A Reader Asked about Cooking Oils

I learned a lot about desserts - and oil - at Melo Cream.

One reader asked about oil and cooking, so I was ready with a few comments.

I do not like the make-up of hardened, heavily processed factory oil - but what genius. They try hard to replace natural oils with factory processed oil and make their product look like it was distilled from Mother Nature.

Crisco stands for crystallized cottonseed oil. Ominous things can be found on the Net. The hardening makes me wonder what it does inside us. Winter shortening is softer for the cold weather, so it is soup in the summer. Summer shortening stands up well in storage in the heat, but turns into a block of soap or marble in the winter. In fact, one of the early possible uses was for making soap.

Now with butter flavor from Dupont and Company.

One feature of manufactured oil is stability - not smoking up the house when cooking.

Coconut oil is the only one I use. It is stable in the heat, does not smoke, and has a wonderful flavor in cooking. The vegetable oil barons scared everyone away from using coconut oil in the movie theaters, so that unique delicious smell is gone - except at home. One cashier said, "Do you want butter on your popcorn?" I said, "That is not butter. That is 10W-30 from Shell." He laughed at the truth of my comment. Look at a package of it, if you a chance. I watched an audience observe it pouring into the reservoir. They said, "Ewwww."

Coconut oil is the only fat we can digest easily, apart from mother's milk. I do not buy the theory that cholesterol causes heart problems. Nevertheless, my cholesterol levels were perfect at the last doctor's visit. He did not say, "From now on pay cash in advance."

Not much coconut oil is needed for what we eat. For eggs I add some to the non-stick pan, and we love the flavor, enhanced by butter, salt, and pepper. Sassy adores scrambled eggs, especially when improved by slices of Johnsonville brats (New Orleans).

Coconut oil is also good for itchy scalps from using detergent shampoos and having dried, cracked skin from winter heat or old age. When I was the skin care expert at the Neighborhood Market*, I suggested that elderly people try a long-lasting, small, $4 container of coconut oil. Most skin creams are stearic acid plus glycerin, plus fragrance and alcohol. Any natural oil is far better than that stuff.

I had several people thank me over and over for the coconut oil skin cure, including my father-in-law in his 90s. It was only thing that worked, and he tried a lot of them.

*When I was working in the cleaning aisle, I told customers they were in luck, because I was the cleaning expert. I did the same in the cooking aisle. The fact is, a lot of people, especially the young couples, have no practical experience. I taught lots of people how to unclog toilets for almost nothing - a dollop of Dawn or generic Dawn, wait an hour or so, jiggle the bowl a bit, flush. They wanted to use $5 declogger, which was often sold out because of local demand from the nearby apartments.

Another fiendish result of marketing fad foods is lowering the fat content and replacing it with corn syrup. Fat is a normal part of our diets, so substituting with corn syrup is not wise. Many sugars in the same product are hidden with various names used in a row, each one a form of sugar.

The highly regarded "natural" food from Paul Newman, such as their orange drink, starts with corn syrup. So, if you want to feed your children or yourself orange-flavored syrup with water added, reach for his brand. Mmm-mmm.

Most juices should be replaced with the fruit itself, far more enjoyable and naturally a combination of fiber and fruit sugar. Fiber offsets carbohydrate values, so fiber is a good idea on its own. However, I did overcome my Coca-cola addiction in Phoenix with orange juice first and then with oranges squeezed into water, then water itself.

Our waiter told us, years ago, that he could use the cola fountain at the restaurant whenever he wanted. When he stopped doing that, he lost 40 pounds.

Energy, Food, Exercise, Emotions

Everyone wants to have more energy, and the energy we have affects what we do and how we think.

Energy wet blankets are also the grocery store products that people crave and earn the highest profits:

• Corn syrup soft drinks and "no-calorie" soft drinks produce a spurt of energy and a crash because the spike is short-lived. Besides, the no-cal sweeteners have a similar effect on weight gain.
• The promoted snacks have no food value, but plenty of sweetener and salt, so they promote absurd bouts of eating, especially with soda and beer.
• Desserts are usually manufactured with an emphasis on looks and a lack of good ingredients, so we can easily spend a lot on TV dinner quality food. 
• Bread and crackers add to the total carbohydrate count of many foods, such as pizza, chicken wings, shrimp, pies, turnovers, etc. 
• Pasta can be eaten by the pound, when combined with tasty ingredients.

Blood sugar should not be too high or too low, but America's favorite foods tend to send the sugar level way up and then crashing down. A nap often follows over-indulgence.

Clergy, teachers, and most executives spend far too much time sitting. That promotes all kinds of physical problems and leverages the urge to improve energy with snacks.

One of the great passages in Pilgrim's Progress has Christian and Hopeful locked in the dungeon of Doubting Castle (note the names in this allegory). Giant Despair is dispatched by his lovely wife to finish off the pilgrims - but a sun-shiny day paralyzes his strength so that he can do nothing against them. I could go on a side-trip about Gerhardt's references to the sun in his hymns.

Did Bunyan ever have bouts of despair when locked up 12 years for preaching without a license? I think we can assume he had painful hours of self-recrimination about neglecting his congregants, his wife and children. He did get some release time; how beautiful the sun must have looked on those days.

Jesus' teaching of the cross is taught in the last two Beatitudes. It must be important because none of our successful religion celebrities touch on it. The cross means that the very worst episodes of life are used by God to take believers to a new understanding, a new place, and new wisdom about suffering. 

One cure, to increase our energy, is simply to walk in the sunshine or even the rain. Exercise has all kinds of good effects on the body, digestion, energy, and emotions. The passage of time means we can no longer gamble on youthful blessings side-stepping foolish choices. 

Any man over 60 has entered the under-writer's zone of high medical bills. Women sail on into their 90s in many cases. Men start having troubles based on weight, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, and family history.

Physicians want to know (as do the insurance guys) - How much do you drink? How much do you smoke? When was the last time you had three desserts in a row? (The last one is too intrusive to be used.)

I too have entered the age where my brain was writing checks that my body sent back NSF - insufficient funds. So these are some changes I made:

1. Joined a gym where I began regular work-outs, starting at a modest pace.
2. Decreased my ice cream consumption to almost zero.
3. Replaced dessert food with tangerines and with almonds/walnuts.
4. Added vegetables to our food at home - brussels sprouts, broccoli, chopped spinach, green beans, mashed cauliflower. 
5. Switched, at a member's suggestion, away from beef and began enjoying white meat I prepare in various ways.
6. Started hymn sings from YouTube with Christina. We enjoy singing along with great chorale groups, adding new melodies to our list of classics. Faith-enhancing hymns are energy dynamos and wonderful for peaceful sleep.
7. Increased email and FB time with Christian friends, encouraging - neat word - one another, sharing sorrows, addressing problems, discussing Biblical doctrine.

Wrong tune! Oh my!

The downward food-exercise spiral is bound also to influence our emotions into the sub-basement. We feel good when accomplishing something. If we get one major task done for each period of the day, we will end up with weeks, months, and years of accomplishments. That does not just mean work - it should also include family time, a hobby, and getting away from work (in a parish, going somewhere with the family, post-plague).

Even clouds need to rest a bit.