I got this e-mail anyone know if it real or Hoax?

This is kinda creepy.....
DO YOU KNOW...
The difference between margarine and butter? Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher insaturated 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. Now for Margarine... Very high in Trans Fatty Acids... Triple risk of Coronary Heart Disease... Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol) .... Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold... Lowers quality of breast milk ... Decreases immune response... Decreases insulin response. And here is 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? Share This With Your Friends, Print And Send.

I don't know if all of it is true, but I do know 2 things about this:

1. My Dr. told to use me butter in moderation, and NO margarine. Something about Partially Hydrogenated stuff being a Bad Thing.

2. Buy a tub of margarine and leave it in the trunk of your car for a year. See if you can tell the difference.

I did a search on snopes.com and the email is essentially true. It did say this though:

Although a great deal of the information given in the e-mail is valid, one bit of intelligence is nothing more than hyperbole tossed in by the author in an effort to make his point more strongly. The claim that some comestible is but a "single molecule away" from being a decidedly inedible (or even toxic) substance has been applied to a variety of processed foods, but that type of statement (even if it were true) is essentially meaningless. Many disparate substances share similar chemical properties, but even the slightest variation in molecular structure can make a world of difference in the qualities of those substances.

I'll admit that I don't know what "comestible" means and I'll have to go look it up.

Think I'll switch to butter.
thanks jtivat.

G
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif

... as we read this while we're imbibing in our favorite adult beverages. Or better still... best not to use margerine to cook your five fried eggs in this morning! Want some more bacon to go with those buttered eggs? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

Everything in moderation... and all will be well with the world. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

mmmm.... reading all this is making me hungry... might have to have bacon and eggs and butter...

David <><

I'm not sure if all of that is true or not, but I know parts of it to be true from college biology class. The part about it being hydrogenated and all hydrogenated oils being very bad for your health is very much true. My biology teacher used to go on and on about how he wished the government would ban all hydrogenated oils from our foods and how much healthier we, as a country, would all be for it. If you will notice, hydrogenated oils are used in most light breads and snack foods, which is a real bummer because I like those foods so much...

Also worth noting, tropical oils are also extremely bad for you because they are very saturated oils. Coconut oil (which I really like the taste of) is near the very top of the list of bad oils. In fact, most tropical oils are so saturated that at room temperatures they can, and are, shipped in bars that look very much like, and have the consistency of, hand soap! My biology teacher went on to say that many restaurants get this in bar form and then fry your food in the stuff. According to him, you would be better off cooking your food in butter or just about anything rather than that stuff. Just like the stuff wants to clog up into bars outside your body, it also wants to clog up like that in your body and it takes your body a lot more time and energy to break down all of those very hard to break saturated bonds. I once could have gone into a lot more detail about this, but it's been a few years now since I had the class and I've forgotten some of the more technical issues involved here.

Needless to say, once learning how very bad coconut and other tropical nuts are for you, they are on my list of nearly banned foods now. Sucks to because I really like coconut! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

In case you are wondering what is the very best oil for your bodies and the easiest on your body to handle, that honor goes to olive oil which is good for you and easy for your body to handle and break down the unsaturated bonds. I've not only heard my old biology teacher make claim to this, but I've also read where many dieticians make claim that olive oil is about the least dangerous oil for your body. I really like the taste of foods cooked in olive oil to, but of course, as one would expect, there is a down side and that would be price. Olive oil can cost several times what most of the other cheaper oils cost and so few people use it because of it's relatively high cost. After taking biology class and learning just how bad all of the other oils are for you though, I don't worry so much now about paying a little extra for an oil that is very easy for my body to handle and will lead to better health.

It's also important to remember to try not to burn your fried foods because it not only makes them taste bad, but it makes the oil more saturated and worse for you. If you ever burn the oil very badly, it's always better to dump it and start over with good fresh oil instead of reusing the burned oil, which is then more saturated. Just thought I would throw that little tid bit in there since we were on the subject.

I hope that this info helps you all to live healthier and happier lives. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Googled it a bit, and somehow this is related to that "trans-fats" thing with Oreos too.

jtivat where have you been? There is undoubtedly some truth in all the hysterical stuff that's promulgated by millions of fools around us. Hydrogenated oils should probably be eaten in moderation, like everything else, and avoided when practical. I think the smart ones would recommend butter over margarine. But not too many years ago there were millions of fools that gave up butter for margarine because it was healthier.

As far as a biology teacher wanting more government, well it's the government that's paying her salary. Otherwise she'd probably have to work for a living, if that's possible.

If you are ready to listen to a true scientist, and a man with a bit of common sense, I think you might want to buy the book "Eat drink and be merry", by Dr. Dean Edell. I've not read the book, but I listen to him on the radio whenever I can.

X-CalBR8,
When I worked at a theatre years ago, we used Coconut oil to pop popcorn. We recieved it in large buckets where it was like cement(hard) inside the buckets. We would have to warm up the bucket and then try to insert a hot metal rod to eventually get it all melted and useable. If we let it cool down, the liquid oil went right back to its very hard solid state. I guess the same happens in our stomach!
I'm glad I never ate much of it... I can't even stand the smell of popcorn now! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Butter vs Margarine

I did not research every single line of this e-mail, but here is some very interesting FIRST HAND information.

