Butter and Its Many Faux Varieties

[Mycroft]

<p>I’m with paperplane; we use butter or make a mixture of butter and light olive oil blended in food processor with 1-2 Tablespoons powdered milk. I don’t use margarine; never liked it. I have light olive oil and EVOO for cooking; trying to use more olive oil so I replaced my canola with light olive oil for a few months.</p>

[boysx3]

<p>Thanks for the suggestions! I will have to try Mother’s. I like that brand of horseradish.</p>

[dmd77]

<p>Many years ago, I took biochemistry from Professor Gene Brown of MIT (he was one of the earliest researchers on B vitamins). In the early 1970s, he warned us that trans fats were dangerous and that margarine should be avoided; he advised butter or other fully saturated fats OR naturally unsaturated oils. And butter should be in limited quantities, as a luxury item.</p>

<p>The research on the effect of fats and oils on animal membranes (and therefore the flexibility of arteries and other anatomical structures) was done in the 1930s and 1940s. Basically, the researchers found that animals have fat that corresponds to the fats they eat. If you want stiff hard fats… eat lard.</p>

[Blobof]

<p>Everything in moderation… and when I’m out of butter, I’ll go for duck fat :D. You cook potatoes in that and they won’t need any seasoning. It’s that good.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Here is an excellent summary article on the latest thinking about fat consumption from the Harvard School of Public Health.</p>

<p>[Fats</a> and Cholesterol: Out with the Bad, In with the Good - What Should You Eat? - The Nutrition Source - Harvard School of Public Health](<a href=“http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html]Fats”>http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html)</p>

<p>It starts with this rather stunning indictment of 30 years of public health policy:</p>

<p>

In the 1960s, fats and oils supplied Americans with about 45 percent of their calories; (1) about 13 percent of us were obese and under 1 percent had type 2 diabetes, a serious weight-related condition. (2, 3) Today, Americans take in less fat, getting about 33 percent of calories from fats and oils; (1) yet 34 percent of us are obese and 8 percent have diabetes, most with type 2 diabetes. (4, 5)</p>

<p>Why hasn’t cutting fat from the diet paid off as expected? Detailed research—much of it done at Harvard—shows that the total amount of fat in the diet isn’t really linked with weight or disease.

</p>

<p>Let that sink in for minute! The amount of fat you eat isn’t really linked with weight or disease! Say what? Compare that to the nutritional messages to eat less fat…</p>

<p>Later, they outline the failed anti-fat policy (much of it pushed by Harvard nutritionists):</p>

<p>

For years, the party line from the American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, and others was to reduce dietary fat. They generally called for limiting fat intake to under 30 percent of daily calories. One problem with a generic lower fat diet is that it prompts most people to stop eating fats that are good for the heart along with those that are bad for it. In place of fats, many people turn to foods full of easily digested carbohydrates, or to fat-free products that replace healthful fats with sugar and refined carbohydrates.

</p>

<p>And then, this stunning statement that there was never any convincing scientific evidence that reducing fat consumption improves health:</p>

<p>

There wasn’t much evidence to support the notion of low-fat diets in the beginning. (18) There is even less now. Numerous reports over the years have questioned the wisdom of recommending low-fat diets for preventing or retarding heart disease. A big nail in the coffin came from the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial, published in the February 8, 2006, Journal of the American Medical Association. (8) This eight-year trial, which included almost 49,000 women, found virtually identical rates of heart attack, stroke, and other forms of cardiovascular disease in women who followed a low-fat diet and in those women who didn’t. What’s more, women on the low-fat diet didn’t lose—or gain—any more weight than women who followed their usual diets. (7)

</p>

<p>But, wait. There’s more. In two more large studies, the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, “no link was seen between the overall percentage of calories from fat and any important health outcome, including cancer, heart disease, and weight gain.” They’ve pounded and pounded and pounded on us to eat less fat and now they tell us there was never any link to improved health or weight loss?</p>

<p>After these fairly stunning admissions of thirty years of flawed nutrition policy starting with the McGovern Committee Report in 1977, they do an excellent job of laying out what to eat, starting with avoid transfats like the plague and noting that reducing that the health risks of eating saturated fats are much less significant:</p>

<p>

What was important in these studies was the type of fat in the diet. (20) Ounce for ounce, trans fats are far worse than saturated fats when it comes to heart disease. In the Nurses’ Health Study, replacing just 30 calories of carbohydrates (7 grams) every day with 30 calories of trans fats (4 grams) nearly doubled the risk for heart disease. (21) Saturated fats increased the risk as well, but not nearly as much.

