Ever since Dave and I got married and I started cooking and baking, I’ve had an internal conflict about whether to use butter or margarine.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but any time I’m at the grocery store, I always question which I should buy…
The Conflict:
Butter is more “natural”, BUT it’s also more expensive.
Margarine is much cheaper, I can buy 1/3 less fat versions, BUT I’ve been told it’s only 1 chemical away from being plastic! {not sure if this is true or not}
And because I can’t ever decide, I’ve always just kept both butter and margarine in the house.
We use butter for spreading on breads, pancakes, and for most of my “cooking” needs {sauteing veggies in butter, etc.} But I almost always use margarine or Crisco for all my baking needs {except butter cream frosting for obvious reasons!}
However, now there are all these new products like “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”, spray butters, spreadable butters, and many more. It’s kind-of overwhelming how many choices there are!
Since I’m definitely not qualified to give any sort of dietary or nutrition advice, I’m wondering what choices you make when it comes to butter, margarine, and all the many other products out there.
Are you like me and use different products for different purposes, are you a straight “butter” person, do you always use margarine because it’s the most economical choice, or are you hooked on other butter substitues?
Also, I’d love to know if any of you have more knowledge about the health aspects of these different products!
Samantha says
In the summer put out margarine on your back deck and put out butter. The flies go to the butter not the margarine. Let nature guide your decision. The flies will not eat plastic!
sarah says
We’re a strictly Butter household. Unsalted Butter usually bought either in bulk from costco but sometimes on sale, but always the real thing. Us Kiwis love butter cause butter goes on everything 🙂
Sara says
We use butter pretty much 100% of the time. I buy it on sale and freeze it. You can freeze butter and it doesn’t change it at all!
😀
Liz C says
100% real butter all the way, and if I can get really real butter (as in, churned from organic, pastured cows, raw milk’s a bonus) I’m ecstatic.
We use less butter when it’s the real stuff. The fats actually *satisfy*, so there’s no need to use a lot. And there’s just NO comparison to real butter on toast… spreads make toast soggy, but real butter gives this lovely crunch, then softness… brilliant!
We build in a $10 allowance for butter each month; that’s a generous pound a week for our family of six (and yes, we’ll use it!), and we typically get our butter in bulk and freeze it until we need it. It’s worth the expense, to me.
KimH says
I personally, only use butter… M’hony & his son use margarine and only occasionally use real butter. I refuse, myself. I usually dont even buy it.. I’ll wait till m’honey is stopping at the store to pick up something & I’ll have him get it.. haha.. I refuse to buy his poison sodas too. 😉
How about an experiment? grab a stick of butter and a stick of margarine and leave them out on the counter for a month… see what happens. Tub spreads dont really need to be refrigerated. I assume the sticks are the same.
The way I look at food is if God/Nature created it, go for it.. If man messed with it, run from it..
I strive to eat foods as close to LIFE as possible, so that it promotes LIFE in me! No, Im not perfect and dont always follow that 100% but at least I try most of the time.
You might pay a little bit more now for good whole real food, but you will indeed pay for it later with bad health & treatment if you dont.
And one more little tidbit for those worried about cholesterol levels.. People who have higher cholesterol levels live longer than people with low cholesterol levels.. Its a scientific fact. The statin drugs arent made to heal you.. they’re made to keep you addicted to their poison that kills you. THey’ve changed whats “healthy” for years.
People who have very low cholesterol (under 150) tend to die from cancer.. The information is out there, but our medical system & gvmt sure arent gonna tell you that.
jerilyn says
Butter here! But we try to eat as close to what God provided and eat all of our dairy full-fat.
Lori says
My daughter uses coconut oil for baking. Also, growing up we always had butter sitting out on a plate on the counter.
Sara says
I have started using coconut oil too and it is good for baking! Tastes yummy too!
Cheryl says
Butter only in my house, even for pie crust. To paraphrase one of my favorite old commercials, there’s only one thing in the world that tastes like butter and that’s … BUTTER! Also, I’ve seen melted margarine and found it to be an odd and unappealing substance.
Beth says
Butter, always butter. It is food. Margarine is a product generated by industry. Moderation of course as with all things, but always butter!
Judee @ Gluten Free A-Z says
Great question. For us , we use Butter, Butter, Butter. but not too often.
