Margarine makes you fat

This study was published in PLoS One 2011;6(8):e23384

 

Study title and authors:

Food composition of the diet in relation to changes in waist circumference adjusted for body mass index.

Romaguera D, Ängquist L, Du H, Jakobsen MU, Forouhi NG, Halkjær J, Feskens EJ, van der A DL, Masala G, Steffen A, Palli D, Wareham NJ, Overvad K, Tjønneland A, Boeing H, Riboli E, Sørensen TI.

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. d.romaguera-bosch@imperial.ac.uk

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21858094

The objective of the study was to ascertain the association of various foods with changes in waist circumference. The study included 48,631 men and women from five countries who were followed for 5.5 years.

Regarding butter and margarine, the study found:
(a) For each 100 calorie increase in butter consumption there was a .01 centimetre per year decrease in waist circumference.
(b) For each 100 calorie increase in margarine consumption there was a .03 centimetre per year increase in waist circumference.

The data from the study reveals higher butter consumption is associated with thinner waistlines whereas higher margarine consumption is associated with fatter waistlines.