In the brouhaha regarding all things corn, canola oil sometimes gets confused with it's lookalike, corn oil. Canola- it's not a fancy name for corn oil, it's an acronym standing for "Canadian Oil, Low Acid". And it's made from rapeseed. Rapeseed just wasn't the best name for marketing purposes, as you can imagine.
I have recently heard that there is some movement towards using coconut oil as a cooking oil substitute because it is a) not from corn and b) good for digestion.
Here's something that's not good for your digestion OR your heart....Coconut oil has approximately 11.8 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, compared to approximately 1g per tablespoon for canola oil or 1.9g per tablespoon for olive oil. Saturated fat is the "bad" fat- it's the fat found predominately in animal fats. The Daily Reference Value for saturated fat is between 20-36g per day. Three tablespoons of coconut oil and you're pretty much done for the day!
Bottom Line: You're better off using actual lard, in terms of saturated fat content (which is arguably the most important consideration when choosing a cooking fat). It only has 5g of sat fat per tablespoon (source for all nutrient data: USDA National Nutrient Database). Horrifying, no?
I leave you with a quote about palm oil, another high sat fat vegetable oil, from Greg Crister's Fatland: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World:
"There was one other thing: Palm Oil was such a highly saturated fat that its proponents secretly touted it as 'cow fat disguised as vegetable oil'".
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