How Is Margarine Made? (And Why I Stopped Eating It)

🟢 Margarine to Butter Conversion in Recipe: https://foodhow.com/substituting-marg...

Setting aside that butter can be fine in moderation for many people, but what's wrong with regular margarine? Isn't margarine a healthy alternative to butter?

How Is Margarine Manufactured and Here Is Why You Should Really Avoid Using Margarine.

Margarine is made of vegetable oils. Although that may sound well and good, unfortunately, our bodies don't recognize industrial vegetable oils as food.

Vegetable oils like canola, corn, soybeans, and safflower oils are highly processed by heating and then further processing. This processing may involve using de-waxing, petroleum-solvents, refining, de-gumming, deodorization, and there are several other unnatural-sounding terms. I'm quite sure that you could never replicate that in your own kitchen.

Less than a hundred years ago, human consumption of processed vegetable oils was practically non-existent. That is because we just didn't have the technology needed to process and extract these oils. But once we figured out how to extract these oils from plants on an industrial scale, the vegetable oil consumption skyrocketed.

And that will lead nicely to my next point.

As most vegetable oils are already highly processed, they need to be treated and processed even further to make margarine.

As you know, vegetable oils are not solid like butter is. To make vegetable oils solid for use in margarine, they will have to go through a process known as hydrogenation. This means that oils are heated on high pressure and then treated with hydrogen gas and a metal catalyst. And all that heavy processing will produce trans fats.

Food companies use this process to increase the product's shelf life, make margarine solid on room temperature, and save costs. However, our bodies tend to find these altered molecules very challenging to process.

Margarine, particularly stick margarine, contains a lot of these trans fats. These fats are often linked to various health problems. Also, according to the Food and Drug Association, these man-made fats are proven to be unsafe.

Also, unlike traditional butter, margarine contains fewer amounts of essential vitamins. While it is true that butter is high in fat and calories, it naturally contains several essential nutrients, including vitamins A and E.

Some margarine companies are incorporating these vitamins into their products through synthetic vitamins. However, these synthetic or other unnatural nutrients can actually cause more harm than good to our bodies. Studies have also shown that these synthetic vitamins are mostly ineffective and give you little or no benefit.

And like the trans fats, and other unnatural additives are not enough, margarine also contains high levels of omega 6. When consumed in large amounts, it may lead to many health complications. If you are worried about eating too many omega-6 fats, avoid eating margarine that contains sunflower, corn, or soybean oil, which are exceptionally high in omega 6.

And unfortunately, that is not all. Since margarine uses vegetable oil as a base ingredient, various researchers have found that most of these vegetable-derived oils contain GMOs, also known as genetically modified organisms.

So, before the processing of margarine can even start, the crops are already tampered with.

And lastly, aside from the synthetic and other unnatural forms of nutrients, some margarine manufacturers also use BHT or Butylated Hydroxytoluene to increase the product's shelf life. Although it is generally recognized as safe, it is still a lab-made product and not natural.

Ok, but what about butter?

As there could be many bad things said about butter, the manufacturing process of butter is considered to be quite simple.

It includes the pasteurization of cow's milk, skimming, and churning of the cream, until the butter is readily formed. The overall process is very simple, and you can even do these steps yourself at home.

On the other hand, the process of making margarine is so much more complicated. There is no way you could make margarine at home unless you set up a massive manufacturing-plant and purchase a lot of scary-sounding chemicals.

Luckily it's not that hard to stop eating margarine. However, you could run into problems if you are an avid baker, as most baking recipes require margarine in their list of ingredients.

So, if you want to go margarine free, including in your baking, follow the link at the beginning of this description below where you will find practical tips and tricks about substituting margarine in your baking recipes.

Or go straight to foodhow.com

I will also cover some of the recipes that don't need the use of margarine at all, and what sort of result you can expect using butter instead.

Check it out now!

Jen Evansy