Butter vs. Margarine: Which is Healthier? by Dr. Mercola

Every day, in breakfast tables around the world, there are unseen "food wars." There are a lot of choices to make. Should you drink coffee or tea? Do you want your eggs sunny side up or scrambled? Would you go for oatmeal or cereal?



When it comes to what to use to put on your toast or rolls, your choice of spread can have a profound impact on your health.



Butter has had a love-hate relationship with the health-conscious. Who could resist that rich, creamy flavor? Butter is a natural, wholesome food that has been eaten by man for thousands of years. But during the last century, butter has been vilified by the medical community because of the erroneous notion that the fat it contains increases the risk of heart disease.



Raw butter from grass-fed cows is rich with essential vitamins and antioxidants in their most natural and absorbable state, natural health expert Joseph Mercola explains. It's a little known fact that butter is actually a better source of vitamin A than carrots. Aside from vitamin A, butter also contains vitamin E and selenium. These three nutrients help protect your heart from free radical damage, which weakens your arteries.



Butter also contains vitamin D, vitamin K, lecithin, butyric acid (an anti-carcinogen) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid which has been found to help fight cancer, decrease abdominal fat, lower insulin resistance and lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels.



Real butter is composed primarily of short and medium chain fatty acids, which are easily used by your body as energy. This means that the fat is butter is actually less likely to be stored as fat in your body.



You should avoid fabricated butter spreads because they are filled with rancid and refined vegetable oils that cause free radical damage.



Margarine, on the other hand, has been advertised as a "healthier" alternative to butter. But for Dr. Mercola, calling margarine healthy is absolutely ludicrous.



Margarine is clearly inferior in taste and more importantly, is not health promoting. That's because margarine is made from vegetable oils found mostly in soy and cottonseed. These vegetable oils are subjected to extreme processing conditions, including high heat and high pressure, and are extracted by using chemical solvents.



The vegetable oils used in most margarines are hydrogenated to make them solid, turning the oil into highly unhealthy trans fatty acids. Studies show that trans fats increase your risk of heart attacks by lowering HDL (good) cholesterol and increasing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. Trans fats are also believed to increase your risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.



Even if the margarine label lists zero grams of trans fats, it can still contain small amounts of this bad fat. Solid margarines have the most trans fat content.



During the hydrogenation process, a nickel catalyst is added to the margarine's vegetable oils. Nickel is a toxic heavy metal. Deodorants and artificial colorings are also added to remove the unpleasant smell from the rancid vegetable oils and cover up the unappetizing grey color.



Butter, in all aspects, is clearly the better spread. But don't settle just for just any type of butter. Mercola recommends raw butter from grass-fed cows. If this is not available, you can find organic butter from a health food store.