</p>

<p>And, finally, evidence suggesting that increasing the consumption of unsaturated fats while reducing the consumption of carbohydrates lowers the risk of heart disease.</p>

<p>

For good fats, there is consistent evidence that higher intake of either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat (especially the latter) lowers the risk for heart disease. In the Nurses’ Health Study, replacing 80 calories of carbohydrates with 80 calories of either polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats lowered the risk for heart disease by about 30 to 40 percent. (20)

</p>

<p>The whole article is an excellent summary and hopefully will eventualy find its way into public health policy and nutritional recommendations. The massive Women’s Health Initiative study ($750 million of NIH funding) which was supposed to finally provide evidence that low-fat diets are beneficial may have been and instead showed no link, may have been, as this article says, “the nail in the coffin”.</p>

[SlitheyTove]

<p>Non-dairy substitutes when having a kosher meat meal: another vote for Earth Balance. The spread (in a tub) works well as a slathering-on-bread substitute; there is also a version in stick form suitable for baking. I get the tub kind at Trader Joe’s, and the stick form at Whole Foods. </p>

<p>My favorite pareve butter substitute for baking is Fleischmann’s unsalted stick margarine. The salted is dairy, but you shouldn’t be using salted butter or margarine for baking. I prefer Fleischmann’s to Mother’s.</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>Yummm. Butter. There is nothing better, in my book.</p>

[Cardinal_Fang]

<p>For a kosher butter substitute, what’s wrong with the traditional schmaltz?</p>

[musicprnt]

<p>For my take, I would rather use butter and use it sparingly, then use margarine or any of those spreads. Even though they are ‘trans fat’ free and the like, what they do to get that consistency doesn’t strike me as being a good thing…not saying use globs of butter, but in moderation it isn’t going to kill you, either. </p>

<p>Butter and meat oils have one advantage of vegetable oils, and that is when they go rancid you know it, whereas with vegetable oils they can go rancid and you won’t know it. Most people keep vegetable oils in a cupboard, rather then in the fridge, and if it sits any length of time it forms all kinds of nasty compounds you may not taste. </p>

<p>Virgin coconut oil is healthy for you (again, in moderation!), I am not talking the palm oil they use in things like Cool Whip and the like. If you get organic, non processed virgin coconut oil it is solid at room temp naturally…and works well for a number of different uses (don’t use it for high temp frying!). Works wonders if you want a treat, use it to make popcorn, from what I have been led to believe it doesn’t leave a lot of extra fat on the popcorn, and it tastes wonderful (wouldn’t recommend eating popcorn made this way too often, however, it is a treat).</p>

<p>All oils have their pluses and minuses, Olive oil is wonderful but it isn’t good for any kind of high heat frying (stir frying is okay, as is sauteeing). In terms of frying, organic peanut oil is probably the best IMO. One of the things that is critical with any oil is how it has been processed; many commercial oils require extraction using heat, and that changes the nature of the oil, and can leave it with problematic stuff (canola oil, which is from the rapeseed plant, is not harmful, despite what some web sites claim; however, if you are going to use it, find organic cold-expelled, the commercial stuff you get in the supermarket is processed via high heat). Mono saturated oils like olive oil are good for you and don’t have the problems traditional cooking oils had. </p>

<p>I hear what others are saying about how information seems to change minute by minute, the next craze comes along. Those into grains and such pushed diets based in carbs, then came the atkins craze with its high protein, low carb thing, for years we have been hearing that dietary cholesterol alone is the guilty party with heart disease, then they discover that low cholesterol diets might have their own issues , it is all over the place (for one thing, dietary cholesterol has a complicated relationship with heart disease; a large part of issues with cholesterol and such may be genetic; not to mention that cholesterol becomes a problem when it sticks to artery walls, which is caused by an amino acid called homocysteine scarring the wall). </p>

