Margarine and spreads.

[Guest guest]

Hi Kiwi,

Maybe you can help if you know about margarines. I hardly ever use

buttery type spreads as I have a weight struggle. My hubby is a vegetarian

and I bought him margarine, thinking it was healthier than butter as he eats

a lot of it really. Now I read reports that, in fact, margarine is much

more unhealthy htan butter. Does anyone know if the soya margarines are

just as unhealthy. Now, what about all these new olive oil marges? Are

they just as unhealthy as, say, Flora? What is the healthiest spread to put

on his toast in the morning then as it looks at the moment like he'll be

going back to butter, which I'm not keen on. Any help on this subject would

be much appreciated.

Love Shell.

[Guest guest]

This is what I understand re fats and oils. Sorry but you hit one of

my rant topics. You're going to think I'm a nutter but oils are

really important elements in our diet.

 

To make liquid oil go solid at room temperatures for spreads mfrs

hydrogenise it. This creates trans fatty acids which are bad news for

hearts, cancer and more. WHO recommends reduction in consumption of

TFAs. Hence people saying butter is healthier than margarine.

 

Hydrogenisation uses nickel. If cheap jewellry makes you itch you're

probably allergic to nickel so eating nickel contaminated food isn't

a good idea.

 

Palm oil is naturally solid at room temperature and can be used in

non hydrogenated spreads but does have significant amounts of

cholestrol.

The other veg oil with high cholestrol is coconut oil, also solid at

room temp. Both should be used as little as possible but coconut

cream is so fantastic in curries I put my fingers in my ears and

enjoy.

Messy;-)

 

Matthews Foods Pure vegan margarine has no hydrogenated fats. They

use the minimum possible palm oil to make it spreadable. This is safer

than consuming hydrogenated fat.

http://www.purespreads.com/

 

Use a good oil, preferably olive, instead of margarine whenever

possible. Most recipes you can substitute oil. Feels weird making

cakes, pastry and biscuits with oil but it does work. Just weigh out

oil in jug for any recipe that says Xozs of marge, butter.

 

Oils go rancid quite quickly. Rancidity creates free radicals and

toxins. In recent survey of olive oils on UK supermarket shelves a

suprisingly high % were within use by dates but on the verge of

rancid Advice was to buy only from shops with a high turnover.

 

Heat, air and light encourage oil to go rancid. Olive oil is more

stable than other oils and doesn't go rancid as easily. It's meant to

store safely for years so the supermarket survey was really suprising.

 

Don't heat oil twice, creates toxins. Again olive oil safest to heat

as more stable. Low temperature oil cooking better than high, but

bugger it, got to have crispy tatty wedges or roasts once a week.

 

Most commercial oils are deoderised and highly processed which

damages the important nutrients in the oil. Hence recommendations to

use cold pressed virgin oils.

 

But never fancied strong olive oil in cake. One day I'll pluck up the

courage to try it. I use a light commercial olive oil instead. I'm

trying to find a better solution.

 

Oils should never be bought in plastic bottles. Xeno oestrogens from

plastics leach into the oil. I only buy oil in glass. I should

imagine oil in tins is ok but I'd want to know if the cans are lined

with plastics. Lots of food tins have plastic linings which leach

xeno oestrogens into the food. Dangerous with oily or acid foods.

Again

anybody with nickel sensitivity should avoid tins.

 

Anybody worried about health should avoid rapeseed (Canola) oil -

contains goitrogens which increase the need for iodine - which has

lots of implications - but that would take another book to explain.

 

Difficult to get oil in glass except expensive ranges. Clearspring do

a good cheap organic sunflower oil in glass bottle. Not deoderised

and

smells strongly but at least I think it's not poisoning me. After

reading about oil survey I think the shop I use is a bit suspect,

which may be why it smells so strong. I'm thinking of buying direct

from Clearspring to make sure it is as fresh as possible.

http://www.clearspring.co.uk/

 

Others reckon heating sunflower oil dangerous. Load of butter is good

for you crap but some thought provoking stuff on

http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/skinny.html

 

Pure margarine is packaged in plastic tub but tub is made of 50/50

chalk and polypropylene. I am told polypropylene is safe see

http://www.grassrootsinfo.org/plastics.html

Pure are contacting pack manufacturer for me re this question.

 

Just to confuse thing further, some oils are rich in Omega 6 and

some rich in Omega 3. Western diets gave too much 6 and not enough 3.

Fish oils contain Omega 3, which is why we are always being told to

eat oily fish.

 

Linseed (flaxseed), evening primrose and soya bean oil are all high

in Omega 3. Eating couple of tablespoons of flaxseeds every day gives

plenty of Omega 3 oils Sprinkle onto cereal, mix in recipes. Make

sure flaxseeds have not been adultereated with dairy rubbish, some

are.

Buy cracked seeds to get maximum benefit from oils. Seeds less

processed so better than oils.

Info on flax oil benefits

http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/flaxseedoil.html

 

I think walnut oil is high in Omega 3. Expensive but delicious

treat.Health freaks tell you to have a tablespoon twice a week. What

a waste! Use for salad dressings, on bread. I also use it to make

crispy breadcrumb and nut things. Yum! but general advice is not to

heat the walnut oil.

 

Summary.

Use vegan non hydrogenated spreads with minimum palm oil. Reduce use.

Use cold pressed organic olive oil instead as much as possible.

Make sure diet includes flaxseeds, flaxoil or soya bean oil..

Don't buy oils in plastic bottles. Use oil once only for cooking.

Restrict high temperature cooking with oils.

Avoid too much palm and coconut oil.

 

Or just to answer your question.

Give him non hydrogenated vegan spread with lowest possible palm oil

content - eg Pure. All olive oil spreads I've seen have dairy added.

 

Rosanne

 

 

 

 

vegan-network, " andy.mich " <andy.mich@n...> wrote:

> Hi Kiwi,

> Maybe you can help if you know about margarines. I hardly ever

use

> buttery type spreads as I have a weight struggle. My hubby is a

vegetarian

> and I bought him margarine, thinking it was healthier than butter

as he eats

> a lot of it really. Now I read reports that, in fact, margarine is

much

> more unhealthy htan butter. Does anyone know if the soya

margarines are

> just as unhealthy. Now, what about all these new olive oil marges?

Are

> they just as unhealthy as, say, Flora? What is the healthiest

spread to put

> on his toast in the morning then as it looks at the moment like

he'll be

> going back to butter, which I'm not keen on. Any help on this

subject would

> be much appreciated.

> Love Shell.