St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System (A leading Heart Hospital where Dr. Denton Cooley is located), the place that I work, has stopped using any kind of Margarine and uses ONLY butter for all their cooking. We do have a "trans free" individual serving of margarine available for patients and visitors that want that, but ALL RECIPIES that call for butter or Margarine get BUTTER. We switched about a year or so ago.

I am directly responsible for the software responsible for the recipes and purchasing, so I know this first hand. No buckets of Margarine in the cooking area, even the whipped butter that we top waffles is 100% butter. JUST FYI, our deep fat fryer gets 100% canola oil, and our cooking oil is a Canola/Olive oil blend.

This is very costly as opposed to using Margarine and Soybean oil.

But, butter is considered better than margarine. It has to do with the "Trans Fatty" acids that are in Margarine.

Now, don't think of butter as "THE NEW HEALTH FOOD", it is still very high in saturated fat, and is ALL FAT.

The statement of :
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC..."

Well, I am NOT a organic chemistry person, but I DO remember from my Organic Chemestry days, that a LOT of carbon based molecules are very similar to one another, but have very different properties.

So, that statement, in and of itself, does not prove that it is good or bad.

I do not use Butter or Margarine a lot, but I have stopped using margarine at home.

NOW, the interesting thing about Butter, is that butter is NOT NECESSERALLY high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The reason WHY butter is high in saturated fat and cholesterol, is because of the diet that we feed the Cows!

If we let the cows eat their natural diet of grass (and whatever else is their natural diet), Butter and Milk and beef would be naturally lower in saturated fat and cholesterol. However, the beef fat would be very yellow, and the cows would be thinner, and not yield as much beef.

It's the same thing with Salmon. Salmon, is considered a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and other stuff like DHA and EPA, BUT, it turns out, that FARM RAISED salmon do not have large amounts of Omega 3 etc, whereas wild salmon, particularly Alaskan Salmon, do.

It turns out, that the wild salmon have a different diet from the farm raised salmon, and the salmon get THEIR omega 3 etc stuff from WHAT THE SALMON eat.

Re: Butter vs Margarine

I have heard about people leaving a can of hydrogenated vegetable shortening out in their garage and no living creature being interested in it.

The thing about butter is even though it is solid at room temperature, it is not completely saturated in its chemical structure.

I think even butter should be used in moderation but would not recommend maragarine at all. Forty plus years ago people as a nation probably worked harder and could get by by eating butter, no doubt many people still work hard enough for it not to be a problem.

How about the insulin resistance problem? Obesity in America is getting worse and worse (I sit here typing this with a spare tire around me, didn't say how big did I?). Choices are first and foremost about our health, we reap what we sow. Secondly, a lot of food is not produced in the healthiest of ways. Much food produced is nutritionally lacking or empty and then has to be pumped full of vitamins and nutrients, where do they get those from?

I wish I had lived in the days when bread could be bought at a bakery and it be good for you compared to much that is produced today. Perhaps the whole thing is economics.

Re: Butter vs Margarine

eluminator said: "As far as a biology teacher wanting more government, well it's the government that's paying her salary. Otherwise she'd probably have to work for a living, if that's possible."
"If you are ready to listen to a true scientist, and a man with a bit of common sense, I think you might want to buy the book "Eat drink and be merry", by Dr. Dean Edell. I've not read the book, but I listen to him on the radio whenever I can."

Frankly, I have to say that I'm a bit surprised by such a harsh response. In response to your comment, it was a he and not a her, it was a college teacher and not a high school teacher. I paid his salary and not the government. My biology teacher also has his full doctorate, just as much so as your Dr. Dean Edell that you listen to on the radio.

And as far as teaching not being considered to be 'working for a living', I can tell from that that you have never taught a class or else you wouldn't have said such a thing. I have taught everything from little children in Sunday school class to old people in computer classes and if you are putting any kind of effort at all into being a good teacher, it can be a very taxing job. If you think that teaching is so easy, you should try teaching a bunch of old folks in a big computer class how to use their first computer when they don't even know what a mouse is. That can wear you down faster than digging ditches, or factory work, which I've also done and have first hand experience in.

The information that I gave in my above post is correct and verifiable according to the best scientific knowledge available at the time. It came out of a college level biology text book and I made an "A" level in the course. If you don't believe the data that I gave, look it up for yourself.

That is not to say that the scientists that wrote the book were not wrong, but that is according to the best known and scientifically verifiable data available from just a few years ago when I took the course. Science, however, is always in a state of constant flux because we are only imperfect humans trying our best to interpret the perfectly orderly laws of the universe and so scientific theory is always in a state of change. What they believe to be true today could easily be proven wrong tomorrow when more complete and perfect data is brought to light.

