I finally found an unsalted soft margerine, but...

Normally, I use natural products, and prefer a smaller serving of real butter instead of a larger serving of light margarine.  However, I like butter on my toast and it can really add up the calories.  So I went shopping for soft, light margarine.

I wanted to get some soft, light margarine but have to be careful of sodium.  With the salt content of these products at 90 mgs for 1 tablespoon, it can really add up.

Fleischman's makes it.  The label says no trans fats, but the ingredient list included partially and fully hydrogenated soy oil, which is trans fat.  They don't have to list trans fats under .5 grams on the lable.  That means a tablespoon could have 1/2 a gram which could add up.  Or it could be a more miniscule amount that wouldn't be very harmful.

Does anybody know how to find out the actual amount of trans fat in a product?

I love Smart Balance and Smart Balance light. They have salted and unsalted versions and I use it in all of my baking with perfect resutls.  I wasn't sure about the trans fat question and went to their website and found this:

The Truth About Trans Fat Labeling
Why "Zero" Isn’t Zero

These days, supermarket shelves are loaded with products claiming zero grams trans fat per serving. But that "zero" on the label isn’t necessarily really zero. In fact, it can mean almost as much as half a gram of trans fat per serving. And all that bad fat can really add up.

FDA Rules

What consumers don’t know is that many comp­anies are taking advantage of the FDA trans fat labeling rules. According to FDA guidelines, products only need to have less than 0.5g trans fat per serving to claim zero grams trans fat.

But even that is still too much. Just one of these so-called "zero grams trans fat" servings at each meal could add up to almost 1.5g trans fat per day over breakfast, lunch and dinner—and that’s not including snacks. Imagine: that’s almost 75% of the American Heart Association’s recommended daily limit of 2g (about 1% of your daily calories, based on an average 2,000-calorie diet) and could total almost 547.5g trans fat each year! That’s a whole lot more than zero.

Navigating the Dairy Case

So what does this mean for consumers? As is often the case, you need to be aware that labels don’t always tell the full story.

Consider buttery spreads. A recent study conducted by an inde­pendent lab­or­a­tory ex­amined se­ver­al leading brands whose labels (as allowed by FDA guidelines) all stated zero grams trans fat per serving. The results told a different story. (See chart.)

Click to enlarge.

Clear Conclusions

Out of these leading brands, only one buttery spread stood apart: Smart Balance, with the closest to zero grams trans fat nature allows.

It’s nearly impossible to eliminate all trans fat from your diet. But you can reduce your consump­tion. In addition to searching for a zero on the label, look closely at the ingredient list. If you see ingredi­ents referred to as "partially hydrogenated" or "shortening," you’ve found trans fat.

With far less trans fat than most other leading spreads and no hydrogenated oils in its ingredient list, Smart Balance® Buttery Spread is a good first step.

Find out more at
TheTruthAboutTransFat.com

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In retrospect, I probably should have just posted the link so you could see the chart and all...I'm a thread-posting novice!  Anyway, hope the info helps.

CLAIRE,

 As a healthier alternative to unsalted butter or partially hydrogenated oil containing spreads, you might want to try combining equal parts unsalted butter and olive oil in a food processor and then store it in the fridge in a tupperware container. It will be soft like margarine but will have a better nutritional profile of types of fat (ie: monounsat vs saturated). Of, course the grams of fat per serving and the calorie count would not change bc all fat has 45 cals per tsp, but it is healthier and lower in sodium.

As far as "lower calorie" choices that are transfat free, I would recommend Smart Balance Light as well. Smart Balance brand products are great (mayo, p-nut butter, oils, etc.) and contain no partially hydrogenated oils.

Mixing olive oil and real butter is a great idea.  I'll try it for sure.  Actually that would be better tasting than any margarine.  I have a good Kitchen Aid mixer to do the job right.  Do you think if I whip it, it will be even softer and lighter?  If I try that, I'll let you know.

I didn't know that Smart Balance has an unsalted version - I've searched everywhere and don't see it.  Maybe a word to the dairy manager in the store would help.