
When you go to prepare the toast for breakfast, or spread the bread for the snack, surely you have wondered more than once what is better, butter or margarine. Here we solve all your doubts.
Both are foods that do not contain proteins or carbohydrates (less than 1% in their composition), but with a high content of fats and calories, so their consumption should be moderate.
Margarine
There is vegetable margarine, with 100% vegetable oils (corn, sunflower, soy, olive …) and mixed margarine, which is mixed with cow’s milk or some animal fat, being healthier 100% vegetable, so it is essential to read the labels well. Margarine is usually made from the hydrogenation of vegetable oils, an industrial process that allows a vegetable oil to be converted into a solid, stable and spreadable substance. The rest of the ingredients are emulsifiers, preservatives, additives, water and salt.
Types of marketing: Margarine: 80% fat. Margarine 3/4: contain between 60% and 62% fat. Fat spread with a percentage of fat of approximately 42 to 55%. Margarines or fat spreads enriched in vitamins (A, D, E, B2), minerals (calcium), fiber and phytosterols.
Butter
Butter is a fat that is obtained from the stirring of milk cream (cow, sheep or goat) by mechanical procedures.
Butter contains 80-85% fats, dividing these into 60% saturated (responsible for increasing levels of “bad” or total cholesterol), a small proportion of polyunsaturated (3%) and the rest monounsaturated (stabilize good cholesterol and triglycerides). The rest of the ingredients are usually water and salt.
There are other types of butter on the market, in which the elaboration process and its chemical composition are modified, according to the product to be obtained. For example, in the market we can find whipped butter, which is easier to spread and melt than ordinary, or low calorie or light.
Advantages and disadvantages of its consumption:
Vegetable oils have a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, and less saturated fat than butter. Margarines high in unsaturated fats are more recommended than butter within a cholesterol control diet. Because butter contains 50% saturated fatty acids, while vegetable margarine has an average value of 26%.
The proportion of saturated fats is 30% in margarine, compared to 70% in traditional butter. Certain margarines are rich in phytosterols, substances that reduce levels of so-called bad cholesterol.
Margarine decreases the immune action of the body, as well as the effect of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas and responsible for transporting sugar into the cells of the whole body. Butter is a very high-calorie food (750 calories per 100 grams), and margarine is still at about 550 calories per 100 grams.
The vitamins and calcium in butter are natural, while those in margarine are added in the industrial process. The salt content of butter is 0.4%, and in margarine 1.5%. It is easier to spread margarine than butter, due to its melting temperature.