The last product review we did was all about butter and it got so much engagement that we thought it was time we followed on and made another product review all about Marjorie.
Hi.
I'm Susie burrowlean Wood and as two of Australia's leading dieticians, we bring you the Nutrition Couch to product review, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find in the supermarket. And today, Leanne, you've gone out and picked three different types of very popular margarines and AUSSI supermarkets. I recognized all the different ones straight away and why perhaps we would and maybe would not
recommend them for our clients. Now we will share on the potty today that when we recently compiled our product review manual, which has done incredibly well, we can't really believe how many people are buying it and are interested in product information. You had wanted to or not want to. I shouldn't say and put you on the spot like that, but we had discussed whether margarine should go, you know, and I was quite adamant that it didn't. And when I feel strongly about something, I do tend to be
quite definite about it. And the reason I felt strongly about it was that I felt it was a heavily processed product that we shouldn't be saying that this is our best favorite one, because if I'm really honest, I would say it's in general, I try and discourage the use of added spreads. So we agreed to sort of we didn't want to be seen to be recommending margarine because really the product guide, and if you haven't seen it, you can see it on our website, the nutritioncouch dot com.
The product guide is really us pointing towards the products that we know, love and use and recommend with our clients. So there's no Margarine. I'll be very clear that I go and say to my clients, I want you to buy this one because I'm really, in general trying to minimize added fat. And the reason I'm trying to do that is that margarine doesn't really add a lot of
extra nutrition into the diet. So if we're looking at recommendations, it would be like a dietitian saying what's the best sugar to add to your tea, Whereas my position is you better not to add sugar. So I'm not going to recommend the best one and It's a little bit similar for me with Marjorie. I say, look, if you choose to have a spread on your toast or for whatever reason, a small amount of any is probably okay.
And yeah, there are some that I would recommend or even you know, full transparency them that I do have at home first, say my kids sandwiches with a bit of vegemite. So that was why it didn't appear in the product manual. But as we know, it's a staple product in supermarket and we did think it was really important that we talked about it. Would you say, you're on the same page as maybe one.
It's definitely something we need to minimize if people are having it, you know, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't think that's a good thing. And it doesn't necessarily add anything positive in nutrition wise towards our health. And
same deal with butter. Butter's on the same level. You know, a lot of people say, oh, it's grass fed, it's organic, butter is better because the saturated fat's better, but not necessarily Like to me, saturated fat is in the areas in neutral fat like it's not positive like our avocado or extraversional of all or our salmon, and same deal with you know, the types of fats in margarines as well.
Sure it's not saturated, it's unsaturated, but we're not with getting much positive nutrition towards our health because it is so heavily processed. It's nothing like its original kind of form. Put it that way, true, and we don't technically need it. You know, when it comes to fats like extravergent, olive oil or the fats in nuts and seas, there's a functional role, whereas there's very little functional nutrition in margarine. But it does play a role for a range of
different reasons. And so we've picked three really good products today. I love the ones you've chosen because you've picked them for really smart reasons. So the first one we're going to check is the Nuttlex poly unsaturated margarine spread. So Nutlex have a whole range of different products.
In the old days, they're always in a white container NUTLEGX for anyone who grew up in the eighties. But this one you'll know there's sort of a sunflower on the label. There's also a blue light variety. There's an
olive oil one. There's several different ones of Nuttlex and I love you've picked this one because it's one of the only vegan, one hundred percent vegan plant based spreads, because you just said to me one of the issues is with a lot of margarines, they still include milk solids, whereas this one is a vegan product, so that's interesting to some of our listeners in general. This is from Woolli's, but I know it's available in both. It was on sale at the time we published this, but it was.
