Coconut Fad...

There’s a new fat in town. Who knows how long it will stick around, but right now it’s all the rage. Coconut oil has made a recent impact on health food stores as a safer, more healthful alternative to butter.

I mention butter specifically because we all know EVOO is the preferred healthy oil to use for your sautéing and roasting needs. Butter, while untouched by posing imitations for the desired outcomes in perfect pastries and flaky pie crusts, packs a punch of unhealthy saturated fat.

Over the past few years, studies were conducted to retrace the accusations placed on coconut oil and discoveries were made regarding the type of saturated fat in coconuts. Both butter and coconut oil contain saturated fats, but different types. The coconut’s medium-chained saturated fat behaves differently than the long-chained fatty acids of butter. So while coconut oil does elevate both HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) levels in human blood, it is still thought to be a better choice over butter. More importantly, it has the ability to deliver the goods when it comes to baking when it comes to producing proper consistency and texture.

Enough with the science.

Once this information began to hit the masses, health stores and especially vegans took notice. Obviously, vegans don’t use butter, and the hard-core vegan bakers miss it. Alternatives exist in vegetable oil spreads and shortening sticks, but they don’t quite make the cut for some things. Coconut oil is vegan and it performs well in many variations.

The oil of this sweet vegetable is solid at room temperature and melts beautifully for sautéing greens and roasting root veggies in addition to adding a hint of vanilla sweetness. I first tried it when roasting sweet potatoes and fell in love with the results. Note that the vanilla/coconut aroma and flavor is much more prominent in the unrefined version of the oil.

Additionally, I’ve used coconut oil for sautéing kale, roasting butternut, and making GF banana bread. For recipes that call for butter or oil in baking (like the banana bread), I typically use yogurt or applesauce instead. That’s the best sub by far for baking when it comes to health. But the occasional indulgence of coconut oil over butter is still a better option, and life is more exciting when those indulgences can be enjoyed!

Not enough work has been done to determine if coconut oil is as beneficial as EVOO, but moderation is the name of the game anyways when it comes to any kind of oil. See what the local market has to offer in the coconut department and give it a whirl next time the craving for a homemade pie and/or cake rears its ugly (or welcomed) head.