. I think it tastes better and is a real food.
The healthy risks of Margerine are not worth it for me.
Heidi says
When buying butter vs. margarine–nutritionally speaking–it comes down to the lesser of two evils.
Butter has saturated fat that will raise LDL (bad cholesterol). Traditional cheap hydrogenated margarine contains trans fats which raise LDL and lower HDL.
Margarine makers realize the bad reputation that it has received and have recently created a few hybrid margarines. These hybrids are less hydrogenated (meaning having they have zero or only a small fraction of a gram’s worth of trans fat) than traditional margarine. They are more expensive than traditional margarine and sometimes butter, but have a saturated fat content half that of butter and sometimes a lower total fat content as well. Some also have added omega-3’s. (Look for the New Imperial Hard Margarine and ICBINB Sticks.) These are the best option from a health aspect.
Taste-wise, the debate between butter vs. margarine continues…
Jana @ delectablymine says
I don’t even look at margarine at the store. I know it’s cheaper but that one positive just doesn’t justify it. I can’t think of much that tastes better than butter. That is really the reason I buy it. Margarine is a poor, un-appetizing, greasy alternative. When choosing between “vegetable oil spread” and “sweet cream butter,” there really is no alternative.
Elizabeth says
Margarine…. butter…? I’m melting!
Joy Crile says
I could have written that post myself as you sound like me (or I sound just like you). I’ve begun using more real butter over the past few years except when I bake cookies. It seems that cookies come out nice and soft with margarine but with butter they are quicker to crisp up and crumble. We like the soft cookies, not the crumbly cookies at our house. I keep both margarine and butter on hand though as I use both regularly.
Leslie B says
Just sharing Joy, but a trick to soft butter cookies is to take them out of the oven before they are done and let them finish on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Bake on parchment paper so you can quickly remove them from the heat. Least that is what I do 🙂 Also, if you want chewy cookies, the trick is more brown sugar than white sugar- brown sugar has high molassas content (especially dark brown sugar) = chewy cookies.
mary says
for us, we would not touch margarine, we got for butter
health is most important and prevention better then cure
in all this artificial plasticly products are so many chemicals, hasty
Shari~Rain into Rainbows says
Butter only in our home!
For it to be more spreadable, we use a butter crock (http://www.amazon.com/Creuset-Stoneware-Butter-Crock-Caribbean/dp/B0015UVLVQ) and put about half a stick in at a time, so it’s soft for toast & such.
I don’t even buy margarine or anything similar. If I had to choose between margarine and nothing, I’d seriously have nothing. I just really dislike the taste of margarine. The “spreads” are even worse IMO.
Roxanne says
I’m finishing up my last year in school as a nutrition major, and we just recently had a discussion about the butter-versus-margarine debate. If you’re looking for the choice that is the most “natural” then go with the butter. Margarine is a food “product”, not technically a food (at least, in the whole sense of the term). It exists only due to the advent of hydrogenation at the turn of the last century. In fact, most of the things we see in grocery stores today are around only as a result of modern technology. The consensus reached by our group was that if our great-grandparents would not recognize what we put on the dinner table, it’s probably not the best choice. The other big thing to remember is that even though buying less the expensive option may be more economical now, it is better in the long run to invest in higher-quality food. What we eat today does impact our health tomorrow (and 40 years from now!) An extra $5 or $10 a week on the grocery bill might seem like a splurge, but it’s nothing compared to the thousands that many people have to pay in hospital bills due to complications from chronic conditions that could have been avoided with a healthier diet.
*Disclaimer: this doesn’t mean we should go on a butter-free-for-all… as with everything else in life, moderation is key!
Katie says
I grew up on margarine, but my husband and I only use butter now. We buy sticks when they go on a good sale, and freeze extra packages. Butter tastes so much better, and it is not overly processed chemicals like margarine. I buy Land O Lakes spreadable butter with olive oil to use on bread. Still has that lovely butter taste, but is 10 calories less per serving and spreads better than stick butter. I hope to never buy margarine again.
