Smart Balance Spread
 

Hi,
I was wondering what type of butter everyone uses. I found this Smart Balance spread at my store and it stresses that it has no hydrogenated ANYTHING in it and it's carb free. What does everyone else use aside from butter?

Thanks!
Melissa

Butter. I read a bunch of labels on the margarines, and couldn't find any that didn't have hydrogenated SOMETHING. Even some that claimed no hydrogenated fats listed them in the ingredients!!! Then I saw the fine print.."No hydrogenated fats PER SERVING, based on a 1 tsp serving size" I felt ripped off and quit looking....

I use the unsalted butter,

I use to use the can't believe it's not butter lite because it said "no transfatty acids" but the ingredients say "partially hydrogenated", unless I am wrong, that means transfatty acids :daze: and they are really bad for us!

Butter offers a plethora of vitamins and other essential nutrients. It is better to avoid polyunsaturated fats particularly transfatty acids such as margarine.

Good luck to you.

Real butter! Why bother with the imitation if you don't have to? Anyway, butter is better: no funky food color, added flavors, mutated vegetable oils, etc.!

On the subject of butter--has anyone tried the premium European butters that are supposedly higher in fat? I'd be curious to know how they match up to American brands.

That's what I noticed when reading the ingredients...you are correct that "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" are other words for transfats. They apparently squeak by under the "less than one is zero" type rules as with carbs in the food labelling rules.

The only margarine-like product I've found so far that doesn't list any hydrogenated anything in it was the "I can't Believe its Not Butter" spray. You really have to laugh when a product with liquid soybean oil in the first three ingredients says "Zero Calories" though... :lol:

BUTTER!
We used to use Brummel & Brown spread, but I found transfats in the ingredients. Besides, there's no imitation butter that's as good as butter.
Don't trust what it says on the front. Read the labels.

Nothing better than real butter!

I learned a long time ago that margerine and any butter substitutes are "plastic fat". Even if you were trying to limit fat it would be better to use real butter if just a little.

There is nothing wrong with smart balance. I get it for my BF who is lactose intolerant. Its high in omega 3's and 6's. Here's a couple of sites.
This can NOT be a bad thing for people who don't like/can't tolerate butter.

http://www.smartbalance.com/main.html

http://www.new-nutrition.com/newspage/211103c.asp

It looks good, but what are the ingredients?

We had a previous discussion about Smart Balance margarine a few months ago .. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...t=smart+balance

It's made with non-hydrogenated soy, canola and olive oil, with high-saturate palm oil to give it a more solid texture .. http://www.smartbalance.com/palm.html

It's suitable for cooking at lower temperatures or baking. Note - this is only for the margarine .. they have a lower fat "spread" which shouldn't be used for cooking at all.

And it's Kosher, since many people prefer to not use dairy butter with a meat meal.


Doreen

Cool... I was just getting suspicious when the sites didn't list teh nutrition info ANYWHERE. I guess I'm getting paranoid.

You're right to be so ;)

It's nice to know there's an alternative for those who prefer it, but I'm with all of you who say butter is best. Look at the ingredients .. natural cream and maybe salt. Nobody has to sit in a lab and carefully calculate the ratios and balance of fatty acids like a chemistry experiment. :daze:


Doreen

Here's another margarine question...doesn't "fractionated" mean the same as "hydrogenated"?

Heaven, I'm in heaven! :angel:

Yes! When we were in Ireland a couple years ago, and again last year when we visited Scotland.

When we got back from Ireland, I was telling a friend of mine (born and raised in Germany) what good butter they had, but not knowing why it was better. She explained that their butter is made using cream with a higher fat content than what we use in America. She agreed that the difference is like night and day.

Fractionated means that a substance is split up into its component parts. Hydrogenated means that the component parts of a substance are bonded together with a molecule of hydrogen. So they're sort of opposite reactions.

Although I couldn't find any references that fractionated oils contain trans fats, bottom line is that it's still a highly processed synthetic product. Probably best used in moderation.


Doreen

Ahh... sorry, my brain is fractionated today. :lol:

Thanks for all the great info! You guys are wonderful!!

If anyone out there is tempted to use margarine instead of butter due to the spreadibility issue, I recommend you get a butter bell. I picked one up on e-bay for about $20 and it works great. My butter is always soft and it stays very fresh. Of course, I use butter so much that it rarely goes more than a week before I have to refill it.

My SO's mother uses a butter bell as well and loves it. We had a hard time finding one to get her.

ATM I'm trying the Can't belive it's not butter spray. There's nothing hydroginated about it, so hopefully it won't be to bad.

In the store today I saw Earth Balance. It's a spread that is made with expeller pressed oils all non-hydroganated, and it 100% vegan so lactose intolerent people could also use it.

I use Unsalted Butter or Soft Baking Butter. Unsalted Butter is just Cream. Soft Baking Butter is a mix of Cream, Canola Oil, and Salt. No hydrogenated Oils...Though, you do have to be carefull, because the same company puts out a Garlic Butter with Olive Oil which if I remember correctly contains Hydrogenated Oils.

The plus for Soft Baking Butter is in the first word of the name...It is very soft. Because it contains liquid oils, it is softer, spreads easier, and melts easier than pure butter.

I use extra virgin olive oil . sometimes i use sunflower oil for cooking & frying where as the olive oil would smoke.

Butter, butter and more REAL butter,,,gotta love it!

Clarified butter. I get annoyed when regular butter browns and smokes in the pan. :)

Mmm ... butter. If I lived in a rural area, I just might have my own cow. (And chickens, because fresh eggs are unbelievably good.)