Hello and welcome to Zoey Shorts, the Bite Size Popcast where we discussed one topic

around science and nutrition. I'm Jonathan Wolf and today I'm joined by Dr Sarah

Berry and today's subject is Butter vs Marjorene.

Jonathan this is a debate that's echoed across many households are you team

Butter or are you team Marjorene? Now they might appear quite similar but they

affect top bodies in different ways. And do you think we'll be able to crown a

champion by the end of this episode? Well what we will be able to do is clear

up some misconceptions that we're going to address and there's some

excellent research that will definitely help us get closer to an answer. Great

stuff let's spread the word.

So to start our journey into spreads I want to take you back to 19th century

France. The year is 1869 and France is at war. In an attempt to feed his troops

for less money Napoleon calls for the development of a low-cost alternative

to Butter. Step forward a man with a wonderful name Hippolyte Mejmuri who used

animal fat and milk to create the first ever Marjorene. So not suitable for

vegetarians then? I think not. But Jonathan that changed in 1902 when a

German scientist developed a process to harden oils using a method called

hydrogenation. Okay that sounds pretty scary. What exactly is hydrogenation? Okay so

Jonathan you're going to have to human me here and allow me to get a little bit

technical just for a second. So hydrogenation is a process that turns a liquid

oil like canola oil or soybean oil into a hard fat like Marjorene. It's a

chemical process that changes the unsaturated fatty acids in this

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