It retails for about five dollars twenty per container and the containers five hundred grams, so it's quite large. It's not one of those sort of half sized ones that you may find made in Australia from at least seventy seven percent of Australian ingredients, so it's stiry free, lactose free, vegan and gluten free, so quite relevant to a number
of listeners in terms of dietary preferences or requirements. When we look at the ingredient list or from vegetable sources, the first ingredient is vegetable oils containing sunflower oil at five percent. Now there's no overall description of the mix of vegetable oil, which is a little bit concerning because there's a massive sunflower on the front of the container and it's saying it's got five percent only sunflower oil,
So I'm thinking what else is going in there? The next ingredient's water, salt, and mulsifiers, which are simply used to mix the product up. Some fower lessis than which is very common in Marjorine natural flavor, and some vitamins are added ad in natural color which has beta carotene, which is fairly routine in Marjorie. Across the board, they'll
be forty five with certain essential nutrients. If we look at the nutritionals per hundred grams, will compare as it's a fat, added fat to the diet and four twenty four hundred kilodeels, which is about six hundred calories per hundred grams. A serve of margarine would we would suggest normally be five grams, so just five percent of that. But this is just to compare across brands sixty three
percent fat, which is actually reasonably low. You know, butter spreadable butters and a lot of margarines in the old days would be up to eighty percent, So this is kind of a reduced fat variety. Sixteen point three percent saturated fat, so not low in saturated fat, but relatively low compared to butter. No carbohydrate sodium three forty milligrams in one hundred gram container. So yeah, I think the big concern for Melian is when it says vegetable oils
containing some fire oil. I can only assume it's not at sixteen percent. I wouldn't say it's all palm. It's probably a mix of different plant based oils. If it was palm oil, I would suspect it would have a much higher saturate of fat proportion that it has at sixteen percent, So I'd be hastened to say it's probably a mix of canola sunflower oil. In general, to me, there's nothing outstanding about it. It's more a good option, I guess for people who are vegan. It's lower in
fat than some added spreads. And yeah, for people with certain dietary preferences are in tolerance, particularly lactose or dairy free or neating vegan products, it probably ticks the box for those people at a reasonable price point.
I just found it amusing that it's marketed as this you know yellow tub yellow, you know yellow coloring, big sunflare on the front of it. That's like five percent somehow oil So bad marketing.
It's a really good example of how it can be a little bit misleading when it comes to products, because if they have a claim for an ingredient, like if it says sunflower, it's got to have it listed how much But it's only five percent, so there's not a whole lot of sunflower going in there.
Yeah. So so nut Ale's original with soundfire oil with which say minimal, very minimal.
Not that sometow is so much better than all the others, but I think it looks better, it looks healthier and more happy because of the sun powers on the front.
And I think also that perception you know, nuts and seeds are better types of fats and other type you know, some other types of unsutradded fats, So I would you know, naturally think oh, sunflower is probably a better choice, but it's got such minimal in there, And you're right, like, why if you're going to disclose how much sunflow oil one I put on the other types of oils in there as well. So nothing super positive about nutrition, but it's a great option for those with allergies in tolerances,
dietary preferences. As you said, that's probably the biggest reason we'd be recommending it for clients who don't eat dairy, can't eat dairy, follow a vegan lifestyle, looking for something that is good and free, and the sodium is quite low as well. Yeah, that's probably the only really pros I'd say, if you need it, by it. If not, I mean, we're certainly not going to say there's healthier margarines on the market, because they're all kind of the same.
We're not looking for health ones. We're probably just looking for one that sort of fits the budget, that's nice and spreadable, it doesn't taste too bad if you're adding it with your veggiemiter onto a sandwich for the kids, and you know, we're just looking for you know, fairly, I would say clean ingredient list, which I think most of them would have, But although it's clean from an ingredient perspective, it's not really adding in positive nutritional benefits.
So we're certainly not recommending you go nuts on it. But this one's fine to use in moderation if that's what you choose.
True, and for full transparency, I probably go the notle X Light myself. When I'm actually choosing why it's often discounted as well, So I don't buy this or myself. But if I do pick Anotherlex, it's usually the light one for a range of reasons. It's a bit lighter, and I think it's only forty percent of that for memory, and it spreads really well too, which is a consideration,
all right. So the next one we're looking at is the Olive Grove Classics spread at five hundred gram so it was on again sale at time of publication, but normally retails for about five dollars sixty five, so slightly more expensive than the Nuttlex slightly forty cents more, and again really tapping into the idea that it's olive oil or olive base. So this is sixty percent vegetable oil with a minimum nineteen percent olive oil, so much much
higher than the five percent earlier. Now, of course, olive oil is a liquid fat, so it's not going to be a high proportion because they need to make it
a solid fat through processing. That's what margarine is, so hence there'll be a level of olliywool they can get in there from both a cost perspective, but also just functionally is able to solidify and make a solid type of fat that you can spread water, salt, and mulsifier, so very similar, which is just how you make obviously margarine in the factory milk solid, so that's popping up there to give it the thickness which you didn't see
in the nuttlex variety. So when we look at what are they using to thicken it up, so it's some flower methis and or be what they're using, I'd imagine in the earlier product, which was vegan, so not using milk, solvents, preservative to A two fairly standard for margarine food dusted color margorines will always contain a color because they're just looking like a murky gray when they're actually made. Vitamin's A and D again mandatory fortification, but not listed for
that reason. And when we look at the calories, it's twenty two hundred and twenty, so slightly less but not significantly to the earlier product. There's someone grammar protein against sixty percent fat and very similar percentage saturatedly and at sixteen point two, which would make me feel that that's the amount required to make it a solid fat given
that it's so standard across the range. That's the one grammar carbohydrate is expected, and three hundred and forty milligrams of sodium per hundred which is about thirty five per five grams serve, which is also ten gram serve, so not high and not low, just pretty standard for margarine. Again, for me, i'd give it, you know, six out of ten. It's not amazing, it's not bad. It's a pretty standard margarine product that in the old days there used to
be olive grove light. I don't know if there still is.