<p>I kind of like what Julia Child said, she said understand what is in the food you eat, and if it is ‘bad’ for you, eat it sparingly, but enjoy it, and that maybe it is better to eat well but in moderation then fill up on celery sticks and rutabaga juice:)</p>

[abasket]

<p>If Paula Deen were on this thread, she would shun the use of anything except butter and lots of it!!!</p>

[DeskPotato]

<p>

My favorite pareve butter substitute for baking is Fleischmann’s unsalted stick margarine. The salted is dairy…I prefer Fleischmann’s to Mother’s.

</p>

<p>Ah! That explains why I thought Fleischman’s was dairy (which seemed ironic, given the name). We always get salted. </p>

<p>

For a kosher butter substitute, what’s wrong with the traditional schmaltz?

</p>

<p>It’s not the best for, say, cookies…</p>

[coureur]

<br>

<blockquote>
<p>If Paula Deen were on this thread, she would shun the use of anything except butter and lots of it!!!<<</p>
</blockquote>

<br>

<p>Yeah, and a quick glance at a photo of Paula Deen should tell you all you need to know about the folly of that kind of thinking.</p>

[Cardinal_Fang]

<p>Schmaltz may not be good for cookies, but margarine is no better. If you’re making butter cookies or cake, don’t substitute margarine-- that’s akin to substituting charcoal for chocolate.</p>

<p>My husband is allergic to milk, including butter. Under no circumstance would I use margarine for baking, because I find it unpalatable and unacceptable, but I have some recipes that call for oil. Banana bread usually calls for a mild neutral oil, like canola oil. I have a delicious Italian recipe for an orange cake that uses olive oil. I have a spice cookie recipe and a biscotti recipe that are oil based.</p>

<p>Never, ever, ever substitute margarine for butter, but instead look for recipes that use oil.</p>

[dmd77]

<p>I have successfully substituted coconut oil for butter in cookie recipes. In fact, I quite like the flavor it brings.</p>

[SlitheyTove]

<p>

Under no circumstance would I use margarine for baking, because I find it unpalatable and unacceptable

</p>

<p>OK, I’m taking the brownies out of your care package. Harumph!
:D</p>

[Cardinal_Fang]

<p>Coconut oil sounds like a delicious substitute for butter in cookies. And brownies, for that matter. Are there any special considerations for the substitution? Do I do a tablespoon for tablespoon substitution?</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>Anyone read “The Little House on the Prairie” books? At the end of the one called The Long Winter, after they’ve practically starved all winter long, their closest neighbor (from 40 miles away) brings some butter for them to use. Their mouths are watering. I can’t think of that without amazement at how much we take for granted these days.</p>

[lje62]

<p>I am not a fan of artificial butter…spread on toast , it is just wet ! We are butter and olive oil all the way , though i really don’t use it often</p>

[LakeWashington]

<p>I agree with most of the advice here.</p>

<p>Forget margarine. Use real butter, but sparingly. I prefer “sweet” a.k.a. unsalted butter. Love extra virgin olive oil as well as peanut oil and I use canola for deep frying. Sorry, can’t stand the taste of butter that’s been left out (non-refrigerated). Remember to keep your butter in a sealed container because butter is like a sponge; it soaks up odors from its neighbors. Don’t be afraid to refrigerate olive oil. The discoloration is natural and harmless. Also, I’ve heard chefs praise duck fat. And everyone’s grandma knows that home-rendered lard is best for baking, but it does come with obvious penalties to nutrition. One more thing. If you buy typical “table salt” you’re paying for a significant amount of additives. Sea salt is a superior but costly alternative. Kosher Salt is a great option because it has no fillers.</p>

[dmd77]

<p>CF: I’ve used coconut oil on a one-to-one basis with no issues. It has a slight vanilla flavor that is an enhancement to cookies in my opinion. </p>

<p>LakeWashington: the issue I have with additive-free salt is that one of those additives in iodine, which, as far as I can tell, is very difficult to get in any other form, unless you eat a lot of seweed (and even then, it’s iffy). Where else can you get iodine?</p>