Margarine

[cucumbers]

Listening recently to the remaining fat lady , Clarissa dixon-Wright, she mentioned a promise she gave her father never to eat margarine. This is because he new how it was manufactured and she has never broken that promise. So what is the problem with margarine please ?

[darth vader]

It is man made whereas butter is natural, and i am assuming that her father (quite rightly in those days) was wary of anything not natural. In hindsight though, margarines are polyunsaturated fats whereas butter is saturated fat - polyunsaturated fats, whilst still being fatty foods, are much better for you then the tube-clogging, heart-stopping, weight-gaining saturated fats which she has grown up on, and which is partly to blame for the UK being the heart-attack nation of the world. It pains me to say this as she is a nice lady but Clarissa D-W is a (barely) walking advert for switching from saturated fats to polyunsaturated fats as soon as possible (and a few trips to the gym also)

[darth vader]

ps having realised that saturated and polyunsaturated are flipping hard to type i would like to start a campaign to have them known as "baddy fats" and "goody fats"....

[woofgang]

I have a vague memory of reading that originally margarine was called butterine and was made from liquidised animal (principally cow) fat. It was white in colour and sold with a capsule of colouring that could be mixed in if yellow colour was desired... yup, I'm right. Jennifer Davies' book The Victorian Kitchen says that it was originally called oleomargarine, sold commercially as butterine and made from yellow globules extracted by pressure from the fat of newly slaughtered animals. looks like Clarissa's dad may have had a point. Come on then all you smart types, where's the margarine history website???

[Gef]

Margarine is basically vegetable oils which have been treated (with hydrogen) to turn them into semi-solids suitable for spreading. For a start have a look at http://www.gsn.uk.net/margarine.html

[woofgang]

So does this mean that they contain the hydrogenated fats that we are now being warned about and that food manufacturers are trying to remove from their products?

[Gef]

For woofgang. Not exactly. Fats and oils are not pure (single) substances but contain a variety of molecules. Oils are liquids because they contain a higher proportion of unsaturated molecules. Solid fats contain a higher proportion of saturated molecules. Soft margarines have enough saturated molecules to make them semi-solid and easy to spread. Next time you are in the supermarket compare the labels on different margarines and oils. You will see that they all contain saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated molecules in different proprotions. However, the original hard margarines (Stork etc.) were much higher in saturated (hydrogenated) fats. Hope this helps.