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This is the latest nutrition misinformation campaign to be launched upon us, trying to keep consumers consuming processed oils for the sake of health.
The Flora Pro-activ margarine is a low fat margarine, that uses plant sterols to partly replace fat content.
This margarine is 0.4% trans-fat (according to its label), but given that it is only 50% fat by weight, this means 0.8% of the total fat content.
While I have no evidence that the constituent ingredients are unsafe (apart from the trans- content), the idea of consuming high levels of plant sterols has never really been tested for long term effects.
Plant sterols are to plants what cholesterol is to animals. (ie the essential hormone building blocks).
The claim made by Flora is that the plant sterols reduce absorption of cholesterol. While this is probably true, the question we ask is:
How could this possibly be of benefit?
If the cholesterol was oxidized (like in processed cheeses) then granted, we are probably better off, however for natural foods, the cholesterol is a good healthy nutrient which we should be consuming, in fact it is very difficult for the body to make all the cholesterol required, and dietary sources are important.
Decreasing cholesterol absorption can have a short term effect on reducing cholesterol, however the body will tend to work harder to produce more and in the long term, cholesterol levels will probably return to normal levels. Short term decreases in cholesterol from consuming plant sterols probably would decrease the good cholesterols as much as the oxidized ones.
While the body can produce cholesterol, it certainly helps consuming it as well. It is an essential building block for Vitamin D production (which is especially harder to produce in winter) and producing the body's hormones.
see: Warning To Be Put On Anti-Cholesterol Spread for an article about the ignored warnings on high sterol margarines.
see http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm for a quick summary of the cholesterol myths and facts.
Also from www.soyonlineservice.co.nz
See http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/articles/Flora.htm For complaints to the advertising board about the misleading claims of Flora Pro-activ Spread. These complaints have been upheld by the New Zealand Advertising Standards. However the advertisements seem to always return with slight modifications.
Furthermore, an article about this issue published on the Weston A Price website:
Misinformation of Cholesterol Lowering Spreads - Toxins on your toast
Some more possible side-effects
Myriam Richelle and colleagues from the Nestle Research Centre, Switzerland, have discovered that adding plant sterols to foods to reduce the absorption of cholesterol, also reduces the absorption of beta-carotene and vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol).¯ However, the sterols did not significantly reduce the absorption of vitamin A (retinol) and vitamins D... Read More: Plant sterols may affect absorption of vitamin E, beta-carotene - http://www.soyatech.com/bluebook/news/viewarticle.ldml?a=20040719-1 |
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6 Comments
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Comment By: Andries Dippenaar |
10:10PM 13/9/2007 |
| The health authorities know the dangers of all these bad fats but keep it quite because the hart and cancer desease industries are very lucritive |
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Comment By: Andries Dippenaar |
10:22PM 13/9/2007 |
The biggest lie in existance I will not mention.
The second biggest lie in existance is the evolution.
The third biggest lie is that margarine is good for you.
The fourth biggest lie is that full cream milk is bad for you because how else will they be able to steal the cream and sell it for a premuim then charge you more for the low fat milk. |
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Comment By: Gordon Rouse |
11:09AM 14/9/2007 |
| Please note that the editor of this site or the reasearchers that provide the material in this website do not support creationism. Human evolution is the strongest argument for high fat diets, while according to the biblical account of creation, humans were originally vegetarians and so were created for low fat diets. |
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Comment By: Grant Philpott |
10:00AM 25/10/2007 |
| I would be concerned about any attempts to artificially reduce cholesterol. I was poisoned by chloramphenicol. My body no longer makes vitamin D and pregnenolone from cholesterol. I wonder if the people who have high cholesterol actually have problems in the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone and their bodies are compensating by making more cholesterol available. There is a definite link here with benzoic acid compounds and allergies to these chemicals and cholesterol/hormone production. |
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Comment By: Katherine van Eeden |
2:02PM 28/10/2007 |
| I see you have omega 3 in your margerine... i am allergic to any seafood and fish oils, does your margerine pose a danger to me? |
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Comment By: Gordon Rouse |
10:30AM 29/10/2007 |
You will note that I do not recommend consumption of any commercial margarines, I have never heard of anyone being allergic to Omega 3 however, as according to most research, this is an essential compound for the body. Having said that, Omega 3 is highly unstable, and the Omega 3 in margarines is often oxidised due to processing. This causes many problems in the body by production of free radicals, this is probably not related to seafood allergy, as Omega 3 does not degrade too much in fresh fish.
I would say, yes, all commercial margarines represent a danger to you as they do to anybody, but not for the reasons you suppose. |
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Current Poll Results
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The milk I consume most is: |
Naturalea 4% unhomogenised (
13 %)
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Farmhouse (4%) unhomogenised (
5 %)
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Standard (3.3%) homogenised (
8 %)
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Low Fat Milk Homogenised (
33 %)
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Real Farm Milk - non pasteurised (
41 %)
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