Butter or Margarine For Your Heart?

I read an interesting article by Elena Conis in the LA Times about whether butter vs. margarine was healthier for baking and it made me think about the healthier choice for someone with a history of heart issues.

I learned that a tablespoon of butter has more than three times as much saturated fat, as the same amount of margarine -- 7 grams in butter compared with 2 grams in margarine.In addition, butter and margarine contain mono- and polyunsaturated fats, but margarine contains them in far greater amounts: close to 9 grams per tablespoon compared with butter's 3.5 grams.

Margarine's drawback is its trans-fat content. Margarines are made from blends of vegetable oils, such as corn, soybean, safflower or canola. Hydrogenation, is a chemical process that adds hydrogen and replaces double chemical bonds in those oils with single chemical bonds, making the liquid oils solid at room temperature.

When that replacement process is incomplete, the result is partially hydrogenated oil, which is also known as a trans fat. This is what makes margarine solid instead of liquid. The more solid, or harder they are, the more trans fat they contain, and they are even worse for your heart than saturated fats. Trans fats raise bad LDL cholesterol levels, and also lower HDL, or good, cholesterol.

Butter, in contrast is churned milk, which many say tastes better, but has more saturated fat, in addition to cholesterol, which margarine doesn't have.

So which is better for your heart?

Margarine usually wins over butter, unless it has more than 2 grams total fat. The American Heart Association recommends foods fortified with plant sterols for people with levels of LDL cholesterol over 160.

For those who don’t like the taste of margarine and don’t want to give up butter completely, try using whipped butter or light or reduced-calorie butter. I have also seen spreadable butters with have vegetable oils also. These contain less fat and calories than regular butter.

P.S. One other point: Keep moderation in mind. All you need is enough to add flavor, not to change the color of what you eat.