On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 5:43:35 AM UTC+10, Helpful person wrote:
> I'm confused. Wasn't margarine introduced as a cheaper spread. I
> though it was solely to save money. Hence the great effort to fool
> people into thinking that it tasted as good as butter.

Yes. The "margarine is lower and saturated fats and healthier" came later.

The early margarines weren't much lower in saturated fats, anyway. Originally beef tallow, about 50% saturated vs about 60% for butterfat. When they went to whale oil, that's less saturated (and gets hydrogenated).