Butter vs. Margarine

We got an e-mail from a friend the other day about butter vs. margarine and the risks of margarine. In the e-mail, it makes reference to the fact that margarine is "one molecule from being plastic." Well, I had heard this before, even going to the extent of someone saying that if you put margarine out for a week, there won't be a single bug on it. Jeni asked me to look it up on Urban Legends and sure enough, the entire e-mail was there ... they're just amazing about that! It does tell us what we already know: trans fatty acids are bad, very bad, very very bad. The one molecule from plastic is essentially true, as well, but as the researcher puts, there are many things that are one molecule away from being something else. Either way, I'd stick to natural butter in moderation over trans fat laden margarine.