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Q&A: Butter vs. Margarine |
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Written by Diet Detective Editorial Staff
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Q: Which is more healthful, butter or margarine?
A: Good
question. It is one that even researchers keep asking over and over. At
first it was thought that margarine was better for you because it has
less saturated fat than butter. Saturated fat has been shown to
increase risk of heart disease.
However, the form of fat that margarine has is something called trans
fat, which researchers now say may be worse for you than saturated fat.
What you can do is look for margarines with no trans fatty acids (or
at least less) or tub margarines, which have less trans fat by nature.
Trans fatty acids are formed when hydrogen is added to liquid fat in
order to make them solid for use in a variety of products (sounds
lovely, doesn't it?). To determine whether a food item contain trans
fat, check out the ingredient list for tell-tale signs; If "partially
hydrogenated oil" is listed, chances are the product contains some
amount of trans fat. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 July 2006 )
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