The heavily industrialized frankenfood known as Smart Balance should more aptly be named Stupid Balance when you examine the ingredients list!
I’ve had it. Everyone has her limits and I’ve reached mine. If one more person who claims to eat healthily tells me that he/she uses Smart Balance or any of those health robbing butter substitute “spreads”, I think I’m going to scream. This includes other pseudo-foods like Egg Beaters too.
A loud, obnoxious, ear piercing, wine glass shattering SCREAM!
You see, there is nothing remotely “smart” about Smart Balance unless of course, you happen to be a shareholder of the company. In that case, you would be very happy with the cheap, rancid, genetically modified vegetable oils used to manufacture substitutes for butter resulting in a very low cost of production and handsome profit margins.
Don’t think for one moment that Smart Balance could possibly be made in the comfort of your own kitchen the way lovely yellow butter can easily be churned from cream in a bowl with a hand mixer.
No way! A frankenfood as complex as Smart Balance or any of the many other “spreads” on the market requires synthesis in a factory in all its high tech, food denaturing glory. Smart Balance and margarine spreads like it is chemistry experiments, not food!
Get a load of the catchy marketing on the Smart Balance website:
It’s funny how these margarine manufacturers always talk about “using it” and “loving it” like butter.
Why would people do that anyway?
Mmmm. Maybe because these folks need some healthy fats like REAL butter perhaps??
I know a die-hard vegetarian who once told me that every now and again when she craves a big, thick juicy steak, she gives in and eats one.
Smart gal. Cravings can tell us a lot about ourselves – if we’ll only listen – from the state of our gut as in the case of craving sugar and having a gut imbalance problem to craving a steak due to the complete proteins only animal foods can provide (soy is NOT a complete protein, by the way. Don’t even get me started on that one).
So, when that craving for all things buttery comes over you, it is always best to get some Real Butter and slather it on anything that seems remotely feasible at the moment.
A vegan community in South Florida suffering from severe dental decay issues likes to eat raw butter straight out of the tub with a spoon, I’m told. Now, that’s a serious craving for the “buttery taste”!
What Exactly is in Smart Balance?
Let’s take a look at the ingredients in Stupid, er – I mean, Smart Balance:
When this post was originally published, here were the ingredients in Smart Balance (original):
Natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, canola, and olive oils), water, contains less than 2% of whey (from milk), salt, natural and artificial flavor, vegetable monoglycerides and sorbitan ester of fatty acids (emulsifiers), soy lecithin, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, Vitamin D, dl-a-tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), lactic acid, beta carotene color, and potassium sorbate, and calcium disodium EDTA (to preserve freshness).
Ingredients Analysis
Shall we analyze this rather long list of ingestibles?
- The soybean and canola oils are almost certainly genetically modified. Frankenfood at its finest!
- The olive oil isn’t even extra virgin olive oil and is likely cut with cheap vegetable oils like most olive oil on the market. Can we say cheap, cheap, CHEAP?
- Natural and artificial flavor – this must be where that “buttery taste you crave” part comes in. Excellent stuff if you dig tricking your taste buds (newsflash, you won’t trick your tummy though. At least not for long. You’ll be craving that “buttery taste” soon after and more than likely sticking your head in a big bowl of ice cream by 9 pm).
- Soy lecithin – yet another genetically modified ingredient.
- Vitamin A palmitate – the synthetic form of vitamin A – the kind that is dangerous. Since there’s not much natural about Smart Balance in the first place, “fortification” with synthetic vitamins seems logical!
- Vitamin D – the label doesn’t even specify what type, but I can pretty much guarantee it’s synthetic D2, which won’t help at all in avoiding vitamin D deficiency symptoms. Is this the wondrous, natural vitamin D3 everyone – even Oprah – raves about? Brilliant marketing and wishful thinking don’t make it so.