Re: Butter vs Margarine

Here's an interesting article about Canola Oil. Have kept that stuff out of the kitchen for the past 3 years after reading this article, it's the cheapest cooking oil found in Supermarkets shelves.

if it taste good i eat it!butter taste way better then margerine .and eggs are awesume tobacon yummy.steak rare with a real baked potato and real butter. and whole milk i can drink it by the gallon

While I wouldn't leave butter outside in the garage, you can leave it on your counter for long periods of time and it won't go rancid very quickly. It will eventually of course /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif this has to do with the salt and the amount of water in it being low enough that nothing can take hold. This is not true for unsalted butter which you need to use much more quickly and take better care of (and why unsalted butter comes in foil wrappers rather than paper I think too)

Honey is like this too, it's hydophillic (? not sure of the term) but basically anything that lands on it or tries to grow in it will become dehydrated and die before it can begin to work on any of the sugary yummies in the honey. It kind of had to be this way or Bees wouldn't be able to store it for themselves and us outside in the heat!

So just being able to sit out does not necessariliy mean it's plastic.

There are only a few letters difference between carbohydrates and hydrocarbons, but they are very different chemical beasties. A molecule or atom one way or another does not an argument make.

I don't know why peope insist on taking a perfectally good argument where it clearly shows that something is not good for you and then add a bunch of retoric on the end that makes it sound like urban legend. I don't think anybody does you a favor when they publish an article about silent killers or death oils when they could just as easily tell you the information that is real without the garbage.

I always cook with butter and have since the first data that came out showing how nasty trans-fat was for you. (maybe I just wanted an excuse to eat butter again!) I never ate much anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I also like the butter flavored sprays. There are some available now that are basically soybean oil, water and buttermilk for flavor. No transfat in them at all. It's easier to get this spread on your toast than a solid hunk of frozen butter.

I'm surpsied by the news about canola oil though. I always thought that was a good oil for frying since it didn't burn at those higher tamperatures. Olive oil is not good for frying because it will burn at a lower temp. So what should I use when I make fried chicken or potato pancakes? Peanut oil? Cocanut oil and just not take the cholesterol test the next morning? (I fry something like that probably 3 or 4 times a year so it's not a big deal and I could probalby do it with rock hard fully hydrogenated vegetable oil or even lard and not suffer any ill effects with that time frame) I certainly can't melt enough butter to deep fry something /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Butter vs Margarine

[ QUOTE ]
Merkava said:
Here's an interesting article about Canola Oil.

[/ QUOTE ]

That URL is not true:

Snopes Urban Legends about Canola Oil

Truth and Myths about Canola

Canola Baloney

Re: Butter vs Margarine

As best I know, margarine was first brought about for French troops whose butter kept spoiling.

I try not to eat it and I usually use a good quality virgin olive oil. Something about solid at room temp = solid in the 'ole ticker always made me shy away from it.
When I was young and told that it was better than butter, I didn't believe it--these were the same people who told me to stay way from eggs.

I agree with moderation--a little suggar, eggs, butter and the like are just fine for the body, ya just have to know when enough's enough.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

-Jason

Re: Butter vs Margarine

"I don't know why peope insist on taking a perfectally good argument where it clearly shows that something is not good for you and then add a bunch of retoric on the end that makes it sound like urban legend."

Because this is the internet. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As pieces such as this are passed on, some of the folks are not satisfied with the way it sounds and think they can beef it up a bit by adding their favorite rumor(s) to it. The hype thy add begins making the entire thing sound questionable, which is just the opposite of what they wanted to happen in their ignorance.

If those added "things" that do not add to the truthfullness and effectiveness of the original are removed by those smart enough to recognize them as they pass by, the truthfullness and reliability of the information could be enhanced.

====

Moving as much as possible from "bad" to "good" (or at least "not so bad") oils/fats I have improved my and my mother's health over the past 3 1/2 years (I do the dinner cooking for both of us most nights when I drop by her place, and a lot of the food shopping).

As an example, in the past two years we have both gone from lousy cholesterol levels (mid to high 200's) to under 200, with the ratio of good to bad cholestrol in our tests being very impressive.

My mum is getting more fats in her food these days than she was when she was choosing what to eat (all "low fat" stuff then), but the change from 'spackle like' fats and oils to olive oil has not only improved her objective and subjective health, but greatly impressed her doctor (who has been her doctor for almost twenty years, and before that it was his dad). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm not a dietician, but I try to cook and serve foods that are good to eat rather than easy to fix, etc. Almost nothing I serve came in a can or box, and if it did it was likely NOT "prepared foods" but something like beans or brown rice that was easiest to pack that way.

Eat well, enjoy what you eat, do all in moderation, live better.

Re: Butter vs Margarine

I think I actually read right here on CPF something to the effect of:

Margarine came out and we thought "Margarine good, butter bad"

But now we know it's "Butter bad, margarine worse"

Re: Butter vs Margarine

I happen to use Corn oil for my deep frying. When I used to make popcorn the traditional way, I also used Corn oil. Gee, what a novel concept: popping corn + Corn oil = NO yucky taste!

I also use margerine. However, I am on a fixed income, so I have to go with what is cheapest, as I do my frying this way.