Margarine; so simple, so confusing. The vast array of brands and types on the market can make choosing a simple spread more overwhelming than Tinder. Is pure butter the way to go or margarine made from unsaturated fat? Here are three things to look for in your margarine.

1. No trans fats. Nada. None. Zilch. Zip. Trans fats increase your risk of heart disease by elevating LDL (bad) cholesterol and lowering HDL (good) cholesterol and are typically found in commercial baked goods. Thankfully, Australian margarines don’t contain large amounts of trans fats as most are removed during manufacturing but always check the label. It is recommended to limit trans fats to no more than 2g/day.

2. Monounsaturated Fats. Monounsaturated fat is found in things like olive oil and avocado. It is typically hailed – and rightly so – as a ‘good’ fat because of it’s association with lowering the risk of heart disease.  Monounsaturated fat made it’s debut when the health benefits of olive oil and the Mediterranean diet were discovered.

Margarine made from olive oil is available, but I’m skeptical. When you look at the nutritional panel on these margarines, only about 20% is actually olive oil, not to mention they typically have devilishly extensive ingredient lists with an array of unknown numbers and names.

3.Polyunsaturated Fats. Polyunsaturated Fats include both Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats.

A lot of people have heard of Omega 3 fats, which is the fat found in oily fish, walnuts and linseed. Omega 3 is an anti-inflammatory. This is good, so we want to have as much of these in our diet as possible. Omega 6, on the other hand, is found in vegetable oils such as palm, sunflower and safflower. Oils commonly used in food manufacturing, including some margarines. Omega 6 is a pro-inflammatory. These are not good.

An explanation of inflammation for context: You may be familiar with inflammation, for example, when an open wound turns red, swollen and eventually crusty before healing. That process is great in preventing infection but inflammation can actually be harmful when it occurs throughout the body. This kind of systemic inflammation is the cause of many problems, including Alzheimer’s, arthritis, heart disease, cancer…you name it. So if there are things that we can include or remove in the diet to prevent this process from occurring, then that’s going to be better for us in the long term.

On the nutritional panel of most margarines, omega 3’s and omega 6’s are fortunately separated so it is clear to know how much of each the product contains. A margarine high in omega 3’s and low in omega 6’s is ideal. Unfortunately, nutritional panels on other food products don’t separate the two types of polyunsaturated fats so it’s not clear how much of each there are. In this case, scanning the ingredients list will help give you the answer. If a vegetable oil is high up on the ingredients list, then it’s likely to be high in omega 6 – the pro-inflammatory fat (the bad fat).

Side note: you might have heard of antioxidants that are found in fruits and vegetables and these are also anti-inflammatory, which is why they are regarded so highly. And also a reason why you should eat your fruits and veg!

Personally, if I use any spread, I’ll use pure butter because I know exactly what’s in it (pasteurised cream, water, salt). But if I can, I’ll dip bread in extra virgin olive oil or use fresh avocado when it’s in season instead!