The Skinny on Fat, part one

A couple of days ago my mom was reading the back of a can of French’s onions and noticed the first ingredient listed is palm oil. Palm oil—good or bad? That night I watched Julie and Julia (if you’re a food blogger it’s required you watch that movie on a regular basis) and Julie said something about how great butter is, and if something tastes wonderful it’s because there’s real butter in it.

These mentions of cooking fats got me thinking about how I use fat and how I choose which fats to use. First off, the difference between a fat and an oil is that a fat is solid or semi-solid at room temperature, while an oil is liquid. I have never done any research into fats and oils, so I pulled out a couple of cookbooks and visited a few of my favorite websites to find out what’s saturated, what’s polyunsaturated, and why it matters.

Trans fat, or partially hydrogenated fat is, as we’ve all heard, horrible and should never be consumed. In recent years there’s been a crackdown on trans fat, but it’s still found in a lot of fast food, packaged baked goods and snack foods. Hydrogenated fat is created when liquid vegetable oil is packed with hydrogen atoms until it’s solid, and was initially used as an alternative to unhealthy saturated fats like butter. It’s creamy and smooth, and makes fries and fish sticks crunchy, crackers and popcorn buttery, and cookies and snack cakes soft. Research is now showing that both saturated and hydrogenated fats increase LDL (bad cholesterol), but hydrogenated also decreases HDL (good cholesterol). Hydrogenated fat also raises triglyceride levels in the blood, which can cause an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Saturated fats are becoming more popular with the condemnation of trans fat. Saturated fat found in meat and dairy can clog arteries, but plant-based saturated fats like palm oil and coconut oil may be metabolized differently and might not be as bad as their animal product cousins. Jury’s still out on that one. Palm oil is cheap and is being used in lots of products that used to use trans fat (like French’s onions). Saturated fats should be avoided as much as possible; while they’re not as bad as trans fat, they still ain’t great. But like Julie says in that movie, butter makes stuff taste good! There’s the rub. I don’t feel too bad about using butter, because it’s pretty natural and unprocessed. The less something is processed the better, if you ask me. And of course, moderation. If olive oil will work, or if a butter-olive oil combo will work, that’s what I’ll do.


Tomorrow: the dramatic conclusion