[Lady TS]

Originally Posted by Auroras mom

Well, no - it's not the only oil that doesn't change on a molecular level when heated. However, because it is saturated, like lard and butter, it is very stable at high temperatures. Polyunsaturated fats, such as many plant oils, are very unstable when heated and undergo reactions that change their structure and can create harmful byproducts. Monounsaturated fats are less prone to this problem.

Generally speaking, you should never cook with vegetable oils. Olive oil should be eaten raw on salads and such. Coconut oil is lower molecular weight than the oils in butter even, so it should be used only at lower temps when cooking.

Coconut oil is antifungal in nature, which is great for the body. It has also been found to help in thyroid function. Many folks swear by its healing properties.

As far as fear of saturated fats, it is pretty well established now I think that there is not a correlation between saturated fats and heart disease. There is a lot of info you can read on that, but in the alternative health communities at least, the causal link is considered to be a total fallacy.

My personal stance on it is that I prefer to eat a moderate amount of a variety of wholesome fats - from nuts, butter, fish, meat, eggs, yogurt, cheese, and sometimes coconut oil.

Does this mean that we really shouldn't be making popcorn with it(since that uses high heat)?

---------- Post added at 03:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:19 PM ----------

Originally Posted by greenishmama

so... I know that cooking and baking is probably not healthy in some ways (I don't know a lot about whole foods, raw foods diet, etc.) But what fats or oils SHOULD we bake with or cook with? (different subject I know...)

I think it depends on what camp you decide to go with.

I recently heard a speaker(affiliated with Weston Price, I believe) saying that all vegetable oils(corn, soy, sunflower, safflower, canola etc) are really bad for us, even if they are organic.

He recommended cooking/baking with lard, butter, palm fruit oil and coconut oil. (All organic/pastured/no abx, etc where that applies)



Here is a smoke point chart on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point
It confuses me, though, because it says extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point higher even than coconut oil. So is it really bad then to cook on the stovetop with olive oil(like sauteeing veggies and such)?