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It's a tough subject. Most saturated fats either come from animals, tropical plants or are produced synthetically via hydrogenation. The trajectory seems to hav
by howlin 7y ago
It's a tough subject. Most saturated fats either come from animals, tropical plants or are produced synthetically via hydrogenation. The trajectory seems to have been animal to partially hydrogenated plant oil to tropical oils. I don't think palm or coconut oil is going to compare favorably to lard from a purely environmental perspective. The world is burning down the last of the rainforest to make room for palm oil plantations.
The most rational solution is to go back to hydrogenated oil. The partially hydrogenated oils in Crisco and margarine contain trans fats, which are clearly unhealthy and should be avoided. However fully hydrogenated oil does not have this problem. Unfortunately I doubt the consumer is going to be able to appreciate this difference. I lump this solution with nuclear power: clearly the best solution but too scary to be adopted by the public.
- YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago>> The most rational solution is to go back to hydrogenated oil. Or just use olive oil that is high in monounsaturated fats and depends on olive trees that are not amenable to industrial production. As a bonus, you won't find any research, old or new, be it the purorted result of "lobbying", conspiracies, etc, or not, claiming that olive oil is bad for you.
- howlin 7y agoOlive oil works ok for most purposes but it is fairly expensive and much fussier to work with given the lower sat. fat content. Though it is very stable when pure, olive oil can go rancid fairly quickly when incorporated into processed foods or baked goods. Lard, margarine and tropical oils have the benefit of being shelf stable even when part of some other baked good (e.g. Oreos).