| |
|
| |
Margarines are refined vegetable oils that have undergone varying degrees of hydrogenation to give them solid properties. Trans-fat levels in soft margarines vary from 0.4% to 5% in those which are labelled. Cheaper margarines without trans-fat labelling are certainly higher in trans-fats.
Although relatively low levels of trans-fats can now be achieved with modern soft-margaines, they still remain a highly procoessed product containing few of the essential fatty-acids or oil based vitamins that the original vegetable oil contained. Infact they are likely to be high in solvents such as hexane that were used to extract the oil in the first place, plus traces of Lipid Hydro-peroxides produced when the Omega-3 are oxidised during processing.
Some low trans-margarines are created by fully hydrogenating vegetable oils to produce long chain saturated fats, these are then mixed with a non hydrogenated oil, others use refined or synthsized emulsifiers to create a water fat emulsion that behaves like a solid at room temperatures. (I don't know how this works - if someone can explain, please add a comment below)
The only healthy margarines are those made from a mixture of unrefined palm oils (to provide hardness) and other liquid unrefined oils. These are hard to find, but I have seen somthing like it in an organic store. These products can have some nutritional benefit if you don't consume many vegetable fats in your diet (ie nuts, olive oil etc), but should never replace butter, as butter is quite unique in the nutrients it supplies to our diet.
ie Conjugated Linoleic Acid, Vitamin A, D & K, natural anti-inflamatories and cholesterol.
Some notable products in the New Zealand Supermarket:
Signature Range Margarine with heart tick of approval!- contains 5% trans fats.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current Poll Results
|
|
The milk I consume most is: |
Naturalea 4% unhomogenised (
12 %)
|
Farmhouse (4%) unhomogenised (
4 %)
|
Standard (3.3%) homogenised (
9 %)
|
Low Fat Milk Homogenised (
31 %)
|
Real Farm Milk - non pasteurised (
43 %)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Email To A Friend
 Print This Page
|
|
|
