<p>It’s only the extra virgin olive oil that has the strong flavors. If you want a lighter flavor, just get plain olive oil. It’s much cheaper and traditionally used for sauteeing and cooking in general.</p>
<p>Peanut oil is excellent for high heat cooking – frying, stir frying, etc. – as long as you aren’t allergic to peanuts of course. If you have a local oriental market, it is MUCH cheaper there than in the grocery store.</p>
<p>Canola oil is OK as a general purpose flavorless cooking oil in terms of the kinds of fat it has.</p>
FWIW, I was told the exact opposite - coconut oil solidifies at room temperature and apparently this indicates it is high in saturated fats. How accurate this is I don’t know. Incidentally, my mom used coconut oil primarily as hair cream for us in the 60s (amd regular soap instead of shampoo) before P-G taught us the errors of our ways.</p>
<p>It’s too hard for me to meaningfully sort through the numerous opinions of goods and bads, so I try to stick to “moderation”.</p>
<p>Refined coconut and palm oil is a BIG no-no.
Coconut oil needs to be raw and unrefined. Helps the immune system because adds to important pathways.
Processing fats tends to make them short-chain molecules- those are the ones that clump up and inflame our blood vessels, esp when we also eat a lot of inflammatory processed carbs. Triglycerides in our bloods our bad— and so is LDL cholesterol in high quantities.</p>
<p>When in doubt, think back to clean, unprocessed, non-industrialzed food. Bound to be healthier than what we have created or manufactured, grown with a ton of extra chemicals, or re-formulated by cooking or processing for convenience.</p>
<p>Sometimes I soften a stick of butter and blend it in the food processor with a half-cup of olive oil. It’s good and better for you than straight butter.</p>
<p>I hate margarine and never use that. I use olive oil for cooking, and the butter/oil mix for spreading on toast etc.</p>
<p>I haven’t used butter for awhile and two weeks ago I started a project to see if I could forgo all oils. So far, so good…I am experimenting with this for 3 months and see how test results come out.</p>
<p>If you leave butter out long enough (especially if it’s really hot) it can get rancid. I’ve never had a problem and have one stick out all the time except during heatwaves, since we don’t have much air-conditioning in our house. (Through the wall unit in dining room and a tiny one in my office.)</p>
<p>Butter is loaded with saturated fat which is bad for you. Margarine is loaded with trans-fats that are also bad for you. And both are loaded with calories. </p>
<p>Solution: I banished both from life (except what I unwittingly get in dishes cooked in restaurants, which is mostly butter I suppose). I just don’t need all the calories that butter provides. When I fry things I use Pam or, if that’s unsuitable, a little olive oil. Butter and margarine were just two of several things I off-loaded from my diet to stay slim as I grew older. </p>
<p>French toast is the last thing left to which I add butter, and I seldom eat that. I now usually put no fats on any bread except for the rare treat of dipping bread in olive oil at an Italian restaurant. I also now put olive oil on corn on the cob instead of butter.</p>
<p>Butter lover here. How I dislike careless speakers who call margarine butter. “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter,” feh, you naugahyde palate. Margarine is particularly tragic in baking. Use butter, or don’t bake.</p>
<p>Olive oil is not good for stir frying because it breaks down at high heat. I use peanut oil for Chinese dishes and canola when I want a more neutral flavor.</p>
<p>For all your unsalted butter and sea salt lovers </p>
<p>Take a nice piece of dark pumpernickel bread – with a good crust. Spread it with unsalted butter, top with some thinly sliced fresh radishes, sprinkle with sea salt. Divine!</p>
<p>By the way, going completely fat free is also unwise. The body uses fat in various ways, including maintaining the connections of synapsis in the brain. All things in moderation.</p>
<p>I use butter & ghee & olive oil or vegetable oils like sunflower/canola. ( when I could eat real bread- I loved dipping it in olive oil & balsamic vinegar)</p>
<p>Don’t really use a lot of butter in cooking or eating however & we often only buy a stick at a time.</p>
<p>My FIL was a dairyman & H grew up drinking whole milk & eating butter. I grew up drinking milk mixed with powdered & eating margarine.</p>
<p>You don’t have to worry about going fat free: all breads, noodles even whole wheat are loaded with fat. By not using oils in salads and frying foods which no one did until about 1100 AD, you end up with enough. I add ground flax seed just for measure. Not to say it is easy since I have to learn to make food in different ways now. I am following the Esseltyn diet plan just to see what happens.</p>
<p>Just checked my package here–a slice of Trader Joe’s wheat bread has 1g of fat. I’d hardly call that ‘loaded with fat’. The whole wheat pasta I have says 2g/serving. </p>
<p>Not sure what kind of bread and pasta you eat, overseas?</p>
<p>Unsalted butter user here for decades. Love the taste of Plugra, but since I only eat it rarely, I buy Trader Joe’s to $ave $. We tried using the French system to keep the butter out, but the water was insufficient and gray stuff kept growing on the butter although I don’t think it ever went rancid. We now have soapstone counters, so thermal transfer will soften the butter, and if that is insufficient, a few seconds in the MV will do it.</p>
<p>Just be aware that going “fat free” is a decision to eat a high carbohydrate diet (unless you plan starvation). Conversely, a low carbohydrate diet is a decision to eat more fat (unless you plan starvation).</p>
<p>Long time butter and olive oil user here. I just remember looking at margarine containers and thinking “ick” when I first started living and cooking on my own. When I married I converted my margarine using husband. We stir fry with peanut oil. Neither my H nor I have ever had “bad numbers” – now who knows what our arteries look like! But in general we have adopted the all things in moderation lifestyle as well as avoiding refined foods as much as we can…but a grilled hot dog once in awhile in the hot summer is sure yummy and I put flavored Coffeemate in my coffee sometimes instead of milk which is probably a health no-no.</p>
What do you want butter for? If it’s for bread - you could have garlic bread, or dip bread in olive oil like the Greeks do. You could go German and use goose fat (looks disgusting, but tastes pretty good!). If it’s for pastry you could use lard and/or Crisco. If it’s for potatoes I’d probably go the garlic/olive oil route. If it’s pasta or noodles I’d just use sauce. We eat very little bread or potatoes with meat, since we went fairly low carb years and years ago.</p>
<p>My cholesterol numbers are fine. DH gave up eggs and eating cheese and salami for lunch and his are fine too.</p>
& eating margarine.</p>