Today I have received a “cease and desist” official registered letter warning me to correct this blog post. Please note, that at the time of the post (2005) I saw it as an “interesting” Internet e-mail that was circulating at the time… as you can read below, I did not attest to it’s accuracy at all. I did say that as a CNHP I believe that butter is much healthier for you… and I stand by that… but, there are those that say that as a Natural Health guy, I am a loon anyway… so what do I know! The letter was from the “Margarine Protection Squad” (not their real name) … but an industry group… they referred me to the American Health Association and such (like that would impress a renegade natural health guy like me!) Anyways… here’s a link to Snopes statement “correcting” the letter that was circulating back then… which I did post here… only as a “isn’t this wild” view of computer circulated stuff… yeeesh! The things people get in an uproar about!
Link 1 – Snopes Correction
Link 2 – Break the Chain – Chain Letter Correction Site – Urban Legend “Debunking”
So, “A” this is not written by me… it is a flaky Internet e-mail I got and thought was interesting… and “B” I am a widdle ol’ computer nerd with a computer interest blog… anything I believe about butter vs. margarine is simply my personal opinion anyway! So, does “the man” get to control my opinion… well, since I don’t want any lawsuits, and I don’t personally care about the topic anyway… I DISAVOW ALL KNOWLEDGE AND THINK THAT THE LETTER THAT WAS CIRCULATED VIA E-MAIL WAS A CROCK! So there. I didn’t write it… I got it in a spam message… please don’t sue me… please??! OK??
– added August 30, 2007
Here’s the original post that caused all the fuss!
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This is one of those “informational” files that occasionally gets passed around, I can’t completely “confirm or deny” all of what it says, however, as a Certified Natural Health Professional, I do believe that butter is MUCH healthier for you than margarine! Anyway, read on!
“Pass the Butter!”
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.
DO YOU KNOW…the difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end… it gets very interesting!
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only, because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.
And now, for Margarine…
It is very high in trans fatty acids.
It has triple the risk of coronary heart disease.
It increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol.)
Margarine increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Margarine lowers the quality of breast milk.
Margarine decreases immune response.
Margarine decreases insulin response.
And here’s the most disturbing fact… HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC…
This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance.)
You can try this yourself:
Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:
* No flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)
* It does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value; nothing will grow on it Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?
