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  • Whether you use it to fry your eggs, melt and bake potatoes, use on popcorn

  • or simply spread on toast. Chances are butter has been part of your life and diet.

  • Or is it margarine? What is the difference between butter and margarine and is one

  • healthier than the other? Butter, made from cream or milk has been used for

  • thousands of years. But scientists eventually took notice of its high

  • levels of saturated fat. With more than 35 calories per teaspoon, butter

  • is fattening. When we look at the molecules of butter we see some of the

  • building blocks of life, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. But these carbon atoms are

  • completely surrounded by the hydrogen atoms. And this saturation level

  • quickly became associated with, and commonly believed to contribute to

  • cardiovascular disease. Margarine on the other hand is created primarily from

  • plant oils which have a similar but different chemical composition. The

  • carbons double bond with each other so that fewer hydrogen can fit and we call

  • this unsaturated fat. So far so good, a similar tasting substitute with less

  • saturated fat. Right?

  • Not so fast, unsaturated fat has a lower melting point and so its natural state

  • is less solid, like vegetable oil.

  • In order to get the consistency of butter scientists decided to make it a

  • little more saturated.

  • The problem is through this process called hydrogenation where more

  • hydrogen is added and the oil becomes more solid, high temperatures are used

  • which cause some troublesome changes.

  • You see, most of these double bonds are in a configuration known as "cis bonds",

  • but hydrogenation often flips them into something called a "trans configuration".

  • Ah, the dawn of trans fats.

  • And while it may seem trivial, this simple yet unwitting flip from "cis" to

  • "trans"

  • leads to significant changes in the way our body processes and metabolizes the

  • molecules. Essentially trans fats lower good cholesterol and higher the bad

  • cholesterol which increases the risk of coronary heart disease. So while margarine was

  • initially seen as a healthier option, it's own hazards slowly came to light.

  • But the truth is that many margarine companies claim to be trans fat-free

  • nowadays, and some are. At the end of the day if we compare them side by side

  • there are pros and cons for each. Butter is completely natural and typically made

  • from one ingredient, whereas margarine is processed and has many ingrediants. Butter

  • also has some essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamin a and e. But margarines

  • now vary so much it is difficult to make an accurate comparison. Many hard

  • stick margarines are still high in trans fats and much worse than butter. But some

  • newer margarines are much lower in saturated fat, lower their calorie count and

  • contain zero trans fats. The bottom line is to be aware of what you are eating.

  • Margarine can vary so drastically that looking at the label to understand what

  • is or isn't and it will help you make informed decisions.

  • And there are healthier alternatives to both,

  • such as vegetable oil spreads or using olive oil to dip your bread instead

  • of buttering up.

  • No matter what you choose, the recommended goal is to limit the intake

  • of saturated fat and avoid trans fats altogether.

  • This episode of AsapSCIENCE is supported by audible.com, a leading provider of

  • audiobooks with over one hundred thousand downloadable titles across all

  • types of literature. If you would like to learn more about food science

  • I recommend the book "What Einstein Told His Cook" by Robert Wolke.

  • You can download this audiobook or another of your choice for free at audible.com/asap.

  • Special thanks to audible.com for making these videos possible

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Whether you use it to fry your eggs, melt and bake potatoes, use on popcorn

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