Saturday, January 29, 2011

Oil or Cream?

Have you seen this commercial? A woman sitting in a diner orders a piece of pie. She is immediately presented with a series of choices, the first being the flavor of the pie. That decision made, she is next faced with the choice between "oil or cream?" Confused, she looks to the waitress who clarifies her question by holding out two choices in whipped topping, the first being an "oil" based product, the second made from fresh, wholesome (albeit canned) "cream."

This commercial resonates with me every time I see it. To be certain, it is not on the top ten list of favorite ads. It is no "Peggy" the customer service rep and can't hold a candle to the chicken and Chi Chis robot. Compared to "I pick things up and put them down" it is nothing more than an annoyance to fast forward through. Yet every time, it gets me thinking. Not about running out to buy a tasty can of whipped cream (yum, whipped cream...) but instead about a debate I have with myself each time I feed my family. This debate for me is illustrated best not through oil or cream, but instead through butter or chemicals.

Whenever I cook for my family, I try to use only real ingredients. By that, I mean the fresher the better, I like to know where they come from, and I try to avoid things that require the addition of preservatives or other chemicals. I like my food to be made of, well, food, not the kinds of things you might find in a chemistry lab. I frequently employ the "does it contains ingredients I cannot pronounce or recognize" test when deciding what to eat or feed my family. Butter passes this test and meets the real food requirements I try to live by.

Flip side- I try to (for myself) maintain a low calorie, low fat diet. I don't go crazy with counting calories, logging foods, etc, but I do try to avoid "empty" calories whenever possible and, if there is an option for something with less calories, less fat, I generally tend to take it. By this logic, in cooking or baking something that requires a butter type substance, margarine would be the better choice. Calorie and fat content of the finished product can be lowered by using margarine instead of butter. But does margarine pass the real food test? Not even close.

To get to the heart of this matter, a full side by side comparison of the two products is necessary...

BUTTER- Ingredients
Cream, Natural Flavorings

MARGARINE- Ingredients
Water, Vegetable Oil Blend (Liquid Soybean Oil, Palm Kernel Oil Liquid Canola Oil), Natural Sweet Cream Buttermilk, Salt, Gelatin, Natural Soy Lechitin, Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides, (Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Disodium EDTA), Lactic Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Vitamin A (Palmitate) Beta Carotene (Color)


Hmmm, employing the real ingredients test, butter comes out way ahead. Score- Butter 1, Margarine 0. Let's move on to a comparison of some nutritional facts...

BUTTER
Serving Size- 1 TBSP
Calories per serving- 100
Calories from fat- 100
Total Fat- 11 grams
Saturated Fat- 7 grams
Trans Fat- 0 grams
Cholesterol- 30 milligrams

MARGARINE
Serving Size- 1 TBSP
Calories per serving- 50
Calories from fat- 50
Total fat- 5 grams
Saturated fat- 1.5 grams
Trans Fat- 0 grams
Cholesterol- 0 milligrams

And the winner of this round... MARGARINE! Score is all tied up, folks.

So how do we break the tie? Lets employ a few more tests... starting with the "me" test, meaning, which do I feel is the better option for me. In truth, the answer is neither and I should and do try to avoid both in my diet. No points awarded to either side here.

Moving on, lets look at the "family gut check" test. Which one do I feel better using when cooking for my family, especially my young son? Here, I have to award a point to butter, because, at the end of the day, my fear of putting unnecessary chemicals into our systems greatly outweighs my desire to avoid a few calories. Score- 2 to 1, butter in the lead.

Of course, we cannot leave out the old fashioned "taste" test. I recognize the subjectivity of this particular test but I don't care, its my blog, my test... In this one, butter wins out every time. Yum. I do love butter.

Final score- Butter 3, Margarine 1. Yeah butter!

Disclaimer- I do realize a diet high in butter is no better for my family than one high in chemicals. Butter, like other tasty treats, is something we use in moderation and whenever possible I do use "real" substitutes (ie applesauce or yogurt when baking.) But at the end of the day, when no substitution will do, give me the cream. You can keep the oil.

All for now. Thanks for reading!

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