HealthiFood: HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Margarine or Butter?

Monday, March 28, 2011

HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Margarine or Butter?

We've all hashed through the argument, thousands of times. The fact is, less of both is better for you, which is part of the HealthiFood program. However, you will notice that some of my recipes use margarine or butter and that I don't care which. Here's why.

I was raised on butter. I feel better about because it is much more natural. However, margarine is a lot cheaper and has (a few) less calories so I use it sometimes. I don't use shortening much (as you can probably tell), and in most things I like to replace margarine and butter (after reducing the amount) with canola or olive oil.

So margarine or butter? In all honesty, if my recipe calls for it I most often use margarine to save money, unless I really want a wonderful taste (and am willing to pay for it) with butter. There are just a few recipes that I always make with 100% butter only: my mom's recipes for cornbread, sugar cookies, and snicker-doodles.

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The HealthiFood Program: One to Four

1. Lower Fat
Most recipes can be adapted to cut the fat in half through substitution (of things like ground flax seed meal, applesauce, etc.) or elimination. Another easy way to lower fat is to cook with lower fat options, like low or nonfat milk products. Usually you can't tell the difference when it's cooked in, and you can save A LOT of calories and fat grams.

2. Better Fat Choices
We all know that nonfat isn't usually that good. Instead of eliminating all the fat and richness from recipes, the HealthiFood Program aims to replaces bad fats with better fats. HealthiFood uses olive oil, canola oil, ground flax seed meal, and naturally-occurring fats as much as possible to reduce hydrogenated and saturated fat content as much as possible.

3. High Fiber and Protein
Fiber is essential to good health, especially in the long run. The HealthiFood Program increases whole grains and fiber content by using whole wheat flour, oat flour, yellow corn meal, and ground flax seed meal. These substitutions also add protein.

4. More Vegetables
Using vegetable puree addition techniques of the Sneaky Chef and Jessica Seinfeld, the HealthiFood Program enriches recipes with vitamins and more fiber while lowering the calorie content per serving.

No Gimmicks

Sometimes the Nutrition Facts I provide may surprise you. This is because I usually post how much of a dish I actually eat. If you wanted tone-downed, unrealistic serving sizes to make all recipes look diet, this isn't the place. However, usually the serving size given will be for your whole meal, such as 1/9th of a 9x9 lasagna or 1/4th of a round of Rosemary bread. If you aren't in a habit of understanding serving sizes, start here and now, and definitely apply it to the packaged foods you eat.