Its funny, I got the idea for the cream cheese stuffed dates from a book I read in the 70s, called The Supermarket andbook. They told you all the things that were bad to eat. They were ahead of their time, they said never eat margarine, due to the hydrogenated fat, that it was worse for you than butter. Now, it's pretty commin knowledge, why its even still allowed to be sold is beyond me. Of course we have healthier margarines now, but they still sell the junk. The process of hydrogenation takes healthy vegetable oil and breaks the molecules so that it is solid at room temperature which makes it more shelf stable. Unfortunately, this removes all the healthy qualities of natural oil. It is literally plasticized, not a real food, and it now contains trans fats. It also causes the fat to go rancid, so then it has to be deodorized. So, because of that book, I never ate margarine. And as more information came out about hydrogenation, I read labels and don't buy anything that contained hydrogenated fats.