Margarine
We use very little butter in our house, and until recently, no margarine. I use olive and canola oils for cooking, and butter solely for baking, which I do very little of. I really only use a ton of butter when I am working with filo pastry and then I can go through almost a pound. As I have said before, I don’t always eat the stuff I prepare, I just enjoy making foods for others to enjoy. Recently, however, my sons seem to have re-discovered what was once considered a major food group in university dorms, KD. It must be some kind of retro thing. I would cringe every time I saw half a pound of butter going into a triple batch, and I decided that now would be a good time to introduce the family to margarine.
Somehow, since the last time I looked, the margarine section has taken over an entire aisle in my grocery store. Low-fat, no salt, olive oil based, and one even advertising itself as “lactose free”. I thought, you’ve got to be kidding, of course there is no lactose in margarine. With a little research , I learned that most margarines do contain some dairy. I also learned that in the long standing war between butter and margarine, there is a new battle cry, trans-fatty acids.
Margarine was first created in France for Napoleon III. In 1870, he offered a prize to the scientist who could develop a substitute for butter, which was in short supply for his troops. The product was name oleo-margarine. “Oleo” came from the Latin word, oleum, which means beef fat. “Margarine” came from the Greek word for pearl, margarites, because of its glistening pearl-drop appearance. It wasn't until the 1930s that the States went to all-vegetable margarine, and the word oleo was dropped. When margarine started becoming commercially available in the United States, dairy militants pressured Congress to pass the Margarine Act of 1886, which imposed taxes and licenses for manufacturers and retailers of margarine. Over the next 50 years the battle between the dairy boards and margarine manufacturers continued. There was a total ban on coloured margarine, and it wasn't well into the 1950s that the Margarine Act was amended and many states and Canada allowed the sale of butter-coloured margarine to be sold. I remember well sitting on our kitchen stool, squeezing the margarine bag until the dark-orange tablet was broken and the colour dispersed. Wisconsin (isn't that the dairy state?), only lifted the ban in 1967. It wasn't until 1996 that the final restriction on margarine, the size of packaging allowed, was lifted. Does this all seem slightly mad to you? Don=t kid yourself, there is a lot at stake, and many stake holders.
In order to make vegetable oils solid at room temperature, their unsaturated fatty acids which are the good fats, must have a hydrogen atom attached (hydrogenation). This structure is now known as a trans-fatty acid. Hydrogenation is also used to keep products fresher longer on the shelf. Unsaturated fats go rancid faster than hydrogenated ones. New evidence has been found that these trans-fatty acids can be even worse than the saturated fats of butter in causing heart disease and raising cholesterol. There can be little doubt from years of research that if you must indulge in a topping on your toast, the unsaturated fats of margarine are better than the saturated fats of butter. It was this finding that first caused the level of butter consumption in North America to drop by half in the 1960s. The newer finding concerning the possible effect of trans- fatty acids caused a reverse reaction in the 1990s, but to a lesser degree. It has been a see-saw affair, but from the amount of space dedicated to margarine versus butter in the dairy fridge, I can see which side is winning. The jury is still out on the trans-fatty acid debate, but in the meantime, the American Medical Association and Canada Health and Welfare still recommend the use of margarine over butter because butter contains cholesterol. But, they also recommend foremost cutting all of your fat consumption in half. Use olive and canola oils in cooking whenever possible. When using margarine, use the softer types which are less hydrogenated than the sticks. It is important to remember that margarine, butter and oil all add the same number of calories to your food. Cut back on meat and when you do eat meat, eat the leaner cuts. Increase your consumption of fish and skinless chicken. Stay away from fried foods; broil or roast instead. One interesting study shows that margarine is used 65% of the time as a topping for bread and 10% of the time for topping on other foods. Ergo, 75% of the time, margarine is being used unnecessarily! Try some interesting new herbs and spices instead.
Be cautious when trying to substitute margarine for butter in recipes. Low-fat margarine does not contain the correct amount of fats to give your baking the proper texture and browning. There are just times when butter is better.