| Now that's been reversed. U. S. Department of | | | | concern has obviously led to the big increase in |
| Agriculture statistics cited by Ehrhart show that in | | | | blends a combination of butter and margarine. |
| 1987, Americans averaged 10.5 pounds of margarine | | | | And the field is further crowded by what are called |
| and 4.6 pounds of butter. And despite the nearly $14 | | | | "spreads." To be called margarine, a product must by |
| million a year spent by the Dairy Board to convince | | | | law be pretty much synthetic butter it must be 80 |
| people to stick with butter, Chuck Timpko, the | | | | percent fat, just like butter. But spreads can be just |
| board's manager of consumer research, notes that in | | | | about anything they want, and what they tend to |
| 1988 in home consumer use of butter dropped | | | | want to be is lower in saturated fat. So spreads |
| another 6 percent. The reason: Besides being about | | | | have much higher percentages of pure vegetable oil |
| half the cost, margarine is viewed as being "healthier." | | | | unhydrogenated and thus even less saturated fat. |
| A tablespoon of butter has about 100 calories, I I | | | | They're also easier to spread hence the name. In |
| grams of fat (about 7 grams saturated and 4 | | | | fact, there are even spreads in bottles now, but |
| unsaturated), and 30 milligrams of cholesterol. | | | | even Ehrhart admits that "most people aren't used to |
| Margarine, manufactured from vegetable oils and | | | | pouring spread on their toast." Butter or margarine, |
| artificially flavored and colored to look like butter, has | | | | spreads or blends? The bottom line: Moderate use of |
| no cholesterol and is low in saturated fats. (Of the 1 I | | | | all of these products. For example, if you're worried |
| grams of fat in a tablespoon of margarine, usually 2 | | | | about those weird fatty acids in margarine but you're |
| or 3 are saturated fat.) But it's not a hands down | | | | worried about your cholesterol too, you can have |
| victory for margarine. "Margarine has no nutritional | | | | butter just not very much of it. Likewise, if you |
| value all you get is fat," says Robin Bagby, M.Ed., R.D., | | | | switch to margarine, you're not free of saturated |
| of the Penn State Nutrition Center. "The big | | | | fats: Eat 6 table spoons of margarine and you may |
| misconception is that margarine has fewer calories. | | | | as well have had a couple of butter. You can even |
| So people use it liberally. For people on a diet, you | | | | make your own blends in a food processor (try 60 |
| have to watch your total fat intake." For those who | | | | percent butter and 40 percent vegetable oil), as |
| believe margarine is just a manufactured collection of | | | | suggested by Dr. Green. So whether you favor your |
| undesirable artery clogging components, Michael | | | | taste buds, your wallet, your arteries, your fear of |
| Green, Ph.D., associate professor of nutrition science | | | | the unknown, or any combination, there's a product |
| at the Pennsylvania State University, says that no | | | | on the shelves with your name on it. "If you're |
| study has conclusively linked any of margarine's fatty | | | | confused," says Bagby, "there's always jelly. |
| acids to negative outcomes. But he notes that "this | | | | |