- Beta carotene color – the normal color for factory-produced margarine like Smart Balance is a very unappetizing grey, so the color is definitely needed here to fool the masses. Don’t be fooled that this beta carotene adds natural Vitamin A either. Beta carotene is not true vitamin A!
- Potassium sorbate – a supposedly safe food preservative that inhibits microbial growth. Safe at least until they find it isn’t. Three cheers for being a guinea pig!
- Calcium disodium EDTA – an organic pollutant which breaks down in the environment into ethylenediamine triacetic acid and then diketopiperazine. Diketopiperazine is a persistent organic pollutant, similar to PCBs and DDT. Not only does Smart Balance pollute the bodies of those who eat it, but it also pollutes the environment too!
Smart Balance 7 Years Later
Let’s analyze the ingredients again 7 years later. Smart Balance has, in the interim, gotten significant press on its “pledge” to remove GMOs from its ingredients. Has it happened yet? Apparently not. Don’t hold your breath on that one. Not much improvement here despite an outcry from consumers to do better.
- Vegetable oil blend (canola, olive, and palm oil)
- Water
- Contains less than 2% salt
- Pea protein
- Natural and artificial flavors
- Sunflower lecithin
- Vitamin A Palmitate
- Beta-carotene (color)
- Vitamin D
- Monoglycerides of vegetable fatty acids (emulsifier)
- Potassium Sorbate
- Lactic acid
- Calcium Disodium EDTA
Let’s analyze the (few) changes.
Little Improvement in Smart Balance Ingredients
First, the GMO soybean oil has been removed. While this is a positive, unfortunately, GMO canola oil is still in there as the primary vegetable oil.
Second, pea protein has replaced the whey protein from before. This is apparently an effort to make Smart Balance dairy-free. Is pea protein any healthier than whey protein? Unfortunately not. All protein powders are highly processed and not a healthy choice.
The GMO soy lecithin has been replaced with sunflower lecithin. This is a solid improvement and a step in the right direction.
Two new ingredients include lactic acid and monoglycerides of vegetable fatty acids. While lactic acid is not really a problem, it could be from a GMO source. The originating food for lactic acid is not specified. Similarly, the vegetable oil that is used to derive the emulsifying fatty acids is not specified. In those situations, I’ve learned to pretty much assume the worst … they are most likely of GMO origin. If they were nonGMO you can be sure Smart Balance would trumpet as much on the label like they have identified the source of the lecithin as nonGMO sunflower.
Everything else appears to be the same.
All in all, Smart Balance has improved from a grade of “F” to a “D-” in seven years. Is it healthy to use? Nope. It’s still frankenfood and not a good choice for those who understand the critical importance of natural, healthy fats in the diet.
Butter is Always Best!
Nothing manufactured in a factory can ever beat the simple, natural, whole nutrition of plain BUTTER and other whole traditional fats. No genetically modified, artificial flavors or organic pollutant preservatives needed. Loads of natural form of vitamins A, D, and E that really will boost your immune system unlike the synthetic versions in margarine spreads like Smart Balance.
Be sure not to buy butter from cows fed genetically modified feed, however, like Kerry Gold is rumored to do.
Grass-fed butter is what you are looking for (quality sources)!
Butterfat is far superior to the rancid, highly processed vegetable oils in Smart Balance. While not hydrogenated, the edible oil processing, called interesterification, is still very much denaturing and is arguably worse for cardiovascular health than transfats.
On the other hand, butter, particularly grass-fed butter, is one of the richest sources of vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 is the magical X-Factor written about by Dr. Weston A. Price which is known to prevent arterial calcification which is a very strong (if not the strongest) predictor of cardiovascular disease risk, NOT cholesterol levels. Natural cholesterol in the diet supplied in forms such as grass-fed butter and eggs are extremely beneficial to health!
Folks with low cholesterol suffer from heart disease at the same rate as those with high cholesterol. Don’t tell that to the folks in the marketing department at Smart Balance, though. They’re doing really well with that catchy marketing slogan that associates the use of Smart Balance with “healthy” cholesterol levels.
