Butter, margarine, and cooking oils

When you cook, it' s not really best to cook with either margarine or butter. Butter is loaded with saturated fat, which can be bad for your heart and raise your cholesterol. Most margarines, on the other hand, have some saturated fat plus trans-fatty acids, which can also be bad for you. Both of these fats have their risks.

If you must use one or the other, some margarines may be better than butter.

Some guidelines for cooking are:

• Use olive or canola oil instead of butter or margarine.
• Choose soft margarine (tub or liquid) over harder stick forms.
• Choose margarines with liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient.
• Even better, choose "light" margarines that list water as the first ingredient. These are even lower in saturated fat.
• If you have high cholesterol, talk with your doctor about using margarines made from plant sterols or stanols. These are made from soybean and pine tree oils, and they can help lower your LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol). But these margarines are not yet recommended for children, pregnant women, and people who do not have high cholesterol.