Was This Email in Your Inbox? As so many of us quickly pass emails on to our friends and family that we enjoy-the ones that make us laugh out loud, the ones that engage us visually and the ones that make us think, did you ever get one that just made you stop and say “hmmm is this true”?
An email began circulating around our magazine’s inboxes that peaked all of our curiosities. Have you received an email about Butter vs. Margarine? The author is unknown. And although some of the email was true, as our elders have taught us, “Don’t always believe what you read.”
The email states that “Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.”
Despite the claim in the emails, margarine was never used to fatten turkeys. It was invented in 1869 by a man from France in response to Napoleon III’s idea to hold a contest. He wanted someone to produce a product that would be low in cost to substitute for butter. It was originally called oleomargarine and was made by combining salty water, milk and margaric acid to softened beef fat. The beef fat was eventually replaced by vegetable oils which gave producers a marketing twist on how low in fat the product was.
For the date the email was originally written, some of the facts were true. For instance, both butter and margarine have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats. Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added. Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods. Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.
But years have passed, and with the power of the internet, the article is still resurfacing as if it were today’s news. And some of the facts have since changed. Margarine contained trans fat (the bad fat) in previous years which are known to cause earlier deaths in those that have consumed high amounts of it over their lifetime. Trans fats occur naturally in foods, but the amount is very minute. Most of the trans fats we see today in products are formed when vegetable oils are chemically changed to give the products a longer shelf life. Think about the products you can buy in advance and keep in your cupboard for a later time; think about the baked desserts, the cookies, the cupcakes, the potato chips, and the snacks we have grown so accustomed to are loaded with trans fats.
After the findings of several large studies in the medical community became known, producers of margarine reformulated their product to contain no-trans fat or to be low in trans-fats. We see these reformulation changes when it hits the consumer masses through product label changes.
The true eye opener in the email was this statement, “Margarine is but one molecule away from being plastic! It is hydrogenated, meaning hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance. If you place a tub of margarine outside and leave it in your garage or shaded area, within a couple of days you will note a couple of things. There will be no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it. That should tell you something! It does not rot, smell differently and nothing will grow on it. That is because there is no nutritional value and not even microorganisms will find a home to grow. Why? It is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?”

This statement has been said about more than just margarine and it holds no ground. Many products have been claimed for this, from several well known cheese companies (think of cheese in a can and Philadelphia’s only way to order a real cheese steak with whiz) to the vegetable sprays we use to cook with to our favorite whipping cream in a tub. Many substances share similar chemical properties, but even the slightest variation in molecular structure can make a world of difference in the qualities of those substances. My take? I will not believe every email I read (although they are quite amusing!), continue to educate myself and get the facts from a reliable news source before making assumptions, and stick to butter for my choice. After all, I love my cheese steaks with whiz and my bread with butter.