3 ms·

I don't think the move was due to nutritional advice. For example, margarine is cheaper than butter, and really gained in popularity during the depression and t

by dfxm12 4y ago

I don't think the move was due to nutritional advice. For example, margarine is cheaper than butter, and really gained in popularity during the depression and the war when dairy supply was shortening (ahem). It also has different culinary properties from butter, including being possibly vegan and behaving differently in baked goods. Overall though, at least since 2000, butter is far outselling margarine, so it seems like these days, it is a niche product and not really a "healthy" butter alternative.

Jensson 4y ago
But fastfood restaurants and precooked meals continue to use margarine instead of butter. For example McDonalds switched away from animal fats in early 90s and never switched back. They wont mention margarine in the ingredients, instead they just say "vegetable oils".
- dfxm12 4y ago
  That has nothing to do with nutritional advice, which is what OP is saying. That has to do with lower cost and/or maybe some other property (like longer shelf life).
  - kaesar14 4y ago
    Correct me if I’m wrong but McDonalds originally made that switch due to the “animal fats are bad for you” push during that time which is what OP is probably referencing?
  - allturtles 4y ago
    It was for health reasons, this is well-documented in secondary sources [0] and primary sources [1]. [0]: https://www.eatthis.com/mcdonalds-french-fries-taste-different/ https://www.eatthis.com/mcdonalds-french-fries-taste-differe... [1]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-24-9003020215-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-24-900302...
- kixiQu 4y ago
  That isn't margarine, though. https://theconversation.com/how-palm-oil-became-the-worlds-most-hated-most-used-fat-source-161165 https://theconversation.com/how-palm-oil-became-the-worlds-m...
- analog31 4y ago
  They also switched from beef tallow to vegetable shortening for the fryers, perhaps for the sake of vegetarians.
acdha 4y ago
It was. The 80s were crammed with doctors & advertisements promoting margarine as the responsible choice and saying that using butter or lard would kill you. That’s because the Nixon administration felt that they needed to do something about the obesity crisis, and they added nutrition to what had previously been a commission about hunger and gave them a deadline for a plan. Unfortunately, the need to get recommendations out on a political schedule meant that they went ahead of the available evidence. This Washington Post piece from 1977 debating the then-proposed guidelines includes an interesting quote: > Dr. Mark Hegsted, professor of nutrition at Harvard University and one of the three nutritionists who helped write the report, said: "There will undoubtedly be many people who will say we have not proven our point; we have not demonstrated that the dietary modifications we recommend will yield the dividends expected. > "The question to be asked therefore, is not why should we change our diet, but why not. "What are the risks associated with eating less meat, less fat, less saturated fat, less cholesterol, less sugar, less salt and more fruits, vegetables, unsaturated fat - and cereal products - especially whole-grain cereals? There are none that can be identified and important benefits can be expected." That “but why not” line of reasoning is interesting given the mixed status of the recommendations in the next sentence. Eating more fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, etc. and less sugar is still widely accepted as good advice now but the remainder of the guidelines are problematic, particularly now that we have a better understanding of e.g. how fat interacts with satiation or how the food industry scrambled to produce alternate versions of familiar foods without key ingredients. What we do know now is that millions of people had worse health outcomes due to that rush because even though studies came out only a few years later in the 80s rejecting the theories about salt, fat, specific foods like eggs, etc. the ghost of that Nixon-era rush job hung around until the 2010s and isn’t completely gone yet. You can still see a ton of food loaded with sugar because the recipe was modified decades ago to remove the fat & salt which made it taste good, not to mention how often people pass over vegetables because someone said it was unhealthy to butter or fry them without considering that this made the most likely outcome skipping them entirely.
- isolli 4y ago
  A devastating example of ignoring the "first do no harm" principle.

by dfxm12 4y ago

Jensson 4y ago

But fastfood restaurants and precooked meals continue to use margarine instead of butter. For example McDonalds switched away from animal fats in early 90s and never switched back. They wont mention margarine in the ingredients, instead they just say "vegetable oils".

dfxm12 4y ago
That has nothing to do with nutritional advice, which is what OP is saying. That has to do with lower cost and/or maybe some other property (like longer shelf life).
- kaesar14 4y ago
  Correct me if I’m wrong but McDonalds originally made that switch due to the “animal fats are bad for you” push during that time which is what OP is probably referencing?
- allturtles 4y ago
  It was for health reasons, this is well-documented in secondary sources [0] and primary sources [1]. [0]: https://www.eatthis.com/mcdonalds-french-fries-taste-different/ https://www.eatthis.com/mcdonalds-french-fries-taste-differe... [1]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-24-9003020215-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-24-900302...
kixiQu 4y ago
That isn't margarine, though. https://theconversation.com/how-palm-oil-became-the-worlds-most-hated-most-used-fat-source-161165 https://theconversation.com/how-palm-oil-became-the-worlds-m...
analog31 4y ago
They also switched from beef tallow to vegetable shortening for the fryers, perhaps for the sake of vegetarians.

acdha 4y ago

It was. The 80s were crammed with doctors & advertisements promoting margarine as the responsible choice and saying that using butter or lard would kill you. That’s because the Nixon administration felt that they needed to do something about the obesity crisis, and they added nutrition to what had previously been a commission about hunger and gave them a deadline for a plan. Unfortunately, the need to get recommendations out on a political schedule meant that they went ahead of the available evidence. This Washington Post piece from 1977 debating the then-proposed guidelines includes an interesting quote: > Dr. Mark Hegsted, professor of nutrition at Harvard University and one of the three nutritionists who helped write the report, said: "There will undoubtedly be many people who will say we have not proven our point; we have not demonstrated that the dietary modifications we recommend will yield the dividends expected. > "The question to be asked therefore, is not why should we change our diet, but why not. "What are the risks associated with eating less meat, less fat, less saturated fat, less cholesterol, less sugar, less salt and more fruits, vegetables, unsaturated fat - and cereal products - especially whole-grain cereals? There are none that can be identified and important benefits can be expected." That “but why not” line of reasoning is interesting given the mixed status of the recommendations in the next sentence. Eating more fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, etc. and less sugar is still widely accepted as good advice now but the remainder of the guidelines are problematic, particularly now that we have a better understanding of e.g. how fat interacts with satiation or how the food industry scrambled to produce alternate versions of familiar foods without key ingredients. What we do know now is that millions of people had worse health outcomes due to that rush because even though studies came out only a few years later in the 80s rejecting the theories about salt, fat, specific foods like eggs, etc. the ghost of that Nixon-era rush job hung around until the 2010s and isn’t completely gone yet. You can still see a ton of food loaded with sugar because the recipe was modified decades ago to remove the fat & salt which made it taste good, not to mention how often people pass over vegetables because someone said it was unhealthy to butter or fry them without considering that this made the most likely outcome skipping them entirely.

isolli 4y ago
A devastating example of ignoring the "first do no harm" principle.