French researchers are worried.

French researchers are worried.

Or maybe they’re just pretending to be worried.

A recent study conducted in France suggests that patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) seem to be avoiding phytosterol-enriched margarine (PEM).

The “problem” (according to anyone with a financial interest in promoting sales of margarine) is that CVD patients are not getting enough phytosterols, which are plant sterols that help block absorption of dietary cholesterol. Actual foods that contain phytosterols include sesame seeds, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and pistachio nuts.

For most people, however, dietary cholesterol isn’t a problem. But if you’re a margarine manufacturer, and you’ve gone to the trouble of enriching your product with phytosterols, you naturally want people to believe they’re somehow putting their hearts in dire jeopardy by not consuming PEM like a Conehead: in mass quantities.

Amazing but true – margarine was once considered a healthy alternative to butter, in spite of the fact that the chemical makeup of margarine has more in common with plastic than it has with butter. Calling margarine a “butter substitute” is like calling a hang-glider a space shuttle substitute. They’re that different.

In fact, the web site for the American Heart Association (we’re talking VERY mainstream here) states that margarine is a key source of trans fatty acids, and trans fats have been shown to raise LDL and lower HDL.

So does anyone really believe that the harmful effects of trans fats will be offset by phytosterol-enriched margarine? Apparently so. Here’s what the PEM researchers wrote in a recent issue of Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases: “This under use of PEM in this high risk population is worrisome.”

Worrisome? It seems there are CVD patients out there who are actually buying PEM and spreading it on their baguettes. Now THAT’S worrisome.