New Margarine’s Popularity Spreads: Health-crazy Finns are...

New Margarine’s Popularity Spreads: Health-crazy Finns are scrambling to buy a new, cholesterol-blocking margarine, and it’s giving palpitations to international investors. Known as Benecol, the spread is disappearing off Finnish store shelves faster than its maker can churn out the half-pound tubs. To make the heart-friendly margarine, manufacturer Raisio Group adds a natural plant alcohol called sitostanol to ordinary margarine. Sitostanol inhibits the absorption of the health-threatening form of cholesterol into the bloodstream. Investors are high on Raisio as well; the price of Raisio shares on the Helsinki stock exchange has increased fivefold since January, as consumers gobbled up the margarine despite a cost that is 10 times that of ordinary margarine.