What's the Problem With Margarine?

What’s wrong with margarine?

1. The process of turning oils to margarine changes the chemical structure of the fats into trans fats. These fats act like saturated fats in our body. Saturated fat intake is associated with heart diseases.
2. Margarine is a high calorie food, so large amounts can contribute to excess calories in our diet.
3. Usually margarine is in foods that are not the healthiest…such as cakes, cookies, and pastries.

                Okay, okay, I know, most people do have treats every so often. Here are a few points to consider. Having margarine-containing foods as a regular and frequent part of the diet—that is not ideal. If you are baking at home, you can often substitute an oil for margarine, but you will have to decrease the amount and possibly alter other parts of the recipe. See my cookies post. I know that many people do not feel adventurous enough to do that. Instead, you can look for recipes that do not contain margarine (or other solid fat) to begin with. I guarantee you can find recipes that use oil for everything from cookies to fancy pastries. Remember that using oil instead of margarine does not make your dessert into a health food. You are just eliminating the negative effects that margarine has on heart health. Of course, occasionally having a dessert that contains margarine is not the end of the world, but recommended intake of trans fat is as close to zero as you can get.

Popcorn Attempt

                This past weekend, I had a few friends over, and I made some popcorn. It was bad popcorn. Think a tad charred and too salty. I had tried to make kettle corn. I have successfully made it in the past, but have not in the past many years. Standard kernels popped over the stove top in oil I can do. But adding sugar and caramelizing it to perfection without getting it burned—I can’t replicate my past results! This is where my popcorn ended up: in the garbage can.

popcorn that didn't work out

 How to pop popcorn kernels the simpler way:

1. You need a large pot. Cover the bottom with oil, and add 2 kernels of popcorn.
2. Heat on medium to high flame until both kernels pop.
3. Now add enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pot.
4. Once you hear the kernels start to pop, give the pot a shake every 10 seconds or so to prevent burning.
5. When the popping slows down, turn the stove off.
6. Pour the popcorn into a paper bag, sprinkle with salt, and shake well

                When you do that, you should get this:

                Onto the nutrition now. Popcorn itself is considered a whole grain. Three cups of air-popped popcorn contains 90 calories, 3 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber. Popcorn popped over the stove top in oil and microwave popcorn are another story. The added fats and/or sugar in those make the popcorn a high calorie food. The calorie content in those versions can be double or more the calories in air-popped popcorn. Be an educated eater!

                If anyone has advice on how to make kettle corn, let me know!

Chanukah Traditions

The Jewish holidays are always a time for cooking and baking yummy foods. One of my favorite Chanukah foods are sugar cookies. You are correct, you can have cookies on any holiday, but on Chanukah they are a special tradition for me.

Typically, the one time of the year I use margarine in baking is for making sugar cookies for Chanukah. I love making Chanukah-themed cookie shapes and glazing them with a simple powdered sugar-based glaze. I always had difficulty finding the perfect proportions of oil, flour, sugar, and other ingredients to make dough that has a good consistency for making shapes with cookie cutters without using margarine. Until this year.

This Sunday I wanted to make sugar cookies. I had forgotten to purchase margarine at the supermarket last week, and I had no intention to take the cold trip out again. So, as any determined person will do, I asked my sister-in-law if she had a margarine-less sugar cookie recipe. And in fact she did! The recipe did require some tweaking. I used less oil than it called for, and added some extra flour and sugar. Once they were baked, I realized I should have used less baking powder, because sugar cookies are not supposed to grow or get a little bubbly like these did.

I wish I could share the recipe with you…and the other people who have already asked for it. But, sadly, I did not measure my ingredients! I plan to remake the cookies, but this time measure the oil, flour, and sugar that I use. On the agenda in a coming week is to give you the margarine-less sugar cookie recipe. 

Before Glaze

After Glaze!!

Comparison of Different Fats

Nutrition Information for 1 Tablespoon of Various Fats[1]

	Calories	Fat (g)	Saturated fat (g)	Mono- unsaturated fat (g)	Poly-unsaturated fat (g)	Trans fat (g)
Coconut oil	121	13.5	11.2	0.9	0.2	0
Butter	102	11.5	7.3	3.0	0.4	0.5
Palm oil	120	13.6	6.7	5.0	1.3
Chicken fat	115	12.8	3.8	5.8	2.7
Margarine	100	11.2	2.3	5.3	3.1	2.8
Peanut oil	119	13.5	2.3	6.2	4.3
Soybean oil	120	13.6	2.1	3.1	7.9	1.2
Vegetable oil	120	13.6	2.1	3.1	7.8	0.1
Olive oil	119	13.5	1.8	9.9	1.4
Avocado oil	124	14	1.6	9.9	1.9
Sunflower oil	120	13.6	1.3	6.2	5.5
Canola oil	124	14	1.0	8.9	3.9	0.1
Safflower oil	120	13.6	0.8	2.0	10

                Here we have it…the nutrition content of common fats. Fats and oils are all around 120 calories per tablespoon. You will notice that butter is lower. That is because butter is a water-in-oil emulsion, and the water content does not contribute calories.

The main nutritional difference between the other fats is the proportion of saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans fats. Excessive intake of saturated fat and trans fat is associated with heart problems, while unsaturated fats are beneficial to our heart health.

One easy way to tell if a fat is high in saturated fat is if it is solid at room temperature. All fats that are solid at room temperature have higher content of saturated fat. The first five fats on the list are solid at room temperature, and their saturated fat content is the highest of the fats on the list.

One surprising fact is that there are two vegetable fats on this list that are high in saturated fat. Many times we think that if something is from a plant it is automatically better for us. Yet, based on the saturated fat content, there are other fats that are better for our heart health.

Another easy trap to fall into is the health aura that surrounds some plant foods. The fact that a food is a plant and has nutrients in it that are healthy for us is not a good enough reason to eat as much as we desire. A great example of this is the avocado. The avocado is a fruit that is high in many vitamins and minerals. Additionally, it is high in monounsaturated fats. Yet, because of that, it is definitely a high-fat food—75% of its calories are from fat. A whole avocado can have 220-370 calories! While definitely a healthy choice of a fat source, it is important to remember about portion sizes. As a reference point, a half cup of avocado cubes is about 120 calories. Next time you are making a salad, measure it out with a measuring cup…you may be in for a surprise!

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[1] USDA Food Composition Databases. United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed October 11, 2017. < https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list>