What if You Have a Dairy Allergy?
For those with dairy allergies, natural and truly healthy butter substitute spreads made with unrefined traditional oils are now becoming available. This one is my favorite which blends virgin coconut oil and that anti-oxidant powerhouse, red palm oil without any additives, fillers, GMOs or destructive processing.
Once you get past the marketing hype, it sure seems that the more appropriate name for Smart Balance would be “Stupid Balance”, don’t you think?
References
Interesterification of Vegetable Oils, by Dr. Mary Enig
Whole Health Source, Butter, Margarine, and Heart Disease
Do you have any suggestions of a butter substitute for someone who is allergic to dairy. My sister is only ten years old and cannot eat any dairy products. My parents use the Earth Balance spread for her as a substitute right now. While she doesn’t eat that much butter unless she has toast or spaghetti or my mom bakes for her using it, I still would like to find her something that is a healthy substitute. There is no way for her to eat real butter or even normal margarine. It has to be completely dairy free.
ghee works, if she can’t even handle raw milk butter.
I eat smart balance because I prefer the taste to real butter, and I need to watch my cholesterol.
I love butter…not the eat-like-a-popsicle-type love…but I never use margarine. As a child, mom always bought margarine but when dad would do the shopping (not much), he would get butter. As an adult on my own, I started with margarine but decided why am I doing this, I love butter. And it’s been butter ever since. Margarine cannot compare in taste to butter. By the way, my cholesterol has always been low.
Well, I am even more confused than I was when I first started my research on Smart Balance……. I am in my mid-50s and have always watched my weight, exercised, and tried to eat a healthy died. I always had a flat stomach until I started eating Smart Balance approximately a year ago instead of butter. My husband is one of those people who can eat anything he wants without putting on any weight. He does the grocery shopping and cooking, and he was putting a lot of butter on my food. So I changed to Smart Balance because I was worried about clogged arteries (I had a stoke the month after I turned 40 unrelated to smoking, obesity, high blood pressure or any of the usual contributing factors.) However, after substituting Smart Balance for butter, I have gained over 5 pounds and most of the weight gain is in my stomach. I am going back to real butter, but am going to limit the amount used. I have also been a vegetarian for over two years.
I have one question, tho. Is there any kind of real butter out there that is lactose-intolerant friendly? I just recently found out that I can no longer have certain kinds of dairy, and altho I love real butter, it doesn’t love me anymore… 🙁
butter from raw milk is good for lactose intolerance. Also ghee is great and has no dairy particles…
But, where can you find ghee?
I’ve recently switched from Smart Balance to Earth Balance myself. I have a very weird reaction to regular butter, so I can’t have it anymore…
You can make it, and you can buy it from select stores. Easier to get some raw milk butter, take it home, and make ghee yourself.
But, how can you make it?
I’ve actually switched back to real butter, as I have started eating more natural foods and paying close attention to food labels and ingredients. However, I still have a hard time digesting it because I’m lactose intolerant. Sometimes it bothers me, and sometimes it doesn’t.
You say that you can find it in some stores. Where have you been able to find it?
Here is a website that shows how to make ghee yourself
http://www.veggiebelly.com/2012/01/how-to-make-ghee.html
and if you want to find ghee at a store, check out Indian stores, they will usually have it. It won’t be a name like walmart, it will be a small store in your local city.
Butter is quite literally…. yummy fat. As humans who were once carnivorous beings we inherently crave fat. Generations ago farmers had an abundance of saturated meat and dairy fats in their diets. A healthy farmer in the 1800s had a full lifespan of 45-50 years if he was lucky. Margerine was engineered as a cheper alternative to butter and is 2 molecular processes away from vinyl but don’t kid yourself into believing that butter is in any way, shape or form any healthier for you. I suggest that any reader of this do independant studies on each of the ingerdients in Smart Balance. The author has provided quite a bit of imaginative theorism, As a cardiologist I would much rather see my patients consuming what have been referred to here as unhealthy mutated poisons than any form of butter or margerine.