I think it is still around. That's the one actually having my fridge, so full disclosure, I am not really a butter person. I prefer olive grove. I have a light one. I think it's just I grew up with it, Like it's always what we had in the fridge growing up. If I ever wanted some, like you know, vegimoi on toaster, a little bit of butter on whatever I was eating, which I didn't use too much of, but that's sort of always what I have had, so I've always sort
of stuck with that. But until I really did my degree, I didn't really read the labels too much. I find it interesting. I was like Chakra when I first learned that I was only nineteen per but then looking through the other ranges, like you said, with the sunflower, it was only like five percent, so nineteen percent is actually
quite a lot. And when you said, you know, olive oil is a liquid at room temperature, of course there can't be one hundred percent olive oil because it would be a liquid spread like it has to be solidified. It has to have some saturated fat in there to actually solidify it. So nutrition panel wise, like, it's very similar to the natterlex one, isn't it very similar like the fat minimal carves, minimal protein, no fib and no sugar and minimal you know, amounts of sodium as well.
So really the only difference is this one does contain milk solids and a little bit probably of a better fat percentage. But note that it's nineteen percent olive oil, not nineteen percent extravergin olive oil. So we're not getting the full range of really high quality antioxidants there. And I would probably say the minimal antioxidants you are getting
a probably offset pie some of the saturated fat in there. Anyway, And some of the preservatives and stuff, So you're certainly not buying this for a health perspective, but it may give a slightly better edge than some of the other margarines on the market. Put it that way, true, I just had a little look.
So it's interesting, though, we am because the Natterlex Light product, which I often buy, has got forty eight percent fat versus sixty three, so what twenty five percent lighter? But the Olive Grove Light is only like five grams less than full fat. So this is sixty grams per hundred of fat overall and fifty five for the light. So that's a little bit misleading to It's not significantly lighter, is it, Which I'm surprised. I thought it would have been a lot lighter.
And I wonder if the milk solids are bumping that up.
So for me, it's middle ground, not good, not bad. It's sort of it's clearly standard margarine, and i'd just been encouraging my clients to use it sparingly if they're looking for something for their toast or to spread on kids sandwiches. All right, now, the final product, I'm so glad we're talking about because when I was at University.
The cholesterol lowering plants are on margarines launched in Australia and originally there was Logical which was a product I think from Medal Lee in the day, and then also for Proactive, which which is the competing brand. Now there is now to my knowledge, only Floroproactive, which is an international brand. And I also noticed just as we went into this that when I went to Aldi, they had the same similar product, obviously repackaged with a cholesterol lowering option.
So what is cholesterol lowering margarine?
So?
Plant sterols are a substance that are naturally found in fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, and when you concentrate them to about two to three grams that can block
the uptake of cholesterol in the body. So these products have been around in Europe for many years and basically they're shown to clinically lower blood cholesterol levels because they hop in the spot of cholesterol and cholesterol gets processed out and they need some fat to be absorbed, so they'll generally be in a dairy product something else with fat, and hence the spreadable versions were very popular originally back
in the nineties. Now fluoroproactive is ten dollars per five hundred gram, so it's double what a standard margarine is. And you to get the cholesterol lowering effect, you used to need at least a couple of tablespoons, so about four grams per day to get that amount of plant sterol.