Mandy says
I teach Family and Consumer Sciences (Home Ec) and we only use butter. One year I had to really get my principal on board as to why we needed more money to buy butter instead of margarine. To him, money wise, it made no sense to buy margarine but after giving him some research articles about margarine vs. butter and explained how it would go against what we are teaching the students he finally came around. Now, if only we could get school lunches changed as easily….
Laundry Lady says
I won’t bake with anything but butter. (with the exception of my canola oil and buttermilk pie crust), because it never turns out right. We do use I can’t Believe It’s Not Butter for some cooking, though I prefer to give my daughter real butter since she needs the extra fat at her age and I may not. My husband uses a vegan butter substitute since it seems to help his lactose intolerance, but only for putting on food or buttering bread. I’d rather use butter all the way, but it does get really pricey so we’ve found a compromise that works for us.
Firesparx says
We are a strictly butter household. Too many chemicals and too much processing in margarine. We keep sticks of salted and unsalted butter around for our cooking and baking needs respectively. I keep a small tub of Gay-Lea Spreadable Butter in my fridge (butter, canola oil, water, salt) for emergencies when we are out of softened butter but we don’t want to rip holes in the bread :o)
A while ago (in Canada), margarine used to be fluorescent orange . There was apparently a law that the dairy producers pushed for that called for that, so people wouldn’t confuse margarine with butter. My mom recalls during her childhood having to stir in the orange colouring powder into the margarine. When I asked why they bothered (why make the margarine such a horrible colour?!) she said that if they didn’t the margarine looked like lard, and the orange colour was more appealing. That story has stuck with me and has turned me off of margarine.
Pamela says
I keep margarine far from my family. Butter all the way, baby! It’s GOOD for you!
Brooke says
A few years ago I broke down and stocked up on butter from Sam’s Club. Ever since then, we have been strictly an unsalted butter household.
PattyLA says
Butter has been eaten for millions of years. It is not just a delicious fat but an important source of fat soluble vitamins like vitamin K2, if it comes from cows eating their traditional food of green grass. It has saturated fats which are necessary for health.
Margarine on the other hand has been eaten for less than 100 years. It is made by hydrogenating omega 6 fats. Your body needs a balance of fats and most Americans get way too many omega 6 fats. This means that they need an extraordinary amount of omega 3’s to balance that out. Omega 6 fats are pro-inflammatory. Omega 3 fats are anti-inflammatory. Then there is the issue of hydrogenation. Study after study has shown that consuming trans fats causes lots of health problems. If the ingredients list says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated the food contains trans fats, even if the label says that it doesn’t. Manufacturers are allowed to say that it contains zero trans fats as long as it is below a certain level per serving.
I will also say that the idea that my food is manufactured in factory by a mega corporation doesn’t sit well with me. Big corporations worry about profits first and peoples health last (unless it helps profits). They also funded all the studies that showed that margarine was good for you.
When you eat a fat it is not transformed by your body into something else. You absorb what you take in. If you take in trans-fats those will be incorporated into your cells (and if you are a nursing mother they will be present in your breast milk as well).
Instead of shortening (like Crisco) you can use traditionally made lard (the stuff sold in most stores has been partially hydrogenated and is bad news) or palm oil shortening.
I have a blog post coming up at the end of this week about fats. Be sure to check it out.
KimH says
Patty,
I agree with all you have to say except your timeline there.
Mankind has only been farming between 10,000 & 12,000 years.
I dont think any of our hunter gather ancestors were out there milking wild bison on the plaines. Thats just a little too far fetched for me.
gina says
I vote for butter too! Although, I rely on olive oil just as much and use it instead of butter/with butter some of the time. Great blog, keep up the good work!
Jen says
Butter, always, always always butter! I grew up on butter and have never used margarine. I always thought butter was better for baking because of the excess oils/fats in margarine. I just cannot stand the “fake” taste of margarine.
For everyday, I buy whipped butter. For baking, I buy salted butter in bulk at our wholesale club. It’s always cheaper that way.
I’m curious though: if you’re trying to save money, isn’t buying both margarine and butter defeating the purpose? 🙂
dorothy says
Jen–you can whip your own butter and save a little $$ that way. Just let a stick or two come to room temp and whip it up in a stand mixer. You can also add in herbs of your choosing to get all fancy. 🙂
JD says
Most definitely butter. I buy the unsalted one and wait for sales. I have several pounds in the freezer as I type this.
