Butter or margarine/spread- anybody have an opinion?

Ready2Rock206

kerrygold butter - I rarely use butter but when I do it's the good stuff

FredKing1

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

kerrygold butter - I rarely use butter but when I do it's the good stuff

Odd that we have to import butter from grass fed cows. I can't find any domestic product.

Ready2Rock206

FredKing1 wrote: »

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

kerrygold butter - I rarely use butter but when I do it's the good stuff

Odd that we have to import butter from grass fed cows. I can't find any domestic product.

Probably have to go through a local farm? I've never thought about it. Darn American cows always eating fast food and junk!

Meganthedogmom

Butter!!! Margarine tastes nasty to me, and the color scares me.

SuggaD

butter. margarine is not my idea of real food, but to each his own.

JoRocka

Butter- b/c I'm a purist and a fat snob.

wizzybeth

Butter. Can't stand the taste of fake stuff.

CooCooPuff

I love butter for recipes, but spreadable butter is pretty neat. I tried a honey flavor and enjoyed it.

ki4eld

Butter. I have a few different kinds depending on application, but for eating I use a locally-sourced grass-fed butter. So delicious.

JustMissTracy

earlnabby wrote: »

Butter here. If I am going to spend 100 calories on fat, it will be on tasty fat.

This, exactly.

rhtexasgal

Butter all the way ... my family uses it a lot so I keep a butter bell on the counter so it is always spreadable. Doesn't go bad for us.

Cahgetsfit

butter. better taste, all natural. Margarine - I keep away from it with a 10-foot pole. gross.

kshama2001

Pollywog_la

Physick wrote: »

Dairy makes my skin break out so I had to find an alternative. I use Melt now- it's a non dairy substitute that tastes, spreads, and sautees like real butter. Has a lot of flavor- can bake with it too- it's pretty much the closest I've found to real butter that isn't real butter.

Have you tried ghee or clarified butter?
Easy to make. All the solids (which are usually the cause of allergies, etc) are removed. People with more severe allergies may still have issues with it though.

Pollywog_la

I used to always use fake butter (Country Crock, I Cant Believe its not Butter) because we were told it was healthier than butter when I was a kid.

Eventually, I came to see that this wasn't true and went back to butter.

If you are on a very low fat diet and don't use margarine very much anyway, they probably won't make a difference healthwise. But I would look into the effects of too much use for health outcomes.

Margarine is a "new food", very recent in human consumption and didn't exist until the 19th century. Refined vegetable oil didn't exist until then either, as the ability to extract seed oils with machines and solvents was new.

Butter however is an "old food" in existence since goats, sheep and cows were domesticated. It is unlikely the modern diseases people suffer from are from old foods, but rather from new foods or old foods over-processed and over-consumed compared to the past (like white flour and sugar).

Some links to look at.
Very layperson-friendly, but they link to studies for further research
http://authoritynutrition.com/butter-vs-margarine/
http://authoritynutrition.com/7-reasons-why-butter-is-good-for-you/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/opinion/bittman-butter-is-back.html

Machka9

Margarine

Although I will sometimes use butter in baking.

lemurcat12

Like I said above, I'm a butter person, because it tastes better and I don't use so much that it matters (most people probably do not). And butter has benefits in baking, of course.

But since some are generalizing too much about margarine, I'll throw in this to present a counterpoint:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/butter-vs-margarine/faq-20058152

Margarine is made from vegetable oils, so it contains unsaturated "good" fats — polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. These types of fats help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad," cholesterol when substituted for saturated fat.... But not all margarines are created equal — some margarines contain trans fat. In general, the more solid the margarine, the more trans fat it contains. So stick margarines usually have more trans fat than tub margarines do.

tcarp8

Butter

singingflutelady

Butter all the way

Tigg_er

Butter for me