy wit it! Frank
It seems that the causes of arteriosclerosis are multifactorial and wouldn't boil down to just one factor let alone one particular food you consume like margarine or butter. It's highly individual and mostly in the genes and there are individual risks like being an identical twin as I am. Identical twins are said to run a higher risk of suffering a stroke or a heart attack. Because my twin brother had a stroke when he was 58 they brought his cholesterol down to about 140 and he has to take statins for the rest of his life. Although he and me might epigenetically differ, my doctor said that 200 would still be too high for me considering that it runs in the family. Just by dieting alone I did not manage to reduce it to under 200 but that seems too high for me and that kind of dieting is no fun at all. So I have to take statins, too, to bring it down to 160. In the end you never know...
I like my Country Crock Churn Style...and until someone can actually prove beyond a doubt that it is messing up my health...I'm going to keep right on enjoying every bite of it.
The history of Crisco. The idea of hydrogenated oils was discovered by a German engineer who developed it for a smokeless lubricant for submarines. Later sold to England and finally sold to Proctor and Gamble [P&G]for soap and candle production. After the war and into the early 1950 a Doctor working for P&G and also a member of the American Heart Association [AHA] named Ansell Keys Told P&G to give a donation [bribe] to AHA of 1.2 million dollars to promote Crisco as a better for you than butter. The cholesterol scare started from that.