With much having been considered and written concerning the butter versus margarine debate, it is a surprise why the argument even now rages.  When examining what offers the most health benefits, making a rationale for why we should be using margarine at all if we really have dietary concerns is like making a case for hot dogs as a health food: no matter how you slice it margarine will not be beneficial for our bodies.  So to establish which foods offers the most health benefits, first we will look at margarine, followed by butter.

As for margarine, what is it that ought to remove it from being something we should eat?  Although the inherent harm of margarine, not like cigarette smoking, is not obvious, you might become more skeptical if we were to look at the process by which it's produced.  There's nothing unprocessed about it, as the process begins with cheap oil, such as cottonseed oil, and is sent through the hydrogenation process, where hydrogen molecules are forced into oil molecules under extreme heat and pressure, with the use of nickel as a toxic catalyst.  It is then bleached and deodorized, artificially flavored and colored with yellow dye.  The whole process does not give off pleasant thoughts.  Some advocates of margarine maintain that there's a lower trans-fat choice with soft margarine, which again using the cigarette analogy is like saying low tar cigarettes are beneficial for you.  What all of us should attempt to feed ourselves is natural, not manufactured, products that our bodies due to many generations of evolution are designed to ingest.

Butter, when choosing what offers the most health benefits, compared to margarine has the same quantity of calories.  It increases the absorption in the body of many other nutrients, and has nutritional benefits in itself, plus it tastes better than margarine and enhances the flavor of other foods.  Where it's historically taken a rap is its somewhat elevated content of saturated fats.  Butter being from animals will score lower on fat-loss scale than products derived from plants, but there's fresh evidence that this doesn't need to be an automatic disqualifier.  If consumed moderately, saturated fats actually might help in the body in the employment of Omega 3.  Additionally, recent research has suggested that the small amount of natural Tran's fats in butter may be advantageous for health, and possess anti-cancer properties.  Finally, if you utilize organic butter, that is, butter that includes no pesticides or antibiotics, it scores not at all badly in its health benefits versus its risks.  It looks like we could logically assume that the debate on the health benefits of butter will persist as new data and research comes available.

So while deciding what offers the most health benefits, butter or margarine, our opinion could not be clearer: stay away from margarine at all costs.  Butter, especially organic, is acceptable, as long as it's used in moderation and if you are intent on using one or the other.  On the other hand, in our examination what offers the most health benefits, we have found that for cooking or the preparation of any foods where the choice presents itself, we discover that olive oil is the best way to go.  It's a staple in the Mediterranean Diet and its healthiness benefits are becoming more pronounced.  But bear in mind  that olive oil is high in calories, so utilize it moderately, and also bear in mind you cannot make unhealthy foods healthy merely by adding olive oil to them.