http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-vs-margarine/

The generational battle of butter vs. margarine
By Roberto A. Ferdman June 17 at 12:21 PM

The 100-plus year war between butter and margarine, America's two
favorite fatty spreads, has been a battle of cultural norms, nutritional
headwinds, a bit of circumstance, and, of course, cash rich marketing
campaigns.

At times the tussle has proved a tad lopsided—for over 50 years
margarine seemed markedly outmatched. Back in 1911, the average American
ate almost 19 pounds of butter per year, the most ever, according to the
USDA. Meanwhile, margarine consumption barely broke a single pound per
person per year. Among the butter industry's many efforts to mitigate
the growth of the competing spread was a mandate, upheld in many states,
disallowing the sale of yellow margarine. In an effort to circumvent the
restriction, clear margarine blocks were often sold with a side of
yellow dye.

World World II, however, brought butter shortages and, with them, the
rise of butter's arch nemesis. It wasn't until 1957, when Americans ate
as much margarine as they did butter—8.5 pounds per year—that margarine,
which was marketed as both a healthier and cheaper butter alternative,
opened the spread in its favor. Fat had become a food faux pas, and the
margarine industry used its widening wallet to tout margarine's supposed
health appeal. "The massive advertising of health claims for margarine
transformed a generally disreputable product of inferior quality and
flavor into a great commercial success," William G. Rothstein wrote in
his book Public Health and the Risk Factor.

Even Eleanor Roosevelt came to margarine's aid. "That's what I've spread
on my toast," she said in a 1959 commercial for Good Luck margarine.

The thing about advertising is that it often works. For some 50 years
thereafter, it was butter that was left to congeal in the fridge. In
1976, at the peak of America's love affair with margarine, per capita
consumption towered to just under 12 pounds per year, or nearly three
times that of butter, according to the USDA.

Today, however, amid a complete reversal in both consumer preferences
and nutritional science—recent studies have challenged the notion that
consuming saturated fats is tied to greater risks of heart
disease—margarine's marketing efforts have lost their appeal and the
narratives have reversed themselves. Growing concerns over processed
foods and a simultaneous, and ferocious, revival of the American
appetite for natural fats has turned the tables—and this time,
seemingly, for good. Even one of the world's largest margarine makers
has conceded as much.

After announcing the return of butter back in March, Mark Bittman wrote
in defense of real food and real fats just last week. "Eat real food and
your fat intake will probably be fine," he said. If America's taste in
fatty spreads is any indication, the country seems to have already
caught on. Butter consumption is up more than 21% since its lowest
reading in 1997, while margarine consumption is down 70% since its peak
in the mid-1970s.

Put another way, the average American hasn't eaten this much butter
since 1972, or—and perhaps more incredibly—this little margarine since 1942.