It’s Thanksgiving dinner, and the smell of hot turkey and fresh rolls has your mouth watering. Ready to dig in, you reach across the table for the butter when your cousin suddenly shouts, “Wait! Grab the margarine instead. It’s better for you.” “What are you talking about?” scoffs your brother. “Butter is better because it’s natural. Margarine is made in a lab.” Suddenly, everyone is arguing about what’s best, and your poor roll is left uneaten. The butter versus margarine debate can be confusing, especially when you remember margarine was introduced as a healthier butter substitute. People have been eating butter without a second thought for thousands of years, but in the late 20th century, scientists determined that butter contains high level of saturated fat. At the time, saturated fatty acids were believed to be connected to cardiovascular disease, so butter became public enemy No. 1. Enter margarine, which is made of plant oils and contains unsaturated fat. Health experts gave margarine a big thumbs-up, and it began to fly off the shelves. Then the data came in. Margarine has a very low melting point, and in its natural state, it has the consistency of vegetable oil. To match the spreadable consistency of butter, chemists added hydrogen atoms to make margarine solid. In doing so, they changed margarine’s chemical structure and inadvertently created what we call trans fats. Our bodies process trans fats differently than they do other fatty acids. When we try to break down trans fats, it lowers our good cholesterol and increases bad cholesterol. This can lead to a greater risk of coronary heart disease. It can be difficult to make a straight comparison between butter and margarine because margarine recipes vary greatly between brands. Many modern margarine spreads lack trans fats, but this does not automatically make margarine better than butter. Butter contains important vitamins, like vitamins A and E. Furthermore, recent research suggests saturated fats may not be as damaging as we originally thought. Ultimately, you want to be aware of exactly what you’re putting in your body and eat reasonable serving sizes. Check the nutrition labels and try to limit your saturated fats while avoiding trans fats entirely. And if you’re looking for the healthiest options, vegetable oil spreads and extra virgin olive oil beat out butter and margarine by a long shot.
At the end of the day, if you fulfill a market need and do it better than anyone else, you’re going to have the most popular lemonade stand on the block. Harris says, “We want to capture the market by providing better service.” Looks like it’s working.
TEECO’S TIPS
TRACK YOUR TRUE COSTS Understand and evaluate all the costs of dirty tents and then take that money and use it to develop and invest in better systems to help you gain control, be consistent, and eventually, ultimately, eliminate many costs. Questions to ask yourself while examining these costs: What if I could reduce the number of employees it takes to wash, and what if we got more washing done in the same amount of space? And, what would it be like to have better employee retention and not to have to constantly hire new people?
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