I never use margarine unless I'm baking.. then I use Earth Balance because it's vegan. Smart balance didn't use to be vegan.. but I see now that it is. It's not something I use all that often but I'd be willing to try smart balance now.

I'm also vegan and use Earth Balance, mostly just for baking. If Smart Balance has less fat than Earth Balance (or traditional butter, for that matter) I would be hesitant to bake with it, as less fat would certainly affect the outcome of the food.

I love Smart Balance!!! I'm also a huge fan of the olive oil margerine by fleishmans. But as for the Smart Balance, I always go for the light...it honestly tastes better.

Also, marygrace, I'm not vegan, but I do cook with Smart Balance and my food comes out just as delicious, and not much difference (outside of it being healthier).

I too join in the Smart Balance love. They also a make a cooking oil that I use as a substitute for vegetable oil when needed. I think it's a blend of canola, olive and soybean oils with lots of good trans fat.

i always use smart balance yay

I'll look into one of these two. We are a butter household as it is. We don't use it that much but have been on the real stuff for a while.

I love my I can't believe it's not butter.

if they are taking liquid oils and making them solid - isn't that by definition - hydrogenated, and therefore, containing trans-fats?

I agree michlny, I am almost positive that smart balance contains the word hydrogenated somewhere in their ingredient list.

I say this because my mom switched to this stuff after her doctor told her she had high cholesterol, but when I looked at the ingredients, I saw that it had something bad in it, and I told her to just stick to olive oil or regular butter if she had to. I think its better to have a smidgen of butter than something unnatural and chemical.

Also, dont these things never go bad even if you leave them out in the sun for a week, they'll still look the same? See, thats not right!

They might be dairy free, but are they vegan? Most "Lactose-Free" items actually still contain milk. My dad bought some lactose-free icecream for a party and the first ingredient was milk. Doesn't seem healthy to be adding and removing things like that.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I knew Earth Balance is vegan, but I was just cautioning people with milk allergies (like myself )

Only real butter for me! Natural is healthier and tastes so much better.

I love Earth Balance!

They are both really good but I usually buy the Smart Balance because it's lower in fat and calories. I always use real butter in baking!

I use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter...have for years and it's my favorite!

i've used smart balance for years. it's the best.

smart balance is the best! better than margarine.. even natural butter is better than margarine. i don't know what i can't believe it's not butter is made of, but i doubt it is made better for you than smart balance.

I love brummel and brown made with natural yogurt. It tastes great, no trans fats, and has 45 cals a Tbs

ok. So it seems like margarine is the way to go, from looking at nutritional content, but it's really not good for you!!!

Transfat, which is commonly called as "saturated" fat, ususally comes from animal fat, which is SOLID at room temperature do to how the fatty acids are tightly packed.

In contrast, unsaturated fat, or "polysaturated" fat, which comes from plants is liquid at room temperature. These include olive oil and canola oil. These have a double bond between the carbons in the fatty acid tail, which makes them pack not as tightly together, hense the liquid form at room temp.

so like michlny suggested, it's infact BETTER to use Butter, even with more calories, than to use altered fat like margarine, which stays in your system longer, because although it does come from plants, (naturally unsaturated), they solidify it, which makes it saturated with alteration (worse than regular saturation!)

i hope that helps!!! Don't get fooled by the low calories!!!

***I'm a Biology Major, so this is why i know so much about this subject!

michIny and j2e1n9 are not correct about the hydrogenation of Smart Balance. There are no hydrogenated oils in Smart Balance. Hydrogenation is a process by which the oils are bonded to hydrogen atoms (H_2) to stabilize the oils at a higher melting point (changing unsaturated fats to saturated or trans fats). The oils in Smart Balance are emulsified to stabilize the liquid blends (vegetable oils) in Smart Balance so that they do not separate from the rest of the ingrediants. The emulsifier used in Smart Balance is an emusified used commonly in phamaceuticals, food preparation, and cosmetics. Cofusion over the vegan nature of Smart Balance may be that egg yolk is a common emulsifier but it is not teh emulsifier used in Smart Balance.

Regular Smart Balance is NOT gluten-free. It contains whey, made from milk. Whey contains gluten. I did not see any ingredients that would contain gluten in LIGHT Smart Balance, but it did not say gluten-free anywhere on the label.

Correction (of my previous post). I meant to say that regular Smart Balance contains CASEINE, not gluten, and that Light Smart Balance does not. Whoopsie. I have my son on a gluten-free, caseine-free diet (to correct autism symptoms, hopefully), and used Light Smart Balance to replace butter in cake frosting.
By the way, if you like butter, try making your own margerine by mixing it with equal amount of oil. Let the butter soften to room temp, stir it with a fork in a bowl, then gradually stir in 1/2 c oil (I like olive oil &/or canola oil) with 1 stick of butter. Add a dash of salt if desired. Keep it in a margerine container in the fridge. It's a thick liquid at room temperature.

@gLam shortie

Please note saturated fats and trans fat are two different types of fats.