“The butter is good, margarine hurts”, Who knows how many times we have heard it. Well, in reality it is not so simple: often these two foods are superficially opposed, but the real difference lies in the composition. First of all, butter is a food of origin animalwhile for margarine they are used vegetable oils. They are both consisting of fatty acids, but with different chemical and structural characteristics: the butter is rich in saturated fatty acidswhich make it solid and stable, while margarine derives from vegetable oils rich in unsaturated fatty acidsusually liquids at room temperature and for this it needs one industrial processing to obtain a consistency similar to that of the throw. One of the best known processes, hydrogenation, can generate the so -called Trans fatpotentially harmful to health, but there are alternative methods that reduce these risks.
The differences between butter and margarine: similar structure, but not the same
Butter and margarine are two sides of the same currency: they are composed of fatty acids. The substantial difference between the two lies in the structure fatty acids: based on the presence of simple or double bonds they can have important differences both in the structure and in the characteristics.
The butter, obtained from milk cream, is a food of animal origin with a predominance of saturated fatty acidsthat is with simple ties among the carbon atoms that make them up and a structure linear which allows fatty acids that make it up to interact and aggregate In a more stable and homogeneous way: consequently it has a compact and solid structure, at a refrigerator temperature. If left at room temperature, however, the butter tends to soften without melting completely, given that its merger point is between 32 and 35 ° C. From a chemical point of view, the saturated fatty acids of butter can be divided into two large categories: those a long chain, With multiple carbon atoms such as lauric acid, myister acid and palmitic acid, they can increase theLDL, “bad cholesterol” and are more difficult to metabolize, so they are stored as a reserve in adipose tissuefavoring the accumulation of fat; and those a short chain, like thebutrry acid (4 carbon atoms), from which the butter also takes the name, which instead promote the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria and have anti -inflammatory properties.
Margarine, on the other hand, is mainly made up of unsaturated fats of vegetable origin (Extracts for example from soy, sunflower, rapeseed). In unsaturated fatty acids there are double bonds among the carbon atoms that make them up: these introduce “fold“In the chain, which prevent molecules from getting used to compactly and causes that the compounds based on unsaturated fats are generally more liquids at room temperature. This small, but fundamental difference means that while the butter is naturally solid for the predominance of saturated fatty acids, margarine needs specific processes to obtain the same consistency.
As we make margarine more similar to butter: hydrogenation
Let’s start immediately with a punctualization: talk about margarine It’s wrong. There are different types, depending on the raw materials used and production processes: it would therefore be more correct to speak of margarinebut not to complicate too much the speech we will continue to speak with the term in the singular.
Margarine was born historically as cheaper alternative to the butter: it was invented in 1869 from the French chemist Hyppolyte Mège-Mouriès In response to a competition organized by Napoleon III, who was looking for a substitute for butter accessible to popular classes and army. In a period in which the production of butter was expensive and limited by the availability of milk, there was a spreadable fat that was cheaper and more easily available.
To make the consistency of the margarine more similar to that of butter, one of the best known processes is the so -called hydrogenation: by adding molecular hydrogen moles (h2) and using special catalysts, double ties are eliminated unsaturated fatty acids transforming them into saturated or partially saturated fatty acids. This allows you to have a more solid consistency than before.
Hydrogenation is useful not only to improve the consistency of Margarina, but also to increase its conservability: the double bonds are chemically more reactive and subject to oxidation processes, which lead torash of the product. Eliminating them, you get more fat stableless inclined to degrade over time and therefore with a longer conservation duration.
The risks of hydrogenation in margarine
However, when the hydrogenation is partialnot all double links are saturated and some may undergo a change in theirs configurationpassing from the form cis (the natural one, which gives the molecule a more “curved” structure) to the form transwhich have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (according to theWHOmore than 278,000 deaths per year, in the world, can be associated with excessive consumption of trans fats). For this reason, nowadays many margarines are produced with alternative methods of catalytic hydrogenation, such as theinter -resolution.
Just these industrial processes contribute to giving margarine the bad reputation of product artificialespecially if compared to butter, which is instead perceived as more natural And homemade. To compensate for this difference, it may happen that aromas and dyes are added to the margarine to make it more similar to butter, both in the flavor and in appearance.
