Butter vs Margarine

7th December 2011

By  Anthony Gucciardi

Contributing Writer for  Wake Up World

Thanks to a massive ideological push against high fat foods, despite the quality of the fat in which they contain, many consumers are switching from traditional butter products to fat-free margarine. In fact, margarine is quickly becoming more popular than butter, with hundreds of imitation products boasting their “buttery” taste without the actual butter content. But why, is butter truly that harmful to your health? It may be shocking to you if you have been told by many so-called health “experts” that butter is a health destroyer, but a pile of research has actually pinpointed the many benefits of butter — particularly raw butter.

Butter is a natural source of  easily absorbable vitamin A, which is an essential nutrient needed for a wide variety of biological functions. From maintaining healthy vision to upkeeping your endocrine system (which BPA is continually disrupting), vitamin A in an easily utilized form is a powerful health promoter. Outside of vitamin A, natural butter also contains vitamins D, E and K2, vitamins which the modern diet are generally lacking quite significantly. Vitamin D, of course, has been found to slash your risk of developing the  flu by nearly half, as well as slash your risk of many cancers. Even more compelling is the fact that  a  recent analysis of published studies on saturated fat and heart disease  again failed to find any clear link between the two.

It is also important to discuss the healthy fats that butter contains. As you may know, there is a definitive difference between healthy fats like omega 3 fatty acids and artificial trans fats, which wreak biological havoc on your overall health. Butter is full of these beneficial fats, which promote immune function, boost metabolism and have anti-microbial properties. Butter has the perfect balance of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, which are increasingly being found to  improve mental and emotional health. Outside of these fats, butter also contains:

• Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA): Protects against cancer and helps with muscle building.
• Glycospingolipids:  Protects against gastrointestinal infections.
• Minerals:  Manganese, chromium, zinc, copper, iodine and selenium. Butter actually provides more selenium per gram, which is a powerful antioxidant, than  heat germ or herring.

On the flip side, margarine is 100% man-made, and full of  vegetable oils which have been heated to extremely high temperatures. After being exposed to extreme heat, the quality of these vegetable oils comes into question. As a result, margarine products generally contain a high amount of free radicals. This is due to the fact that free radicals are the result of high temperature industrial processing of vegetable oils.    Margarine products also frequently contain synthetic vitamins (such as synthetic vitamin A in an attempt to match natural butter), preservatives, trans fats, and other ingredients that can damage your body.

There are some legitimate concerns when it comes to purchasing mainstream pasteurized butter, which can contain unwanted ingredients due to the low quality of the milk used in the creation process. Commercial farms frequently treat their cows with hormones, antibiotics, and other harsh techniques that transfer into the cow’s milk. The pasteurization process also removes vital nutrients once present in the milk and the subsequent butter from the equation. It is highly recommended that you purchase high quality raw butter in order to benefit from the full spectrum of nutrients that natural butter can provide. Meanwhile, avoid choosing margarine over butter for health reasons — butter is not your health enemy!

Further sources:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/butter
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/margarine
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/why-butter-is-better

About the author:

Anthony Gucciardi is an accomplished investigative journalist with a passion for natural health. Anthony’s articles have been featured on top alternative news websites such as Infowars, NaturalNews, Rense, and many others. Anthony is the co-founder of  NaturalSociety, a website dedicated to sharing life-saving natural health techniques. Stay in touch with Natural Society via the following sites  Facebook –  Twitter –  Web