Butter vs Margarine: Which is Spoiler For Your Body? [2024]

I’ve taken to making my own easy-to-spread butter by taking softened butter and adding olive oil to it, then mixing it with a beater or stand mixer. This makes it much easier to spread, and the taste isn’t too noticeable.

My go-to is to add one fancy Irish butter rectangle to 1/2 cup olive oil and then mix until it is fluffy-looking. It fits in three 8-ounce mason jars and keeps super well in the fridge. It’s not quite as soft as margarine, but it’s definitely much softer than plain butter.

I remember learning that the Romans dipped their bread in olive oil in primary school. We all said, ‘YUK!’ but a few years later, I tried it when our family was on holiday. Delicious! Bruschetta is a type of toast with olive oil and some other flavors. Traditional cooking without processed ingredients has stood the test of time.

My takeaway from this, along the lines of Jonathan’s personal summary, is that butter in moderation is probably healthier than consuming an equal quantity of ultra-processed spread. However, considering what we’ve learned from previous ZOE podcasts, you’d be better off still swapping butter for a relatively unprocessed oil, such as EVOO—for example, drizzled on toast as the Italians or Spanish might.

So here’s the thing: If you track the incidence of heart disease from say 1800 to the present, you find that it almost didn’t exist up until the advent of margarine and seed oils in around 1905. From there, it goes ever northward, with deaths starting to level off around the 2000s as safe surgical procedures and stents reduce deaths.

Why Butter Suddenly Became Bad?

Of course, this is a correlation only, but it is way more likely than “butter suddenly became bad in 1905.”

I find the smell of margarine offensive.

The next thing is that virtually all seed oils are omega 6, and that is known to be inflammatory unless the ratio of 3 to 6 is 1:4 or lower (6).

Then there’s the thing that LDH comes in 5 flavors, of which only 1 is bad for health, yet the standard lipid tests lump them all together.

A lot more research is needed before I start to believe margarine is healthy.

Another noteworthy thing is that there is a lot of research that suggests beef is inflammatory, yet it was done in the US, where cattle are virtually all grain-fed, pushing the omega-6 content of the fat up.

Virgin Olive Oil Or Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Which is Best?

I thought you were not supposed to use extra virgin olive oil to cook with because of its low burning point and the fumes, etc., being very bad for us. Although using it to drizzle on pasta, salad, or bread is good for us, I’m confused regarding butter. I have dabbled with margarines, but they always seemed so synthetic that I simply tolerated them at best and always went back to butter because it felt natural and tasted good. My senses told me it was healthy.

I have also started using unhomogenized organic milk in preference to the semi- and fully-skimmed milk I used for years. I try to use minimal or mindful quantities and was told a few years ago by my doctor that my cholesterol was normal then, but given menopause, etc., maybe it is not now. I think I may revert to using olive oil on sourdough bread with my two organic eggs, which I have two or three times a week.

But what I do for my lunchtime sandwich is going to be a brain teaser. Known butter that tastes good with a small portion or a margarine that is highly processed and has zero pedigree of actually being good for us in the long term. Yes, margarine may aid in lowering cholesterol, in theory.

But how much cholesterol do we consume via food in an average day if we only eat beef occasionally and eat mostly chicken, fish, etc.? My concern is cheese. I love cheese and eat small quantities most days. Portion control, yes, but abstinence seems depressing. Do enzymes in cheese negate cholesterol? I thought I heard that somewhere.

My mom worked for the milk marketing board years ago, and I have always enjoyed milk on cereal like organic porridge or shredded wheat, so I am going to stick with that. Plus, what about bioactive organic plain yogurt? I love that with fresh fruit or as a cucumber raita.

Please don’t tell me to stop eating eggs. Let’s hope when I ask the doctor to do a cholesterol check that it’s normal. I have lost 25 pounds since January and am concerned that what I feel are healthy, savory foods will be stripped out of my diet, leaving what exactly?

Butter and Olive oil Are Good

I have been following my common sense. To my mind, there are two types of fat safe for human consumption: butter (from organic grass-fed animals like sheep, goats, or cows) and olive oil. The rest of the fat does not have a place in my kitchen. I cook mainly with olive oil that is suitable for cooking, and for very few dishes, I have been adding a very tiny amount of butter too.

I must mention that every morning I have about 20 grams of butter on my toast, which I’ve done since childhood. My mother, a farmer herself, lived to the grand age of 94, and she always had small pieces of butter in the morning on her toast too. I am in my 70s and have never needed to see a doctor.

Margarine is simply an ultra-processed food containing many nasty ingredients. Too many foods now contain soy oil or sunflower oil, which isn’t good for you. I’ll stick to natural butter in moderation and olive oil for cooking.