WEBVTT - Why Did Bootleggers Once Smuggle Margarine? 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:04.920 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:12.520 Hey rain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum Here. Butter substitutes have a 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.320 rich history, but lest we spread ourselves too thin, will 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.880 concentrate on the particularly curious period between the eighteen eighties 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.400 and the nineteen fifties when margarine was outlawed in Canada 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:29.000 and margarine hungry Canadians bootlegged the stuff. Newfoundland manufactured margarine 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.479 because it made good sense. Its climate was too cold 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.800 to reliably sourced cream from cows, and margarine could be 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.879 made with a combination of vegetable, mineral and animal oils, 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.680 most notably seal oil. This made margarine remarkably cheaper to 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.760 produce than butter. Those cost savings trickled down to the consumer, 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:52.440 making margarine available to every strata of society. Newfoundland's margarine 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.360 manufacturers were committed to keeping their customers loyal, and that 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.480 meant keeping them incentivized to eat it. In nine already one, 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.160 when nutritional study findings revealed that Newfoundlanders were deficient in 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:08.240 vitamins A and D, margarine manufacturers added those ingredients to 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.679 their product. This isn't as nefarious as it might sound. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.760 Additives make it into food products all the time. Look 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.479 for labels that say fortified with to get an idea 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.360 of which foods in your pantry are pumped up with vitamins. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.120 So everyone could afford margarine, and everyone got a little 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.960 more of vitamin's A and D when they ate it. Plus, 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.679 the booming margarine business kept people in the workforce. It's 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:36.120 all win win right. At the time, Newfoundland was still 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.959 a British colony. In nine it became part of Canada, 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:44.559 where dairy farmers were fiercely protective of their trade. In fact, 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:49.200 margarine had been outlawed in Canada since eight six. Canada's 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.920 parliament passed federal legislation in ninety nine to prohibit the 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.240 manufacture and sale of margarine anywhere in Canada except Newfoundland 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.040 and Labrador, where it had an industrial stronghold, but that 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.680 didn't stop margarine hungry Canadians from bringing it across the border. 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:10.280 By nineteen fifty, the law was revised so that marjoriine manufacturing, importing, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.440 and exporting would be regulated by the provinces until two 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.680 thousand eight. Quebec regulated that margarine had to be sold 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.639 colorless so that it wouldn't be confused with yellow butter, Oh, Canada, right, 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.640 We'll hold your harrumps. Americans were equally as mad about margarine, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.640 just as your great great grandmother might turn up her 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:32.720 nose at any number of the shelf stable foods in 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.200 your pantry today. Americans in the late eighteen hundreds were 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.640 incredibly suspicious of food substitutes. In eighteen eighty, Minnesota Governor 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:46.200 Lucius Frederick Hubbard called margarine a mechanical mixture created by 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:52.120 the ingenuity of depraved human genius. Previous food substitutes, like Crisco, 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.560 which was intended to replace animal lard, were intended for 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.280 cooking and couldn't be literally seen in the foods grazing 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.720 dinner table. Margarine, on the other hand, was intended to 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.440 be eaten in its original form. From nineteen seventeen to 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:11.160 nine eight, plenty of bills proposed outlong margarine, largely at 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.160 the behest of the dairy industry, but the federal government 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.040 was pretty hands off, with the exception of a nineteen 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.919 thirty one law that mandated that margarine could not be 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.080 dyed yellow. It was up to the states to decide 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.960 how to treat margarine, and some taxed it so heavily. 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.600 The consumers would drive over state lines to buy it 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.240 in bulk where it was cheaper, not exactly bootlegging, but 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.080 still by the nineteen fifties, most states had voted to 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.880 overturn margarine tax laws, and when the American Heart Association 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.800 endorsed margine in the nineteen sixties as a good choice 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.760 for those aiming to lower their saturated fat intake, the 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.840 staple was here to stay, although laws about butter and 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:55.560 buttery products still exist, especially in dairy heavy states like Wisconsin. However, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.680 many types of margarine are now advised against due to 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.400 their inclusion of health harmful trans fats in their recipes, 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:07.400 but margarine still hasn't disappeared completely. We spoke with Kristen Toth, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.760 a rally, North Carolina based dietitian. She said, I think 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.600 once a food makes it into the mainstream US food system, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.839 it's hard to eliminate it from the food supply stick. 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.480 Margarine can be a cost affordable option for some people 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.600 compared to butter. Talk recommends that if you're choosing margarine 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.240 for the money value quote, it's important to look for 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.760 margarine's that do not contain trans fat also found as 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.200 partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients list, and to look 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.320 for Margarin's that contain the lowest amount of saturated fat. 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.760 And Talk also adds that because they are both high 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.720 calorie foods, both butter and even trans fat free margarine 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:54.720 spreads should be used sparingly when possible. Today's episode was 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.640 written by Candice Gibson and produced by Tyler Clang. For 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.200 more on this and lots of other smooth topics at 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.760 how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.720 i heeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.279 the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:09.560 listen to your favorite shows.