A motivating discussion is definitely worth comment. I believe that you ought to publish more about this subject matter,
it might not be a taboo matter but generally people don’t talk about these issues. To the next! Best wishes!!
I read some of the comments, but there are SO many, and they are ALL conflicting, I just couldn’t read anymore! Well, here’s my two cents, and I think it’s pretty darn logical and rational (and by the way, no, I am not a doctor or health practitioner of any kind, nor do I work for any company even slightly related to the food industry!). I am just a regular person who is trying to eat healthier because I’m tired of being overweight and tired all the time. I eat Smart Balance and I like it. I love butter too, but I am lactose intolerant, and eating dairy KILLS my stomach, so I have no choice. So anyway, here’s my advice (and I haven’t really seen anyone else say this exactly): EVERYTHING IN MODERATION! If you don’t eat a pound of butter or margarine a day, or even eat it every day, then you will probably be just FINE!! There are SO many factors affecting health, that you can’t just point to ONE food (unless you have an allergy to it), and be like, THAT’S going to ruin me if I EVER eat any of it! We all eat stuff everyday that I’m sure we’re not aware of, and we are still breathing, right?! Everything is not so black and white, and I wish people could be a little less rigid when talking about things like this. Anyhow, it’s late, so I’ll wrap it up with this: I have been a meat/dairy/egg/gluten eater my whole life, and it hasn’t done me any good, so I am going to try and go Vegan. I actually have tried it for a couple of days, and it’s really not that hard! I even went out to eat bar-b-Q just ONE last time, because it was my absolute Favorite type of meat, and I literally found myself looking at it differently, and getting SERIOUSLY grossed out by the look and smell of it, to my surprise! I couldn’t even finish eating it, and later when I got home, I had a seriously bad bowel movement, and my stomach hurt. I just recently saw the excellent documentary (available on Netflix), called “Vegucated.” It was actually really good and after watching it, if you still have the desire to eat animals or animal products, then you must not have a heart. That’s all I have to say…thanks for reading (if you did), and God bless!
You have tried raw milk? Most who are sensitive to lactose can drink raw milk with NO problem at all…
I was just wondering is the Smart Balance milk good
Fake food… real food. Most of you wouldn’t know one from the other.
Q.
1) Product contains Isoamyl acetate
2) Produced via extreme heat processing to react reducing sugars and nitrogenous bases to product melanoidins.
3) Ingredients: dihydrogen monoxide
4) Ingredients modified by treatement with saccharomyces and brettanomyces species
5) Highly likely to contain pathogenic bacertial species including staphylococcus aureus and E. coli at greater than 1,000,000 cells/gram
A.
1) Banana (isoamyl acetate provides the banana’s flavor)
2) Steak (cooking produces the desirable browned crust through the Maillard reaction)
3) Water
4) A Belgian style sour beer
5) Raw milk
You mention ‘produced with extreme heat’. Well, anyone buying any product in a TetraPak oughta know the contents are flash pasteurized, just look up how their process works. And I have yet to find out what their plastic lining is and whether or not it contains BPA.
TetraPaks commonly are those rectangular pseudo paper cartons (actually multilayered of various materials) that most of the milk substitutes, many soups, etc come in. Even wine now – GASP! Just look at the bottom of the carton to see the TetraPak marks.
5 is incorrect if you find a clean farm that cares for its animals. I would NEVER touch raw milk from a CAFO that was intended to be pasteurized as that stuff would be very harmful to you. But clean raw milk from a good dairy that you know the farmer and trust their processes is VERY healthy for you, and less likely to make you sick than pasteurized milk is. More deaths come from pasteurized milk that has been contaminated at the dairy than from raw milk any day (since raw milk has enzymes in it that kill pathogens, raw milk kills TB easily)