About Alex Avery Expertise Questions regarding organic food, agriculture, pesticides, herbicides, environmental issues, food safety, bacterial infection, agricultural economics, crop biotechnology, wildlife conservation, erosion, global food issues.
Experience Director of research and education with the Center for Global Food Issues at Hudson Institute. Prior to joining Hudson in 1994, I was a McKnight research fellow at Purdue University, where I worked to develop drought-resistant sorghum varieties for the Sudan of Africa.
I have spoken to a wide variety of national and international audiences and have represented the Center at the United Nations World Food Summit in Rome. I have written numerous articles which were published in leading newspapers and am currently working on a book.
Organizations Center for Global Food Issues
Publications Washington Times, American Outlook, Global Food Quarterly, Des Moines Register, USA Today Magazine, Canada's Western Producer, New York Post and others.
Awards and Honors McKnight Research Fellowship at Purdue University
Question I just received this email on butter and oleo. Is it bogus? Thanks, Phyllis
Pass The Butter?
DO YOU KNOW...
The difference between margarine and butter?
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams
compared to 5 grams.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over
eating the same amount of butter according to a recent Harvard
Medical
Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients
in other foods. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine
has a few only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the
flavors of
other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around
for
less than 100 years.
Now for Margarine...
Very high in Trans Fatty Acids...
Triple risk of Coronary Heart Disease...
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) ...
Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol) ...
Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold...
Lowers quality of breast milk...
Decreases immune response...
Decreases insulin response.
And here is the most disturbing fact...
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC...
This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and
anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added,
changing
the molecular structure of the substance).
YOU can try this yourself: purchase a tub of margarine and leave it
in
your garage or shaded area.
Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:
no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it
(that should tell you something)...
it does not rot or smell differently...
because it has no nutritional value, nothing will grow on it...
even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.
Why?
Because it is nearly plastic.
Would you melt your tupperware and spread that on your toast?
Answer Phyllis Some is true, some not. It's a very distorted view of margarine. The statements on margarine being one molecule away from plastic is funny: sugar is also one molecule away from plastic -- and only a half a molecule away from wood (cellulose, from which several plastics are made).
Butter is not what many nutritionists would consider health food, considering the high fat content. That said, I eat butter because I think it tastes better, but I don't avoid oleo/margarine. It isn't going to give you cancer or triple your heat disease risk.
The trans-fat hype is wrong. It's not nearly as harmful/detrimental as the email says.
So, if you like the convenience of margarine, keep eating it. If you're worried, eat butter. But remember butter is high fat and cholesterol and if you have high cholesterol, you're likely better off with an alternative.
Alex Avery
Hudson Institute
Center for Global Food Issues