Laura says
Butter period. Margarine is fake and nasty.
Good article on the subject:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/there-is-nothing-smart-about-smart-balance/
Sarah C says
I’ve read the same article and now use butter.
Laura K says
I just read this article and others on The Healthy Home Economist’s blog. She scares me a bit since she speaks with such bold authority, but never cites a reference to where she is getting her information. On her article on fats, someone asked her for a reference, and she told them to google it!
As far as registered dietitians go, I am open to less conventional, more natural diet ideas than most, but “Sarah” seems a bit scary with her unorthodox claims with nothing to back them up.
Anna says
I buy cream and make my own butter when its on sale, then freeze it. I also keep a butter bell: it sits in a bowl of water to keep fresh. It tastes much better, and I don’t salt it, either. Salt was originally added as a preservative, I think, before refrigerators. Once you stop eating salted, its hard to go back.
KimH says
I have a butter bell too and I love it. I keep mine in the frig during the week since we’re not likey to use it then, but its good for the weekends.
Best thing ever invented! 😉
dorothy says
Many people have been falsely taught that margarine is “Better” for your health than butter. It’s cheaper for a reason—it’s cheaper to make up something fake rather than make real food!
Butter coming from a grass-fed cow offers up more benefits than the chemically derived margarine.
We made the switch to butter about 2 years ago and we do not buy margerine at all (except Earth Balance soy-free for my food-allergic child). Once he is (maybe) no longer dairy allergic, he will be on butter, too.
Check out west michigan blogger Kelly the Kitchen Kop. She has lots of info about butter and foods to avoid for good health.
Lisa says
Dorothy –
That;s the butter I use for my allergy child too! Same reasons!
🙂
Lisa
Crista says
I’m also in the “which one” category. I used to be all margarine, but switched to all butter over a year ago, but my baking was suffering. So one time, just for kicks, I baked the same cookie recipe 3 times over, using butter, margarine, and crisco for each. I hate to say it, but the margarine cookies were so much better than the butter cookies, as far as texture and longer lasting – the butter tasted slightly better, but the texture was more crumbly and they did not have the staying power. The crisco batch was just nasty all around. So I now use butter for everything except the occasional batch of “butter just isn’t quite as good” cookies.
Stephanie says
Ever since I met my boyfriend back in 2008, we have never had butter in our household. The closest thing we get to butter is the cooking spray we buy and thats usually olive oil or canola oil i beileve.
It really wasn’t that hard giving up butter and most the time I don’t even miss it. I don’t bake, and when I do it is never from scratch. We don’t buy bread so no need for butter there.
The only time I have butter is when its in something from a resteraunt (sp?). Hopefully you can figure out which you prefer!! Best of luck 🙂
Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says
I have been trying to move towards eating more foods that are closest to their natural state. It’s hard when you are also trying to shop for a house full of teenagers on a modest budget and from convenient stores. Butter is a switch I made several years ago after moving to the countryside of PA and touring an organic beef farm. I do keep a tub of the Smart Balance spread (discussed in the article linked in the comments above) for my family’s convenience for spreading and my husband must have his spray margarine. I find baked goods come out SO much better with real butter. This and a few other products I have determined are worth their cost for my piece of mind but I do try to buy more when they are on sale and plan meals using less when prices are higher. There is a lot to learn. For instance, we pay a little more for organic milk to be delivered by a company here because the milk goes from cow to my door in less than 48 hours. It isn’t processed as much as even organic milk in the stores so it’s much healthier. We drank raw milk from that farm in PA and miss it terribly.
Chef Danielle @ Cooking Clarified says
I always choose butter. It always has more flavor and because it’s not full of fillers and 15-syllable words we can’t pronounce, it’s better for you in moderation. I buy butter when it’s on sale and freeze it, which helps keep the cost down. It thaws in the fridge relatively quickly. As a chef, I was taught to use unsalted butter so that I could be in control of the amount of salt in my food, but if you’re just using it to slather on bread the salted version tastes better. Great post! I think a lot of people aren’t sure which way to go on this one.
Maureen says
My husband liked margarine when we got married and I was the butter girl. Then shortly after we got married I was on Coumadin (for 2 1/2 yrs) –a blood thinner–and you have to watch the kind of fats that you use when cooking and eating. Butter was a yes and margarine was a big time no.
