{"id":15652,"date":"2012-04-05T10:56:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T00:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/?p=15652"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:10:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:10:41","slug":"butter-exploring-the-french-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/2012\/04\/05\/butter-exploring-the-french-paradox\/","title":{"rendered":"Butter: exploring the ‘French Paradox’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les fran\u00e7ais<\/em><\/strong> and Australians tend to disagree in their preference between butter and margarine. The French value taste over the consequences of consuming high levels of saturated fat. Australians accept a less satisfying, palatable experience for a corresponding reduction in harmful fats and calories.\u00a0 Is one right and the other wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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For years people have talked of the French paradox<\/a>, a phrase that describes the apparent mismatch between the French diet and their national health statistics. Consider this: Australia has 24.6 percent obesity versus just eleven percent in France according to the latest study by the OECD.\u00b9 And yet the French eat butter \u2013 surely these two facts are incompatible?<\/p>\n

Supermarket stocks reflect national preferences<\/h2>\n

There are twice as many variations of butter<\/strong> available in supermarkets in France<\/strong> than in Australia and far more brand choice. Conversely, margarine occupies far less shelf space in Monoprix<\/em> throughout France, than it does in Woolworths in Australia. The irony here is that it was in fact a Frenchman who invented margarine.<\/p>\n

“[In] the 1860s, butter had become so in demand in France that Emperor Napoleon III<\/a> offered prize money for an inexpensive substitute to supplement France’s inadequate butter supplies. A French chemist<\/a> claimed the prize with the invention of margarine<\/a> in 1869. The first margarine was beef tallow<\/a>\u00a0flavoured with milk and worked like butter; vegetable margarine followed after the development of hydrogenated<\/a>\u00a0oils around 1900.”\u00b2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why do Australians avoid butter?<\/h2>\n

Australians\u2019 aversion to butter may be largely influenced by extensive national health promotion activity. The strength of these campaigns lies in the fact that they are undertaken not only by margarine producers<\/a>, but also by independent bodies such as the Victorian State Government <\/a>and the Heart Foundation<\/a>. They encourage Australians to choose margarine over butter citing high cholesterol levels and obesity as the major risk factors associated with a high-fat diet.<\/p>\n

But have these health campaigns only succeeded in making Australians apprehensive about eating real, natural food? Fear of fat has us reaching for over-processed products that are manufactured in laboratories rather than grown in fields.<\/p>\n

Nutritionist Joan Gussow\u00a0echoes this sentiment: \u201cAs for butter vs margarine, I trust\u00a0cows more than chemists.\u201d\u00b3<\/p>\n

And so do the French, it seems!<\/strong><\/p>\n