It all started at the markets on a Saturday.
I was cruising the stalls, munching happily on a quichey thing sold to me by a French six-year-old, when I saw the butter stall.
Rows and rows of butter blocks. And little pieces of bread with which you could taste the butter. And the guy in charge of the stall was waving around his blocks of butter, promising that it would be the best butter you’d ever taste. And there were samples. Samples!
Oh, what was I supposed to do? My hands were tied. By butter.
And so I went over, and stuffed my face with delicious, creamy, fluffy, slightly salty butter samples. While trying to remember the last time that I’d actually tasted butter on its own.
It’s bad for you, you know. Or… that’s what we’ve always been told.
Ever since margarine rolled onto our supermarket fridge shelves in the 1960s, we’ve been nudged away from butter.
The Australian Heart Foundation, for example, suggests people use margarine instead of butter:
Butter is around 50% saturated fat – that’s the unhealthy fat that raises our cholesterol levels. Margarine is a much healthier choice because it has a maximum of only 20% saturated fat. Used daily in place of butter, margarine helps us to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.
According to The Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey 2007, children are currently consuming twice the recommended maximum levels of saturated fat. The dietary habits established in childhood are often set for life. You can set your children on a healthier eating habit from an early age by making margarine a part of their regular healthy diet.
Some experts however, disagree.
This week, TIME magazine’s cover story is called “Ending the War on Fat”. The front page features a simple curl of butter, accompanied by two large words:
“Eat butter.”
Inside the magazine, journalist Bryan Welsh writes about avoiding fat throughout his childhood. “For decades, it has been the most vilified nutrient in the American diet,” he says. “But new science reveals fat isn’t what’s hurting our health.”
Time magazine reckons that scientists were wrong in demonising saturated fats. That, according to growing research, other things – such as sugar and processed food – are largely to blame for the diseases we’re experiencing as a society.
For example, a recent study out of the University of Cambridge questioned the link between butter and things such as heart disease. It also found no proof that polyunsaturated fats – also known as the healthy fats – lower risk of heart disease.
According to the article, the negative publicity around butter has been exaggerated and the health benefits around margarine encouraged, despite the fact that it may contain ingredients that can be damaging to your health. As a result, consumers all over the world are reaching away from margarine and back to the butter.
Today.com adds:
Scientists now know that there are two different kinds of bad cholesterol particles — one is small and dense (the kind linked to heart disease) and the other is large and fluffy (the kind that seems to be mostly benign). Saturated fat raises the level of larger particles that don’t appear to be harmful.
On the other hand, refined carbohydrates (white bread, bagels, crackers, baked goods, cookies and soda), do increase the smaller, more dangerous LDL particles.
“And unfortunately when fat was vilified back in the 1970s, we replaced those fats with…you guessed it…refined carbohydrates. That’s why we’re in trouble now,” Bauer said.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a licence to eat all the butter you want. (I know – just when things were starting to get fun, hey?)
While a little bit of butter is unlikely to really hurt you, it’s not wise to be loading it on to your lunchtime sandwich at the same thickness as your tomato.
Like everything else in life, moderation is key.
What do you think about the war on butter? Do you choose to eat it or do you prefer margarine
Top Comments
At fifty, I'm old enough to remember by grandparents and dozens great aunts and uncles, all born at the beginning of the last century. They ate all the fat on their meat, bread and butter and homemade cakes. Not one of them was overweight.
In fact, I'd go so far as saying that before the rise of the nutrition sciences, we were all doing much getter than we are now.
Personally, I wouldn't touch manufactured margarine.
Here is my anecdotal evidence for what it is worth, possibly not much!
My maternal grandparents and their siblings all lived until their late 80's and 90's. That is about 8 people. The great grandparents with one exception were also very long lived.
They all ate butter etc but both my grandparents had heart bypasses which contributed to their longevity. They were never in their lives overweight.
To be fair, they all seemed to be active people in a grandparental fashion, playing bowls, gardening and growing their own vegetables. My grandmother much preferred walking somewhere if she could and in retirement, she and my grandfather would go to a variety of different shops in one centre to get the various specials. They had rules about food that never changed. They only ate at mealtimes, but would have a biscuit with their afternoon cup of tea. They always ate home cooked food unless at a restaurant, which was rare. They would sit in front of the tv at night unless it was summer and then the cricket or the tennis were often on during the day. After the bypasses, they changed their eating habits according to conventional wisdom.
My father, on the other hand, came from a line of people who died much younger. I remember my grandmother died from "hardening of the arteries".They were poor and likely to have been the bread and dripping type.
I was a child when all the new advice came in and my father jumped on it with alacrity. We were early adopters of less eggs, margarine, polyunsaturated oils (we didn't know about mono) etc. I have never eaten the fat on a chop or steak in my life and things like cream and mayonnaise were virtually unknown to me. I always had an apple for morning tea at school. My dad is now 80 and completely healthy. His doctor thought he must have been a vegetarian as his cholesterol count is so low.
I on the other hand am also retired. I don't have room to garden. I am sitting in bed with my laptop writing this and recently have been getting my groceries delivered after ordering online. I don't really like exercise though I try but not hard enough. Although blood pressure and cholesterol are good, I am overweight by about 10 or more kilos. Someone else cleans my house and I sit a lot at my laptop. I eat healthily and usually eat "clean" and try to go without much dairy or alternatives bar cheese but I eat out often, I drink more than any of them did …., I have just realised I am doomed!
My hubby grew up eating ALOT of bread and dripping, cakes and biscuits. He was so thin throughout his life and very active. As it usually does, age got in the way and he started to pack on the weight in his late 30s. His doctor sent him to a dietician who took all the fun out of his life. No butter, no full fat dairy of any kind, could still eat bread but was only allowed to have margarine. No fat on his meat and cut down on red meat. Low fat crackers with some low fat cheese. He took this on like a champion, he never faultered, not once in 5 months. He became more and more motivated with every kilo he lost up until the 28th kilo when he suffered a stroke one fine morning. Needless to say, bread is out the window now and it's natural full fat & grass fed everything all the way.