I still watch what I eat. But when we bake we have found that the butter works better than the margarine has. (this is just our unscientific discovery).
Leslie B. says
Always butter, never margarine.
I buy a lot of butter- and although it is more expensive, I will go as far as purchasing a case from a local country market (local butter) and freeze it and use as needed because of the price break. I also watch the store adds, and if it hits 2 for $4 at Meijer, I am there. Although I do use healthy oils like olive oil and what not, I rely on butter not only for baking, but cooking, and even greasing dishes. Home made baked mac and cheese is way better. But all in moderation (However, I will admit and some of you might gasp, but I have no less than 5 pounds of butter in my fridge at a time- I bake a lot, and make most everything from scratch so butter is always around)
I believe I have read before that the more solid the margarine, the more transfats it contains, rather than its spreadable cousins like Promise, or other things like it. We dont eat it. We don’t like it.
Have you ever tried whipping your butter to achieve the spreadable result of what you may be looking for? You can also throw a couple of soft sticks in the mixer, add some herbs to it, and then reshape and refridgerate- delicious.
Here is a good debate too- do you keep a stick of butter in a butter bell? If so, where do you keep the bell, in the fridge or on the counter? Some people freak out about butter being out on the counter in the bell, but we always have a stick in the bell. Just wondering 🙂
Starla says
I always have a stick of butter in a covered container (Tupperware butter dish) on the counter. It’s great for buttering toast, jelly bread, muffins, etc. I grew up having soft butter available all the time and we never got sick from it. =)
Julie says
I was told by a health food inspector that butter goes rancid, but won’t make you sick. I will just taste funny.
Firesparx says
We’ve always kept a stick in a covered butter dish in the cupboard (not a butter bell). Now that I think of it, it’s strange to keep a dairy product unrefrigerated but we’ve never had any issues. It may go a bit yellow on the outside, but it’s never gone bad or tasted funny.
KimH says
During the week when we’re not using butter for toast or spreadables, I keep my butter bell in the frig… during the weekends, its out on the counter as it was made to be..
I left mine out for a couple weeks & it molded so now I do it like this & have no probs.
Sheila says
Having lived 67 years, I just NOW found out that it’s safe to leave SALTED butter unrefrigerated on the counter, because salt acts as a preservative. UNSALTED butter must be refrigerated. I’ve heard about butter bells, but I don’t know if or how they work to keep butter fresh.
I grew up on Imperial margarine, but I’ve since switched to butter. My mom swore she couldn’t tell the difference, but I can, and, to me, there’s no comparison. I confess that I tend to use way too much butter, but I love it. I prefer salted butter; unsalted butter tastes like lard to me.
Someone else on this thread mentioned the old-fashioned oleo that came with the orange tablet. I remember my grandma squeezing the tab into the oleo to blend in the tablet.
Catie says
I totally hear ya on the money thing. BUT the way I see it, ours (and our children’s) health is a GOOD INVESTMENT! 🙂 So here’s to BUTTER! 🙂
Melanie says
I am just like you…unsure…and i use both. When you use butter…which to use? unsalted…or …salted?
Leslie B. says
I know there are reasons that call for salted butter- specifically more so in baking- but I use unsalted always- I figure I’m already adding the salt in when I bake and we don’t really want the extra..Just my 2 cents..:)
Firesparx says
Ooh, see I was taught the opposite: always use unsalted butter for baking. Salted butter for buttering bread etc. because it has more flavour. In that respect, you could get away with just having unsalted butter in the house if you can get used to it on bread.
Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Mwah ha hah! I’m so glad I follow you on Twitter – I was coming to share just that link. Now it feels funny to be the lady who knows what she’s talking about. 😉 😉
Butter all the way, baby. Especially since you’re nourishing baby. Our body doesn’t know what to do with fake fats, and neither does Nora’s!
🙂 Katie
Lindsay says
I’m no expert either, but I always go for butter if I have the choice, even though it’s more expensive. You should read this post on Kitchen Stewardship, it’s very informative and helpful!! And this lady DOES seem to know what she’s talking about!
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/10/10/butter-vs-margarine-vs-spreads-how-do-they-stack-up/