Q:
First butter was bad for me, then margarine. Which am I supposed to eat?
Rodman R., Roxbury, MA
A:
Butter and margarine both have about 35 calories and four grams of fat per teaspoon, and both are unhealthful. Butter is loaded with saturated fat, while almost all margarines have some saturated fat and trans fat (or trans fatty acids, often listed as partially-hydrogenated oil on food labels). However, margarine appears to have a lower risk for causing heart damage than butter.
The American Heart Association recommends using margarine as a substitute for butter, but also suggests choosing soft margarines (liquid or tub varieties) over harder, stick forms, which tend to contain more trans fat. Choose a margarine that has liquid vegetable oil and water as the first two ingredients and also has no more than two grams of saturated fat per tablespoon. Note that specialty margarines such as Benecol and Take Control contain plant stanol esters, which have been shown to reduce your LDL cholesterol. But you have to eat two to three tablespoons a day to see this effect. Unless you’ve been diagnosed with high cholesterol, there’s no reason to spend your money on such spreads.
Of course, if you love the taste of butter, you can fit it in to your diet, like anything else, in small portions. As an alternative to both butter and margarine, you may consider using olive or canola oil, which contain polyunsaturated “healthy” fats that can decrease LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels and increase HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels.