Butter vs. margarine

No, this is not about using foodstuffs as lubricants.

I was driving home yesterday when a commercial for "I Can't Believe It's Butter" came on. They were basically touting the health benefits of the spread over butter, pointing out that it has no trans fats and 70% less saturated fat than butter.

This made me chuckle for a couple of reasons. ONe, almost anything you compare butter to is going to have a lot less saturated fat than butter, because butter is ALL saturated fat. Right? (Actually no, it's about 65% saturated fat.) Why not compare it to other leading spreads? Well, then that wouldn't be so impressive, it might have 20% less than Country Crock, or 20% more, or who knows? Part of the reason that any of these spreads has less saturated fat than butter is because they have a lot more water.

Two, who uses butter day-to-day anymore, anyway? Butter is hard to use right out of the refrigerator -- hard as a rock, and it devastates your muffin or toast if you try to spread it when it's still solid. So you have to wait (I've discovered if your at a hotel buffet that you can melt the solid butter rocks under a heat lamp, that helps a little -- that's also about the only place I put butter on my breakfast anywhere). Margarine melts faster and goes on smoother. (Maybe I should try whipped butter.)

I've discovered that Smart Balance actually cooks more like butter than any other margarine, because it has a lower water content and a little higher saturated fat content than other margarines.

There's a pretty complete comparison table here:
Margarines spread it on thick: some margarines and spreads claim to contain more heart-healthy fats, but fat calories are still fat calories