The Lowdown on Oleo

 

 

One of the more controversial food fats is margarine. And its history is also one of the most fascinating.

 

Margarine first got its start in the late 1800s when Napoleon III in France offered a prize for a butter substitute that would be suitable for the armed forces and the lower classes. So a French chemist invented a substance he called oleomargarine, which since then has been shortened to the terms we use today, either margarine or oleo. Oleomargarine is made by taking liquid vegetable fats and treating them to become solid. By the end of the 1800s, “artificial butters” could be spread around the world.

 

There was, of course, controversy. The dairy industry, concerned that it may be passed off as real butter, helped to enact laws to restrict the color of margarine. Margarine is naturally a rather unappealing white. Bans on coloration became commonplace around the world and endured for almost 100 years. It is still illegal to sell margarine with coloring in parts of Canada.

 

With World War I food shortages, margarine became the staple spread, and butter a rare and expensive luxury. The Depression and World War II kept margarine a spread affordable to many. Post-war, many margarine restrictions were lifted, but margarine still cannot be sold retail in packages larger than one pound. With dietary guidelines in the late 1900s declaring saturated fat (and, therefore, butter) a contributing factor to heart disease, margarine became a health choice in addition to an economical one.

 

With the advent of the internet, myths around margarine began to abound. Most are not true, like the one

about how flies won’t touch margarine. Insects prefer sugar or even protein; margarine is made of only fat and maybe some water – just like butter. So, the truth is, you can set a stick of margarine AND a stick of butter out for days, or even a dish of olive oil, and none of them will attract flies.

 

Modern margarine can be made from a variety of animal or vegetable fats, and is often mixed with milk, salt, and emulsifiers. To make the oils more solid, a process called hydrogenation is used. Full hydrogenation results in saturated fats only, but partial hydrogenation. Trans fat will lead to the formation of trans-fats as well. Both fats have been implicated in contributing to heart disease.

 

There are three main types of margarine: Shortening, which is hard, uncolored margarine with no salt, used mostly for cooking or baking; traditional stick margarine, which may contain saturated and/or trans fat; and margarines made with oils like sunflower or olive which are high in healthy fats. Many popular table spreads today are blends of margarine and butter, and are designed to combine the lower cost and easy-spreading of artificial butter with the taste of the real thing. And even newer versions have added benefits, like plant sterols for cholesterol lowering.

 

So is margarine a healthy choice? Read the label. Is it low in saturated and trans fat? High in polyunsaturates and monounsaturates? Do you like the taste? If yes, moderation is the key. Fat calories, even from healthy fats, are concentrated sources of calories. Don’t forget that total calories count, so use sparingly!