There is no greater disparity between the price of true, real food, and artificial, synthesized, food product to be found than what one learns when they attempt to purchase butter. Four sticks of margarine can be purchased for less than a dollar, while true butter, the same amount can be purchased for $5. When you consider that four sticks of margarine are around 89 cents for the cheapest brand, that means that one stick of butter is more than four sticks of margarine.
What is margarine? A medley of various oils including vegetable and canola oil, water, salt, artificial flavors, chemicals, and Vitamin A. What is butter? Cream, milk, and salt. The only claim to fame that margarine has is that it is without cholesterol. The consideration, then becomes whether or not the cholesterol found in butter is actually good for you.
If the differences between the two is still lost on you consider this. True milk is around 25% fat, but at best, is only twice as much as non-fat milk. In fact there is a lot of food that is sold in grocery stores in which the difference between true and fake is negligible. Ground beef, with a minimum of fat, is not even twice the price of the cheaper 70/30 variety you find in grocery stores. In fact it is not until you attempt to purchase organic beef, that you notice a real price difference.
If you are poor, chances are margarine is the only thing that you know. They say that it will kill you in large quantities, but the average shopper I know will choose an 84 cent package of store brand margarine over a $5 package of real butter any day of the week. Even if they rarely go through that cheaper package, that is still an 83 percent savings, in their mind. Some of the stores in Hampton Roads will allow you to purchase margarine for as little as 75 cents, or even 70 cents, for the brand name product.
I always promote true, real, food over food products, but in this case the argument is pretty difficult to make. Personally, I do not consume a lot of dairy products or oils to begin with, so I could spring for true butter. Plus the store brand is only $3. By now, I figure that you already know the benefits of purchasing real food, and the dangers of purchasing cheaper food products. If you do not, the articles below will give you something to think about. If margarine is better, why are they literally giving it away?