Margarine vs Butter?

Butter, totally!

Take a stick out of the fridge and put it on your counter (or in a butter keeper). It spreads really nicely at room temperature and if you leave it out, it doesn't go bad very quickly.

Just because scientists have been wrong in the past doesn't mean that science should be disregarded. There's quite a bit of evidence weighing against trans fat consumption, and personally I wouldn't dismiss it just because of some anecdotal evidence about some people who are currently healthy yet they have eaten trans fat in the past. I've known unhealthy people that lived well into their 90s and healthy people that didn't make it past 50. Trying to draw conclusions from anecdotal evidence isn't going to get you anywhere, and just because you can be lean while eating lots of trans fats doesn't mean it's healthy to eat lots of trans fats.

I guess there's science and there's science. Dietary studies are often poorly framed and then widely misunderstood.

I guess you'd have to tell me what you think is "healthy" if it can kill a 50 year old.

I should have said seemingly healthy. A friend's father was an avid cyclist, always incredibly lean and active, ate what would be considered by almost everyone to be a healthy diet - and yet died tragically in his early 50's. Meanwhile, my grandfather was overweight, was an alcoholic earlier in his life, used tobacco for decades, had heart attacks earlier in his life, had type 2 diabetes, and yet he lived well into his 90's. If you were to use these two people as anecdotal evidence, we could conclude cycling and staying lean are a lethal combination, while smoking, drinking and being overweight are generally better for your health. Anecdotal evidence simply isn't useful in drawing conclusions about nutrition.

I won't disagree that science is oftentimes misinterpreted and not all studies and experiments are created equal. On the other hand, there really isn't much disagreement at the moment that industrial trans fats are a bad idea for your health, and you saying you can stay lean while eating them really doesn't change that conclusion. Leanness is far from the only issue when it comes to health.

Thing is, I'm always being told what healthy is.

Normally by people who have cut something out and want to tell you about it. insert-favourite-diet-fad-here.

But I've been healthy (and I'm still not sure how we're defining that) all my life. I know, you'll dismiss that as anecdote. Perhaps rightly so. But don't be so sure that only knowledge that comes from a book (or a paper) is worthwhile. Sometimes the lived experience is a powerful thing.

And, anyway, my marge doesn't really contain much in the way of trans-fats (so google has reliably informed me.)

I guess I don't (and probably never will) get what all the fuss is about. Calories > Macros > Micros > Train properly. Done. It's not as complicated as people have to make it out to be.

As a side note: I grew up eating marg because it was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than butter. Like, 1/4 of the price. I loved it. Moved to the US, from Canada, couldn't find my specific marg in the spreadable tubs, only in sticks, which spread for ****. Bounced around between the American stand-bys of Parkay, country crock, whatever. Never satisfied. Eating real butter in restaurants, didn't like it at first, came to warm to it. Discovered spreadable butter... BOOM! Happy medium for me.

Butter vs marg is not how I got fat, heh.

butter - I prefer the taste and texture over margarine and butter is less chemically processed. I've heard that margarine is only one molecule off from plastic

REAL. BUTTER. ALWAYS. :drinker:

For awhile now I had thought that buying low fat margarine was better and healthier than real butter. I made a switch to using real butter for a month and I've lost weight. I thought the 100 calories from just one tablespoon would kill my calories but not really. I was also talking to my sister who's an RN for 20 years and she told me that she's been using real butter for 15 years.

So my question is... What do you think? What do you use?

I remember my Mum having a lard chip pan when I was a kid and my grandparents using it. Mmm. Lard chips. No-one makes them any more for some reason. I use it for making pastry though.

Butter, 100% all the time, even when baking and recipes call for margarine. I adapt.

I think margarine tastes gross and don't want to eat it!

Butter only, I don't think I have ever had margarine.