Butter or Margarine : What’s better for your heart ?

BUTTER VS MARGARINE : WHAT MAKES A PERFECT CHOICE FOR YOUR HEALTH?

• Butter is a dairy product formed by churning of Milk or its cream.
• On the other hand Margarine is made from vegetable oil, water, salt, and other additives. Since, it does not contain animal fat so it is not a dairy product.

Butter and margarine generally have same applications like both are used as bread-spreads, in baking & cooking. But they are altogether different from each other in various aspects.


So what makes them different from each other?
Major difference comes in their chemical composition, main part of it being the type of fat content.
Butter is made from animal fat and contains about 80% of fat,whereas margarine being made up of vegetable oil and the fat content is only 35%. This is the reason due to which butter is tastier than margarine.

Which one of the two is better :
Everything has its own pros and cons over the other, so is the case here. Before concluding the final winner of Butter vs Margarine battle,  let’s first look at advantages of one over the other

Plus points of Margarine over Butter:
Margarine, being made-up of vegetable fats contains unsaturated fatty acids (‘good’ healthy fats) – Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA)& Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA). These are helpful in reduction of Low Density Lipoprotein (‘LDL’) so called as ‘bad’cholesterol.
Butter, on the other hand is made up of Animal Fats, so have saturated fats present in it. Which are not good for health.

Plus points of Butter over Margarine:
Butter do not have any trans-fat present in them.
Butter have fatty acids like Butyric acid and Myristic acid which have their own sets of health benefits including the butyric acid's potential ability to fight cancer, especially cancer in the colon.
Margarine generally have trans-fat present in them. The more solid the margarine the more amount of trans-fat it has, generally.
Trans-fat reduces the High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) or ‘good’cholesterol.

But nowadays low trans-fat margarine or trans-fat free margarine are also coming into the market.

Finally, from the above discussion we can conclude that generally, margarine is better for your heart than butter. But, Wait!! Butter when used sparingly or in very limited amounts will be better for your overall health than Margarine.

Expert-Advice : Look for a spread that does not contain trans fats and having the minimum amount of saturated fats. While comparing spreads, always look at the Nutritional Facts and check the grams of saturated fat and trans fat. Limit the amount you use to limit the overall calories.