21 August 2007

I can't believe it's not butter

Sometimes it's better not to know...

This is shamelessly clipped from this chemical engineering blog

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal, so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.

DO YOU KNOW...the difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end...gets very interesting!
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.
And now, for Margarine...
Very high in trans fatty acids.
Triple risk of coronary heart disease.
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol,(the good cholesterol).
Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And, here's the most disturbing fact....Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC. This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated, this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance.

You can try this yourself: Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:
*no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)
*it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value; nothing will grow on it, even those teeny weeny micro organisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

------------------------------
But, even more dangerous news is posted below (maybe you've heard about it already).
(Not from the above site.)

The dangers of dihydrogen monoxide:

Also called "hydroxyl acid", the substance is the major component of acid rain;
Contributes to the greenhouse effect;
Contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape;
Accelerates corrosion and breakdown of electrical equipment;
Excessive ingestion may cause various unpleasant effects, including death;
Prolonged contact with its solid form results in severe tissue damage;
Inhalation, even in small quantities, may cause death;
Its gaseous form may cause severe burns;
It has been found in the tumors of terminal cancer patients;
Withdrawal by those addicted to the substance causes certain death within 168 hours;
Used in many forms of cruel animal research;
The US Navy has a secret distribution network for DHMO;
Lakes and rivers all over the world are contaminated with DHMO;
In the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical;
As an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products;
Known to be a component of a number of cancer-causing agents

Nevertheless, governments and corporations continue using it widely, heedless of its grave dangers.

I hope you steer clear of this dangerous substance.

For more on the topic, I recommend this site.
Here's part of their FAQ sheet.

Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are: Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
Contributes to soil erosion.
Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
Given to vicious dogs involved in recent deadly attacks.
Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere, and in hurricanes including deadly storms in Florida, New Orleans and other areas of the southeastern U.S.
Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.


IF YOU'RE WONDERING WHAT THIS DANGEROUS SUBSTANCE IS, CHECK MY COMMENTS

14 comments:

swissmiss said...

It's water.

Anonymous said...

It will never touch my lips again!

gemoftheocean said...

I'm relieved, I thought you were going to say coca-cola.

swissmiss said...

Angela: I hope you mean margarine won't touch your lips but not water ;}

Gem:
Coke is like an evil ambrosia. Am sure there are really bad things I could post about Coke, but it's one of my only vices (which I have given up more times than I can count), so choose to be ignorant at this stage.

Unknown said...

Boy, S-M, I wish I knew all that back in the days when "yellow margarine" was illegal in Minnesota.

The dairy farmer lobby made sure of that.

So it was sold in one pound packages with a little red bubble of food coloring centered on top of the white gunk. It was the responsibility of children to break the food coloring bubble and mix the coloring additive into the white gunk by squeezing it until it had turned into the proper color of yellow. Then, if there was time, it was put back into the refrigerator to chill so that it would more resemble real butter.

But there wasn't always time and it would often be applied to toast or bread in a rather runny condition.

But it was much cheaper than butter.

One of the great illegal past-times in those days of "ole" prohibition was finding somebody who happened to be heading down to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where colored "ole" was legal. Orders were solicited and cars were heavily laden with 24 pound boxes of same on the return trip, much to the glee of recipients. It didn't really taste like butter, but at least it looked like it.

Finally after a time, the esteemed legislators of Minnesota realized that there were more soybean farmers than there were dairy farmers here, and colored "ole" was legalized and smuggling ceased, to the detriment of Michigan grocers.

swissmiss said...

Ray:
You are so full of info that you should really be a teacher or something. I need to ask my aunt about this and see if she remembers any "ole" stories. She grew up on a farm and actually eats more margarine than butter. Personally, I have never bought margarine. Even in recipes that call for margarine, I use butter. My family of farmers never had soybeans that I know of, but had plenty of milk cows so my butter affinity must come from that.

Mairin :o) said...

I knew about the margarine, but did you know soy is also bad for you? soy milk for infants increase the estrogen levels in babies several thousand percent. The equivalent of 5 birth control pills! Yuck.

swissmiss said...

:o)
Yep, I knew about soy and how it acts like estrogen. I keep my family away from it. Some soy isn't bad, I use it in chinese cooking, but never buy soy milk, etc. Yuck.

Anonymous said...

Soy lattes are even more disgusting. They DON'T/WON'T foam!

Swissmiss...yes, I meant margarine. I told my husband about this post and he threw out our last tub. Yay!

Unknown said...

I'd bet that a bunch of you wonder why I referred in my comment to margarine as "ole."

That's because it's proper chemical name was "oleomargarine", maybe with a dash.

We "users" just called it "ole."

gemoftheocean said...

BTW, I really enjoyed this tech post too. Now THIS, THIS is the sort of thing I like. I never could ABIDE margarine. Ever. A friend of mine was born in the early 40s...when there was still some rationing. His parents bought margarine cuz they "had to" so he was used to it. Phooey. He also likes science topics -- I'm going to email him this post.

Re: Coke. Well, what can I say. Even I know about the "put the nail in the coke and watch it dissolve in three days phenomenon. I finally hit on the fact that it works better than anything to get a clogged drain going if you have a little patience. If I have a half drunk can of coke, I always pour it down the bathroom sink.

swissmiss said...

I think I should add a caveat here. About the margarine...when they say it's only ONE molecule away from plastic, that ONE molecule could be plastic itself. A molecule could be something as small as CO (carbon monoxide) all the way up to things as big as the Empire State Building (shout out to Leona). If they would've said it was just one ATOM away from plastic, then I would be worried. Just don't want to create panic the way Orsen Wells did.
BTW: There was an article at the local cafe up here in NW Wisconsin that had a short blip about the dangers of Coke and how it's used to clean up blood off the road after an accident, and all sorts of other nasty stuff. Be careful out there folks, everything could kill you ;}

Anonymous said...

These are hoaxes:

Look at the bottom of the page:
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax

I threw one in for coca cola too:
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp

It's too bad we all don't look things up before we repost them.

swissmiss said...

Dearest anon:
It's too bad you don't understand when things are meant tongue-in-cheek and read all the comments before posting :)

Now go get a Coke and slather some margarine on a piece of white bread...oh wait, white bread is bad too with all the processes involved to bleach it. What's a girl to do?