Cooking Oil and Apple Cake with Coconut Oil

I caught part of a cooking show rerun last week – Bobby Flay was grilling with Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo from Sesame Street. [Kevin grilled an onion wrapped in foil which gave me an idea to make up a stuffed Vidalia onion dinner recipe; if it turns out I’ll share.]

I was surprised that, while describing his grilling steps, Bobby instructed people to use canola oil. He specifically said, “Canola oil,” instead of leaving it open to “a high-heat oil” or at least specifying a healthy oil that holds up well to cooking with heat, like coconut oil.

“Canola” is a U.S. marketing name for rapeseed oil. Most of it originally came from Canada, so Can-Oil-Low-Acid or Canola. But it’s a seed oil that is 90% genetically modified. Vegetable and seed oils are high in polyunsaturated fats and highly susceptible to heat damage causing an increase in the chance of heart attack by lowering high-density lipoproteins (HDL – good cholesterol levels) which keep arteries clean, while increasing the activity of platelets and monocytes.^[1] Trans fats of a particularly problematic type are also formed during the process of deodorizing canola oil, although they are not indicated on labels for canola oil.^[2]

Cooking oils are a fairly new introduction to the history of the human diet. Most are highly processed, so surrounded by marketing gimmicks such as “all natural” and “cholesterol free.” For example, the bottle may say, “0% Trans fats,” followed by “per serving” in small print. That means in one tablespoon, there is less than ½ gram of trans fats, so the FDA allows the manufacturer to call it zero. But in the amount of oil that most Americans use, it adds up to a lot of trans fats.

When you cook with polyunsaturated vegetable, safflower, canola, corn, and soy oils, oxidized cholesterol – the cholesterol found in arterial plaque – is introduced into your system and converts your good cholesterol into bad cholesterol.^[3]

Eating wild-caught cold-water fish (Alaskan, north Pacific, Lake Superior) gives you omega-3 fatty acids which are very healthy because they reduce inflammation and help balance out the omega-6. The problem is that Americans eat 17 times as much omega-6 fatty acid than omega-3, usually in the form of vegetable oil, which is very unhealthy. Omega-6 fatty acids encourage the formation of prostaglandins and leukotrienes. These are potent chemicals which can increase platelet and monocyte activity respectively, increasing the risk of heart attack.^[4] Many researchers believe this is a significant factor in the rising rate of inflammatory disorders in the United States, because a healthy diet should consist of roughly 2-4 times fewer omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids.^[5]

Extra virgin olive oil is an excellent and healthful oil, but use it cold. Make salad dressings with it, drizzle it on vegetables, but only cook with it at very low heat. Eat it as is, do not generally use it for cooking or frying. The best alternative for cooking is organic extra virgin coconut oil (not refined) which helps to promote normal blood platelet function and is less susceptible to heat damage. Avocado oil is the next best for cooking if you want the mild flavor.  A couple other options are organic red palm oil (not refined), or pastured (grass-fed) butter.

From now on, anyone following this blog should know to not use any more vegetable oil. Read the ingredients on the side of a bottle of Wesson “vegetable” oil; it’s 100% genetically modified soybean oil – by current law they do not have to tell you it’s genetically modified – and Wesson is owned by ConAgra. ConAgra is one of the largest processed food companies in the U.S., one of the largest grain producers, runs the largest meat packing plants, and has lobbyists promoting way more big money industrial food interests than your health interests.

Today I experimented with using coconut oil in baking (and mixing some different flours). Coconut oil can be substituted for vegetable oil even though it’s a solid. The jar said to melt it in a pot but I didn’t feel like dirtying one, so I put it in a glass measuring cup and microwaved it just until it melted. It’s an even one to one substitution when a recipe calls for “vegetable oil.”

This is a super quick and easy cake. I forgot to measure the nuts after I chopped them, that’s why it looks like more than half a cup. I also used one cup of the sprouted wheat flour and one cup of oat flour. It worked out perfectly, so use your favorite flour and practice using the coconut oil substitution in your baking.

Apple Cake
1 C organic brown sugar or coconut palm sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
½ t salt
2 C flour
1 C oil
½ C chopped nuts
5 small sliced apples
Preheat oven to 350. Whisk the eggs and brown sugar then add everything else and stir. Spread the batter in a sprayed 9×13 baking dish. Bake 45 minutes.