On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 12:55:28 PM UTC-6, Travis McGee wrote:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-vs-margarine/
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> The generational battle of butter vs. margarine
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> By Roberto A. Ferdman June 17 at 12:21 PM
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> The 100-plus year war between butter and margarine, America's two
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> favorite fatty spreads, has been a battle of cultural norms, nutritional
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> headwinds, a bit of circumstance, and, of course, cash rich marketing
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> campaigns.
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> At times the tussle has proved a tad lopsided�for over 50 years
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> margarine seemed markedly outmatched. Back in 1911, the average American
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> ate almost 19 pounds of butter per year, the most ever, according to the
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> USDA. Meanwhile, margarine consumption barely broke a single pound per
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> person per year. Among the butter industry's many efforts to mitigate
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> the growth of the competing spread was a mandate, upheld in many states,
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> disallowing the sale of yellow margarine. In an effort to circumvent the
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> restriction, clear margarine blocks were often sold with a side of
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> yellow dye.
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> World World II, however, brought butter shortages and, with them, the
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> rise of butter's arch nemesis. It wasn't until 1957, when Americans ate
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> as much margarine as they did butter�8.5 pounds per year�that margarine,
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> which was marketed as both a healthier and cheaper butter alternative,
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> opened the spread in its favor. Fat had become a food faux pas, and the
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> margarine industry used its widening wallet to tout margarine's supposed
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> health appeal. "The massive advertising of health claims for margarine
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> transformed a generally disreputable product of inferior quality and
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> flavor into a great commercial success," William G. Rothstein wrote in
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> his book Public Health and the Risk Factor.
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> Even Eleanor Roosevelt came to margarine's aid. "That's what I've spread
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> on my toast," she said in a 1959 commercial for Good Luck margarine.
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> The thing about advertising is that it often works. For some 50 years
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> thereafter, it was butter that was left to congeal in the fridge. In
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> 1976, at the peak of America's love affair with margarine, per capita
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> consumption towered to just under 12 pounds per year, or nearly three
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> times that of butter, according to the USDA.
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> Today, however, amid a complete reversal in both consumer preferences
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> and nutritional science�recent studies have challenged the notion that
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> consuming saturated fats is tied to greater risks of heart
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> disease�margarine's marketing efforts have lost their appeal and the
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> narratives have reversed themselves. Growing concerns over processed
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> foods and a simultaneous, and ferocious, revival of the American
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> appetite for natural fats has turned the tables�and this time,
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> seemingly, for good. Even one of the world's largest margarine makers
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> has conceded as much.
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> After announcing the return of butter back in March, Mark Bittman wrote
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> in defense of real food and real fats just last week. "Eat real food and
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> your fat intake will probably be fine," he said. If America's taste in
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> fatty spreads is any indication, the country seems to have already
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> caught on. Butter consumption is up more than 21% since its lowest
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> reading in 1997, while margarine consumption is down 70% since its peak
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> in the mid-1970s.
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> Put another way, the average American hasn't eaten this much butter
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> since 1972, or�and perhaps more incredibly�this little margarine since 1942.

We buy only real butter. It tastes better, it cooks better, and I like it.

The amount we use is so small that I am not going to worry about the fat intake from my butter. A pound of butter lasts months and months unless I go crazy and do some baking. I love to bake but have no one to feed it to, and we don't need it!!

DaleP