Butter is dairy product made from milk or cream…Margarine is an oil-based product. It is typically made of 80 percent vegetable oil and water and flavored to taste like butter. The harder the margarine is, the more trans fat it contains.

• Both margarine and butter are high in fats(both butter and margarine contain 81 % fat).
• Hard margarine is high in trans fats. Margarine contains 15% trans-fats & butter contains 3.3% trans-fats.
• Butter is high in saturated fat.Butter contains 51% saturated fat & margarine contains 15% saturated fat.
• Saturated fats increase both LDL-C (Bad cholesterol) and HDL-C (Good cholesterol)
• Trans fats increase LDL-C (Bad cholesterol) and reduce HDL-C (Good cholesterol)

Saturated fats & Trans-fats both are not good for heart patient.But trans-fats are more harmful than Saturated fats as it decreases the HDL level. So hard margarine is more harmful than butter.

Dietician.Russa Banerjee
MSc in Applied Nutrition(AIIH & PH)