Butter’s New Competition

Even when margarine became widely used 50 years ago, it never truly gained acceptance as a substitute for butter. Sure, people ate it—after all, the health establishment said it was good for us. But consider its place in our language: No one ever “margarines” their biscuits; they butter them. So when the news about the dangers of trans-fatty acids, or trans fats, broke several years ago, it was vindication for those of us who’d always viewed margarine as a phony interloper. The conventional wisdom was just plain wrong: Margarine isn’t better for you than butter.

“With regard to heart disease, trans fats are about twice as bad for our hearts as the saturated fats found in butter,” says Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. What’s more, preliminary research suggests they play a role in a host of other health concerns as well, including blood vessel dysfunction and Type 2 diabetes. “With regard to these other diseases, the studies show that trans fats may be four or five times worse than saturated fats,” says Willett.

They’re so nasty, in fact, that the consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest recently petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban their use in processed foods altogether. Though trans fats occur naturally in small amounts in milk and meats, most are found in artificially processed foods: Seventeen percent of our daily intake comes from margarine; another 40 percent is hidden in cakes, cookies, pies, bread, and crackers.

Willett, who favors drizzling olive oil on his toast, says making changes like this could dramatically improve our health. Currently, coronary disease kills more than 700,000 people each year and is also the leading cause of diabetes-related deaths in the United States. “If we replaced partially hydrogenated oils with the original, unadulterated ones, we would reduce those rates by about one-third,” he says.

So toss the margarine—if you haven’t already. And make room on your table for one of the new trans-fat-free spreads to hit the market in recent years, many of which claim not only to do no harm, but even to help make you healthier.

The difference between the new and old spreads lies in the way they’re made. For years, food manufacturers altered fats by using a process called partial hydrogenation, which involves bubbling hydrogen gas through heated vegetable oil to change its chemical structure from liquid oil to solid fat. While this process is useful for extending shelf life and imparting crispness and flavor to many foods, it also creates those dreaded trans fatty acids.

Fortunately, food manufacturers know of other, healthier ways to create solid fats. One process, called interesterification (the method used to create most of the new trans-fat-free spreads), allows manufacturers to rearrange the structure of the fats without adding hydrogen molecules. “The end result is either far fewer trans fats or none at all,” says Barry Swanson, professor of food science and human nutrition at Washington State University in Pullman and a fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists.

With heightened pressure to make trans-fat-free products, manufacturers have been vying to outdo each other and the result is a dizzying array of healthy spreads. In choosing among them, though, the only significant decision you have to make is whether you want to lower your cholesterol in the bargain.

Heart-healthy spreads like Benecol and Take Control contain plant stanols and sterols, ingredients derived from things like wood pulp, sunflower seeds, and grape seeds. The stanols and sterols block absorption of cholesterol in the digestive tract, which in turn can lower levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. Though not meant to replace cholesterol-lowering drugs, they’ve been shown to work well with them, reducing levels by an additional 15 percent.

“These spreads are a good choice if you’ve already been advised by your doctor to minimize cardiac risk,” says David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University and author of The Way to Eat. “If you’re simply trying to avoid trans fats, they’re not harmful, but they probably aren’t necessary either.”

Apart from cholesterol-lowering claims, a couple of other factors are worth considering in choosing a trans-fat-free spread. Some are low in calories, but others can have as many as 100 a tablespoon. And some may even contain small amounts of saturated fat (the label will tell you how much).

One claim that doesn’t amount to much is whether a product is made with healthy olive or canola oils—good, monounsaturated fats. Swanson says any real nutritional edge these offer all but disappears in the production process. “When fats are hardened,” he says, “one way or another many of the unsaturated fatty acids disappear.”

Ultimately, choosing the best spread for you boils down to what you want to accomplish: lowering cholesterol, reducing calories, cutting out saturated fats, avoiding trans fats, or some mixture of the above.

Health benefits aside, how does the new crop of spreads taste? As you might expect, nothing is quite as good as butter. Though I recently switched to a trans-fat-free spread for my broccoli and baked potatoes, I still occasionally reach for butter for my morning toast. But now I make sure it’s the air-whipped variety, which, although still not optimal, has about 4 grams of saturated fat per serving (in contrast to a stick’s 7 grams). After all, a butter lover’s got to start somewhere.

Top Picks for Healthy Spreading

We shopped for the leading brands of trans-fat-free spreads and then, butter knife in hand, put them to the test. Here are the ones that rose to the top. • Best for weight-watchers: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Light and Brummel & Brown Spread with Yogurt are two low-calorie spreads that taste great, though each contains a tiny amount of partially hydrogenated oil. Another good choice is Smart Balance Light, which contains a tad more saturated fat than the competition but uses no hydrogenated oils.

• Best for lowering cholesterol: Smart Balance, Benecol, or Take Control are cholesterol-fighters that taste good, too. Eating two hefty servings (roughly nine pats per day) of any of these as part of a low-fat diet can help lower levels of bad cholesterol, even with the extra calories you’ll get.

• Best-tasting trans-fat-free spreads: Smart Balance buttery spread and Earth Balance Soy Garden get high marks for flavor. Smart Balance sneaks in some omega-3 fatty acids as well, and Earth Balance uses non-GMO ingredients and is 100 percent vegan.

• Best for baking: Crisco Zero Grams Trans Fat Per Serving All-Vegetable Shortening is better than any of the other spreads for making tender, flaky pie crusts or biscuits. But if you’re baking cookies and cakes, just about any of the spreads will do. Bear in mind that because they have a low melting point and high water content they don’t translate neatly when a recipe calls for solid tablespoons of butter or margarine. Some health-conscious bakers prefer to swap in canola or olive oil, though the result can be crumbly and so may take some getting used to.

• Best for cooking: “If you’re going to melt a spread, you might as well use a liquid oil to begin with,” says Harvard physician Walter Willett. A few of the new spreads are made with a protein base, which coagulate with sautéing and pan frying. “Still, most of them will be fine,” he says. For stir-frying, try oils less likely to burn at high temperatures, like olive, peanut, or sesame.

• Best spread alternatives: Olive, walnut, hazelnut, or pumpkin seed oil go great on toast, or—for a different taste entirely—slather on fat-free apple butter or any 100 percent fruit spread.

Read the Label
Until companies are forced to start listing trans fatty acids on the label in January 2006, a good rule of thumb is to steer clear of foods with “partially hydrogenated oil” in the ingredients list. “It’s a red flag that this is an adulterated product,” says Yale physician David Katz. “Not only does this mean that the product contains trans fats, but it raises a huge cluster of other nutritional concerns.”

It’s also worth noting that some trans-fat-free products still contain saturated fats. And their calories can add up: While a few spreads give you zero calories per tablespoon, others run as high as what you get in a pat of butter or margarine.