Butter or margarine? Let's compare the spreads!

November 4, 2025

Fact check:

Butters contains 66% saturated fat and up to 3% trans fatty acids (TFA). Thatโ€™s the type of fat weโ€™re advised to limit for heart health. Furthermore, the consumer is not transparently informed about the TFA content of butter as non-industrial TFA are still not legally labelled. Margarine, on the other hand, contains mostly unsaturated fats (the โ€œgoodโ€ fats), with ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐จ ๐Ÿ–๐ŸŽโ€“๐Ÿ—๐ŸŽ% ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐Ÿ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ง ๐›๐ฎ๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ. Plus, ๐ฆ๐จ๐๐ž๐ซ๐ง ๐ฆ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐š๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐ฏ๐ข๐ซ๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ž๐ซ๐จ ๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐š๐ญ๐ฌ (under 2% by EU standards) since the industry removed partially hydrogenated oils years ago. What you get instead are beneficial fatty acids (Omega-3, Omega-6) and often added nutrients.

โ€

๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐›๐จ๐ญ๐ญ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ž?

Margarine offers a healthier fat profile compared to butter. More unsaturates, fewer saturates.

โ€

๐Ÿ“ข ๐Š๐ง๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐š๐ญ๐ฌ!

When it comes to a spread for your toast or recipe, choose the option thatโ€™s lighter on saturated fat and free of trans fat. Your heart will thank you for it! โค๏ธ