Let’s unwrap the foil and break down those little yellow tubs of “butter-flavored” stuff. First off, butter is all-natural and margarine, well, isn’t. What’s a stick of butter made out of? Cow’s milk. Margarine, however comes in tons of different forms usually from vegetable oils.
The debate will likely rage on over the pros and cons for both butter and margarine (often times about the dangers or lack thereof of saturated fats), but this video, produced by audible.com, does a pretty awesome job illustrating all those bonds and letters and sciency stuff we haven’t addressed since 10th grade chemistry.
On one hand, veggie-derived oils have no cholesterol or saturated fat (while butter does because it comes from an animal). But, some margarines have trans fats. Margarine and other butter alternatives also feature a lengthy list of hard to pronounce ingredients (what the heck is soy lecithin?) including dye in attempts to resemble the real McCoy.
Bottom line: Be aware of what you’re using to bake up that pie crust (or tossing down that pie hole).
Do you prefer margarine or butter? Let us know in the comment section below or tweet the author @nicmcdermott.
