Butter up!

I don't know about you, but the holiday season makes me yearn to bake. I have fond memories of my mother making homemade kolachi, sugar cookies and Italian cakes every Christmas. Whether you're making cut out cookies for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza or serving your favorite bread at a holiday meal, let's face it. Butter beats margarine...hands down.In addition to butter tasting better than margarine, it's also more natural. While butter is a source of calories and saturated fat, it's actually considered healthier than margarine (especially stick margarine) because it's lower in trans fat. Butter also contains vitamins A and E and the ingredient list is minimal.If you haven't already heard, trans fat is going bye-bye. This year, the FDA announced it is banning trans fat in food for good! Trans fat is produced when hydrogen is added to a liquid fat (like corn or vegetable oil) to produce a solid fat. It is cheaper to use commercially than butter and has similar baking qualities. You can find trans fat in food by reading the label and looking for the terms hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients. Currently, there may be up to .5 grams of trans fat in a serving of food and be allowed to be labeled ZERO. Sorry to say folks, those .5 grams add up! Trans fat is also prevalent in fast food. A few states (New York and California) have already banned trans fat in their fast food and many other fast food chains have followed. Now it's time for all manufacturers to get serious about deleting this heinous fake fat from our diets.Trans fat in food has been linked to tens of thousands of premature deaths according to the Heart Association. The American Heart Association advises no more than 2 grams of trans fat in our diets daily. This is actually less than the amount we should limit from saturated fat. If you're eating fast food, margarine, commercial cookies, snack chips or crackers, you're probably getting plenty.The good news is you can buy butter with less saturated fat. Land O Lakes, Smart Balance and other brands offer a blend of butter with added canola oil. What I love best about these spreads is they're lower in calories, lower in saturated fat and typically don't have all the fluff ingredients (read yellow dye number 2) that margarine contains. Most contain cream, canola oil and salt. Simple AND tasty.So this holiday season- bring the butter back! I feel sorry for all the companies producing margarine. Your time is nearly up.