This is our new favorite margarine. It is delicious. It is one of those rare times in life where something that tastes indulgent is also good for you.

They have a regular version and a light version. We got the light one.

One tablespoon-sized serving has 300 mg of omega-3 fatty acids from flax seed oil. The American Heart Association recommends that people with coronary heart disease eat about 1,000 mg of omega-3's per day. The ways that omega-3's help your heart are:

- decrease risk of arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac death
- decrease triglyceride levels
- decrease growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque
- lower blood pressure (slightly)

There are scores of other non-coronary benefits of omega-3's as well.

Smart Balance also does not contain any trans fats. Trans fats are created when they hydrogenate oils. Hydrogenated oils take a healthy liquid oil and change it into a solid oil. Not only does hydrogenating an oil turn it from a healthy mono- or poly- unsaturated fat in to a saturated fat, the properties of trans fats are much more harmful to your body than naturally occurring saturated fats like bacon fat! Who would have thought?

Our previous favorite margarine was I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light. They made their margarine firm by adding some gelatin.

Smart Balance makes their butter firm by adding palm fruit oil. It is a saturated fat that is solid at room temperature, but it has no trans fat. It also has a lot of antioxidants, including beta carotene, and tocopherols and tocotrienols, which are vitamin E components.

The oils that it contains are:

Palm fruit
Soybean
Canola seed
Flax seed
Olive

The light version only has 5 grams of total fat which equals 45 calories.

Any way, to wrap this up, the main health benefit is that the mix of oils used in this margarine will reduce your bad cholesterol and triglycerides, and increase you good cholesterol. And all the health benefits aside, it is one of the best, if not the best, tasting margarines I think I have ever had. It also won the best tasting margarine category from the American Culinary Institute for 2004.