Margarine v Butter
February 18th 2010 07:28
There's been an email chain letter doing the rounds (since 2005, apparently) which says that
in spite of all the supposed health benefits of margarine, and the badness of butter, butter is actually better for the body.
I last got this email in 2007, so it's not exactly new, and it was so littered with arrowheads that it was barely readable. Seems like a bunch of emailers had reposted it and reposted it instead of just forwarding it.
So I thought, today, that I'd check out whether what's being said in this email has any basis in fact, or whether it's as phony as a Nigerian scam email. (By the way, I haven't seen any of those lately, so they're obviously getting picked up my the filters on gmail. On the other hand, I did hear the other day of a New Zealand woman who been siphoning off her boss's money to a Nigerian, because she was so thoroughly caught up in the scam that she couldn't get out.
Back to butter. And margarine.
A site called truth or fiction.com has, under its rumours section, a long critique of the email. It goes into considerable detail, tells you when something is true or not, tells you when something is absolute fiction, tells you what the facts actually are and more.
Neither butter nor margarine really come out on top. Both have benefits, which is probably the best thing about what's said. All that stuff about lower cholesterol and such is in there (but of course, which cholesterol are you actually talking about at any one time: good or bad?).
If you have time to read through it, you'll actually learn something - which is a bonus. I've been reading a book this last week which recommends constant learning as a way of keeping healthy - maybe I can forget the butter/margarine debate and just read lots of books!
The photo is of cow's and goat's butters, taken by 'ulterior epicure.'
I last got this email in 2007, so it's not exactly new, and it was so littered with arrowheads that it was barely readable. Seems like a bunch of emailers had reposted it and reposted it instead of just forwarding it.
So I thought, today, that I'd check out whether what's being said in this email has any basis in fact, or whether it's as phony as a Nigerian scam email. (By the way, I haven't seen any of those lately, so they're obviously getting picked up my the filters on gmail. On the other hand, I did hear the other day of a New Zealand woman who been siphoning off her boss's money to a Nigerian, because she was so thoroughly caught up in the scam that she couldn't get out.
Back to butter. And margarine.
A site called truth or fiction.com has, under its rumours section, a long critique of the email. It goes into considerable detail, tells you when something is true or not, tells you when something is absolute fiction, tells you what the facts actually are and more.
Neither butter nor margarine really come out on top. Both have benefits, which is probably the best thing about what's said. All that stuff about lower cholesterol and such is in there (but of course, which cholesterol are you actually talking about at any one time: good or bad?).
If you have time to read through it, you'll actually learn something - which is a bonus. I've been reading a book this last week which recommends constant learning as a way of keeping healthy - maybe I can forget the butter/margarine debate and just read lots of books!
The photo is of cow's and goat's butters, taken by 'ulterior epicure.'
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