Actually, just looked it up. It's a little bit less. It's a little less. It's twenty five grams. It's about a rounded tablespoon, which you'll give you about two grams of plant sterols.
But that's a lot, isn't it, Because that's.
Like two a big heaped table spoon.
It's a lot of spread.
So and the research is for two to three grams, so i'd really be upping closer to three just to kind of, you know, really make sure you are getting in that clinical dose that's required to actually give you that cholesterol lowering effect. So you're looking at a really heaped table So in a day, I would not use anything close to.
That every day. You've got to have it too every day.
And it takes it as a little as three weeks, but at least three weeks to really benefit from that, and then if you stop it, your cholesterol's got to go back up again, so it's something you need to do consistently.
Let's go through the nutritionals and then we'll come back to why we're perhaps not always recommending this product, even though that sounds amazing. So the ingredients is different. Straight away, the first ingredients water and if you've used them, you'll notice they're quite whipped. They're quite different consistency, followed by vegetable oils than the fighter st eryls, eight percent gelatine,
salt are multifiers SOI lefus and milk solid. It's so very similar profile to the other products preservative, natural flavor, the basic margarine formula. Now the nutritionals are different, So per hundred grams it's fifteen hundred and forty kilodels, which is significantly less than the others, up to thirty percent less calories per one hundred grams, which is interesting because the total fat is only forty point five grams and
the saturrets as low as nine. So if we were purely talking about spreadsley and minus the cholesterol lowering ad on which we'll talk about, it's superior nutritionally straight away, Like it's forty percent fat, so it's like a third less fat in total, much lower and saturated fat less than ten percent saturated and lower in sodium. So nutritionally it's a lower calorie, lower fat product. But first of all, let's not forget it's double the price, so you're adding
in a spread that is quite expensive. You know, let's be honest in the food spend at the moment ten dollars for a small packet of something small. The reasonly Anna and I are not saying everyone should use this if you've got chi cholesterol is that you have to use so much every single day, and that adds up because how many serves is that it's only twenty serves, so less than a month to get that twenty five grams to get the clinical effect, it adds up like
you're spending ten fifteen dollars a month on margarine. Now, I myself know that with my clients I would much rather than get a cholesterol lowering effect from a diet I can prescribe that doesn't add back in process fat in the form of margarine. But some people who have not had dietary effects, or who mix perhaps this with plant sterol coming from milk. There's the hard active milk
that has plant sterols. Perhaps it works for those people, but I don't generally recommend or prescribe it because I just don't feel that comfortable in giving people process vegetable oil to lower cholesterol levels. So that's why leand and I are a little bit sort of not going for it, even though nutritionally it looks superior and it seems to have this profound health benefit.
I agree. And it's expensive. You're like ten dollars for five hundred grams. Yeah, it's just a lot like I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to eat that, and I rarely have clients that would be able to do that unless you're using it and cooking. You know, you're cooking your vegetables in it. You're having bread too three times a day, which you know, as dieticians who really encourage people not to do because we want a diversity of different types
of hoole grains in the diet. We don't want toothy slices at breakfast, two three slices of bread at lunch, and then more bread or something at dinner. And let's be honest with the other types of whole grains like rice and kunua and other types of grains, we don't tend to use butter and margarine on them like we would with bread, so it's sort of a trade off.
I rarely, rarely, rarely, rarely recommend this. If I need some sort of plant sterol, I'll go with the milk as a good example, Like there's a plant sterel type of milk that's the one I generally use for my clients.
And a cereal wheatbeaks. So I have to agree with you. I think if you are going to try plants drolls to lower cholesterol, there's better options, And I just yeah, I'm one hundred percent with you. Actually, I can't remember how much it was in Audi. I think it was still about eight dollars. But it's good to understand it because I think there's quite a few people who use it sporadically and will not be getting the clinical benefit,
and for those people, it's certainly a waste of money. Yes, all right, Well, that concludes our chat about margarine, in which we have been planning to do for quite some time. We hope that it's made selecting those products in the supermarket a little bit easier, and if you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe because we can be
in your inbox every Sunday and Wednesday morning. We have our recent seminar on hormones, gut health and fatler still available for purchase on our website, the Nutrition Dutch dot com. And if you want some more fantastic product recommendations, we have our Supermarket Aussie Product Guide available which has proved extremely popular at giving people a range of different healthy options available at supermarkets. And we will see you on
Sunday for our weekly regular episode. Have a great week we do.
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