WHAT IS MARGARINE???

It’s being sold in almost every supermarket across the globe. It tastes like butter but it’s not. It’s actually poison – an ideal “food” for heart disease. In fact, it may be the most unhealthy “food” ever created. We call it margarine. But this “food” is actually nothing more than glorified grease.

Long believed to be a healthier alternative to butter, margarine has been the main bread spread in many homes for decades. In recent years, however – after several decades of being the established medical “wisdom” the supposed benefits of margarine (and hydrogenated oils) over animal fats have been disprove.

The vegetable oils used in most margarine are hydrogenated to make them solid. This turns the oils into unhealthy trans-fatty acid (trans fats). This popular bread spread is actually a health spread from hell.

Generally margarine is about 80% fat, 20% water and solids. It is flavoured, coloured, and fortified with Vitamin A and sometimes D to match butter nutritional contribution.

A single oil or a blend may be used. During World War I, coconut oil was favoured; in the 30s, it was cottonseed and in the 50s, soy. Today, soy and corn oils predominate. The raw oil is pressed from the seeds, purified, hydrogenated and then fortified and coloured, either with a synthetic carotene or with annatto, a pigment extracted from a tropical seed.

The water phase is usually reconstituted or skim milk that is cultured with lactic bacteria to produce a stronger flavour, although pure diacetyl, the compound most responsible for the flavour of butter is also used.

Emulsifiers such as lecithin help disperse the water phase evenly throughout the oil, and salt and preservatives are also commonly added. The mixture of oil and water is then heated, blended and cooled.