DIYbanter - View Single Post - Where is that Global Warming Al Gore? (Need help on house.)

Doug Miller

In article .com, wrote:

Absolute BS. Were you even an adult then, so you would remember?
Anyone alive during the late 60s, 70's can tell you that margarine was
marketed as being a healthier alternative to butter because it did not
contain saturated fat. And health "experts" were spouting the exact
same advice. And what exactly was the point to margarine at all, if
not that it was supposed to be healthier?

Cheaper. *Much* cheaper.

I don't think you'll find a
same person arguing that it tasted better. And it was about the same
price.

Huh?

I've been buying my own groceries for nearly thirty years, and butter and
margarine have *never* been "about the same price" during that time. A pound
of butter is, and has been, quite consistently about double the price of a
pound of margarine.

The dairy companies raised a huge hue and cry when margarine first came on the
market -- precisely because it *was* a lot cheaper than butter, and that is
the basis of its market success. If it had been "about the same price", it
would have represented no threat to dairy producers, and never gained much
market share, exactly because it doesn't taste nearly as good: if butter's the
same price, why buy margarine? It wasn't sold originally as a *healthy*
alternative to butter, it was sold as a *cheap* alternative to butter.

The best any margarine can claim is that it's supposed to
taste like butter, which of course isn't true.

One of the worst offenders IMO is the brand "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter".
**I** sure as hell can believe it isn't butter, and as far as I'm concerned,
it's a pretty poor excuse for margarine, too. I'd been thinking about buying
some... until I had some at a friend's house. Yecch.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.