Butter or spread?

[Tinbum]

Also, the partition problem applies equally to animal welfare.

What about human welfare?

[AE-NMidlands]

There are environmental and animal welfare reasons to favour spread over butter though. Does anyone else still call it margarine? :-)

I don't think margarine exists any more... I imagine it has to have a very high minimum fat content, whereas all these modern "spreads" seem to be 59% vegetable oil, and SWMBO's "For baking" - not calling itself a spread either - is 70% fats including palm oil.

I avoid spreads because of the emulsifiers in them (and sometimes palm oil,) I cook with butter or lard or reclaimed dripping. We used to have olive oil but have run out after balking at the current price, we (I) do use ghee in most curries though.

Before thickening or adding the tomatoes I drain nicely flavoured dripping off most of our mince meals for future cooking - or eating on bread!

Clarissaa Dixon-Wright, one of the Two Fat Ladies, seems to have had a debauched good-time-girl youth, (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarissa_Dickson_Wright) interviewed on TV she was asked if she had kept any of her promises... she said "Just one: My father-in law was a director of Unilever and he made me promise never to eat margarine as you don't know what they put in it!"

[NoraBatty]

Yep anything that has to be artificially coloured to look edible is a big no here.
There is no contest between the two in my opinion. Butter all the way.
A trick i learned whilst working in a kitchen was to use the back of a spoon to spread butter. You are much less likely to tear bread up that way and you get a more even spread.

[Bugtownboy]

Margarine used hydrogenation of veg oils to produce a ‘solid’ fat. Unfortunately, the process produced trans-fats which are not good.

Spreads now use inter-esterification of vegetable oils to produce a similar result without the trans fats.

Usually, spreads will have colourings and flavourings added to them.

Most, if not all, ‘spreads’ could be classed as ultra processed foods.

Our mantra is avoid UPF’s, make the vast majority of meals from fresh/simple ingredients, eat meat sparingly, try and have fish a couple of times a week (tinned fish are your friend) and aim to incorporate at least 30 plant based foods in your diet per week.

Oh, and a couple of glasses of red have to be a good thing

[richbee]

Margarine used hydrogenation of veg oils to produce a ‘solid’ fat. Unfortunately, the process produced trans-fats which are not good.

Spreads now use inter-esterification of vegetable oils to produce a similar result without the trans fats.

Usually, spreads will have colourings and flavourings added to them.

Most, if not all, ‘spreads’ could be classed as ultra processed foods.

Our mantra is avoid UPF’s, make the vast majority of meals from fresh/simple ingredients, eat meat sparingly, try and have fish a couple of times a week (tinned fish are your friend) and aim to incorporate at least 30 plant based foods in your diet per week.

Oh, and a couple of glasses of red have to be a good thing

Glad you added the red wine part at the end!
We're trying to do about the same

[GarethC]

Interestingly, I couldn't find a definitive study, or review of studies.

This was a decent read, although not conclusive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20 ... est-spread

[Mart]

Silly question, and I may be going mad, but on American programmes, films etc, it always looks to me that their butter is white(ish). Just me or is there a reason?

[GarethC]

Margarine used hydrogenation of veg oils to produce a ‘solid’ fat. Unfortunately, the process produced trans-fats which are not good.

Spreads now use inter-esterification of vegetable oils to produce a similar result without the trans fats.

Interesting thanks I didn't know that.

Usually, spreads will have colourings and flavourings added to them.

Most, if not all, ‘spreads’ could be classed as ultra processed foods.

Our mantra is avoid UPF’s, make the vast majority of meals from fresh/simple ingredients, eat meat sparingly, try and have fish a couple of times a week (tinned fish are your friend) and aim to incorporate at least 30 plant based foods in your diet per week.

Oh, and a couple of glasses of red have to be a good thing

Yes this is pretty much what we do too.

I do find the Ultra Processed label irritatingly unhelpful though. Firstly, it's still more often the case that it's the ingredients that are problematic, not the processes.

The advice to avoid foods containing ingredients you wouldn't find in your own kitchen is more helpful. But even there, if you dig deeper you find that many remain of these 'strange' ingredients are actually quite benign.

Also, pasteurisation is a process. Should I stop drinking pasteurised milk in favour of less processed stuff?

I suppose it's impossible to summarise the situation well, and I couldn't do better, but I wish someone could do better than 'ultra processed' = bad.

[AE-NMidlands]

Silly question, and I may be going mad, but on American programmes, films etc, it always looks to me that their butter is white(ish). Just me or is there a reason?

I think it is down to "national preferences." I think I remember that German butter was very white, and they have a preference for white-shelled hens' eggs besides pale yolks too. Commercial egg producers can specify the amount of colour precursor in the feed they buy to get the yolk colour they "need!" I have even seen colour plates the same as you can get for interior decorating...

[Bugtownboy]

I do find the Ultra Processed label irritatingly unhelpful though. Firstly, it's still more often the case that it's the ingredients that are problematic, not the processes.

The advice to avoid foods containing ingredients you wouldn't find in your own kitchen is more helpful.

I agree - I think we’ve all got a sense of what is not good to form a significant part of a healthy diet.

If you stick to a diet that is varied, uses fresh/simple ingredients (using this to include, mainly dried pulses) and avoids ready meals and takeaways is probably going to be ok.

AE touches on an ingredient that, I think, is going to be the next health crisis - emulsifiers.

I’m not fully sure what they are chemically, but, if there’s a long list of ingredients and it includes emulsifiers, avoid.