Nutrition

Smart Balance VS Butter

This might be incredibly difficult for some of you, having grown up with the misconception that butter will not only make you fat, but will probably kill you with cancer if the heart attack doesn’t get you first.

For me, I had to stop using margarine when I finally learned about the hazards of trans fats.  Having had the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, I had to be very careful what I put into my body every single day.  Butter seemed expensive, but so did the Smart Balance and similar spreads.  I couldn’t fathom allowing trans fats in my house anymore, though, so I went with butter.


Here are some of the reasons why:

Smart Balance is not good for you in the relative scheme of things.
It is a chemical conglomeration of esterified oils – which means they take all these different oils, blast them apart, combine them with caking agents which come together to form this new age margarine.  Its WAAAY better than old fashioned margarine, made from trans fat, but still not a natural food.  That stuff about the flaxseed oil helping is really nonsense – processing destroys the bioavailabilty of omega-3s.

You want to eat your essential fats, that is Omega3 and Omega6, in a 1:1 ratio.  Most Americans get about 15-20X more Omega6 than Omega3, precisely because of this processing problem.  Omega3 is very sensitive – it will degrade at room temperature even – and only in a small number of foods (flax, walnuts, wild salmon).  Omega 6 is everywhere and stands up to heat and processing much better…so you can see where this goes.  Smart Balance will have a high Omega6:3 ratio – making it an inflammatory food.

We would much rather see you eating butter, but realize the type of butter you are eating here is key.
You really want to find butter from grass fed cows.  This type of butter will tend to be a bright yellow orange – the more orange the better.  This is an outward indication the cows feed on grass, which is rich in beta-carrotene – an orange flavonoid that will tint your butter (it will be more orange in the spring, when grass first starts to grow).  This is an unrefined, real food that contains high amounts of omega3 fats along with a dizzying array of vitamins and minerals – all very bioavailable.  Try and find Raw, Grass Fed butter if you can – this is even better for you. You can purchase Grass Fed Butter at Sprouts, Wholefoods or any Natural foods store.

People lament that butter is high in saturated fats, which have been linked to heart disease.
While this is true, that information is related to a more outdated view of heart disease.  Heart disease is truly an inflammatory disease, not one of cholesterol.  Its when cholesterol gets oxidized that we have problems and eating natural foods decreases inflammation in the body.  Additionally, there is no research to back up the idea that saturated fats even translate into cholesterol in the body – the mechanisms are very very complex and still not fully understood.

The degree of processing in foods is always an indication of whether or not you should be eating them.  ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM PROCESSED FOODS!  Ignore whatever the label says – you have no idea how bought and paid for those labels are.  Smart Balance is highly processed; if it was not, the oils would simply separate and youd have something along the lines of salad dressing.  Butter is clearly the winner here.


When I was diagnosed with high triglycerides (really high, with a family history of heart disease and early heart attacks! My dad recently had tribe by-pass surgery, and he does not eat butter, only Smart Balance or similar brands), I did what the doctor told me and switched to Smart Balance for the plant stanols, or sterols, or whatever they’re called. My high triglycerides doubled!  Not a good sign.

So, I find myself reading and re-reading the ingredients on the tub, wondering how, if not by hydrogenation, do the liquid oils listed become the solid spread within?  I actually asked the company about it.  It’s a trade secret, so they won’t tell me.  But it makes me nervous.  Something is telling me there’s some sort of trans fat, or at least something rather unnatural, about those plant spreads.

I can’t stress enough how we need to drop the margarine's, even those that claim “no trans fat.”  Go with something that people have eaten for centuries, and if you think it might cause a heart attack, just eat less of it.  Or go for a more healthier choice and use Olive Oil or Coconut Oil for cooking.  Save the butter for a treat, using it on toast or pancakes..etc.

Once you make the switch, you will see the difference in your health and your families.

If you have any questions, please post your comments below.