Oils

Organic butter

I tolerate organic butter best. As a little girl, I used to get in trouble for picking up the stick of butter from the table and taking a bite out of it. I was clearly craving it. I can remember doing this. I stopped when I was five years old. Presumably I did this while going through some significant growth spurt and was able to stop when I no longer needed such large amounts so desperately.

I have recently resumed eating butter by itself on occasion. One crazy week when we didn't make homemade sugar cookies (relatively high in butter content) and weren't making flat bread (so I wasn't having bread in the morning with a generous helping of butter), my condition deteriorated all week. By Saturday I was feeling quite sick and was in a lot of pain. I have a long history of serious dental issues. My teeth were killing me and I had swelling in my gums. Nothing I was doing was getting it under control and I was wondering if I would end up in the ER after not seeing a doctor at all for three years. Then my son and I realized the butter connection and I ate plain butter, washing it down with diet coke. The problem began to resolve. That clarified for me that not only is organic butter something I tolerate well but getting enough of it is critical to my ability to stay well. Since then, I make sure I get enough butter in my diet. If we fail to cook with enough butter, I eat it by itself like a "supplement".

Some sources online list butter as a good source of medium chain triglycerides (MCT). Others indicate it is not. It does appear to at least be a moderate source of medium chain triglycerides, which appear to be generally beneficial to people with CF. (Please see my remarks on coconut oil, below, as well.)

Organic coconut oil

I took this as a supplement initially and later added it to my diet. It was really important to my ability to heal my gut and lungs. I found that taking it within about the same hour as sea salt and glyconutrients had the biggest impact. I still keep this in my home as a staple, but I use a lot less of it than I do butter. One of the reasons is that it is "too strong" in a sense and can promote a healing crisis, making me sick from pushing the healing process too fast. Another issue is that it seems to move metals and I still have a mouth full of metals from dental work. It doesn't move metals to the same degree that cilantro does or that a chelator (like ALA or DMSA) would. I used cilantro almost daily for about 16 months but had to stop when it began making me ill. I suspect that worked for me as long as the metal load in my tissues was higher than the metal load in my mouth and when that changed it became problematic. Reducing the metal load on my system made a big positive difference in my health. But you really aren't supposed to chelate with a mouth full of metals. My bridge is currently crumbling and some day I may be rid of the metals in my mouth. In the mean time, anything that moves metals (like coconut oil or cilantro) is something I have to be cautious with.

I highly recommend coconut oil for anyone with Cystic Fibrosis. Coconut oil is good for the gut flora, easily absorbed, and has antibiotic properties. I sometimes take it to treat infection I have been exposed to. It is high in medium chain triglerides (MCT) and MCT oil is something mentioned on various CF lists as beneficial for people with CF. Some people have seen significant weight gains and other benefits from use of an MCT oil supplement. Just be aware that if you have metal dental work or some other source of metal poisoning, like me, you may also need to be cautious in the use of it. If you find you are having negative side effects from taking coconut oil, I recommend that you check out some of the resources listed on the Metal Poisoning page.

Organic olive oil

I tolerate this well occasionally, in small amounts. My son doesn't like it at all, though he did okay with it when I was really short of cash earlier this year and we began making flat bread and went ahead and used up all the organic olive oil in the house doing so. Earlier this year, after eating flat bread made with olive oil every day for about two weeks, I discovered that after a while I stop tolerating olive oil well. It is one of those oils that works okay for me occasionally, in small amounts. It is not something I can use as a staple.

Sunflower seed oil

I have never bought this to cook with but I look for it on snack labels. I discovered one day that the nuts I often snacked on were made with peanut oil. It's no wonder that if I snacked on them too much, I started reacting badly and then would have to quit for a time. I can sometimes find Pita seeds (roasted pumpkin seeds) made with sunflower oil. I tolerate this well occasionally, in small quantities. (As an aside, some major brands seem to have recently added dry-roasted nuts. I have been buying these and taking them to work with me. I do tolerate them better than a lot of brands of nuts I've bought in the past.)

Bacon grease

Bacon itself can be hard on the lungs. I like bacon but can't always eat it. Sometimes when my sons cook bacon and I don't feel up to eating bacon, I use the leftover grease to cook potatoes or organic noodles. I also used bacon grease once for making flat bread. I don't do this type of thing often. Bacon grease seems to be in the category of "very beneficial for me, but in limited quantities".

Corn oil

I tolerate corn oil okay occasionally in very limited quantities. I do not ever have this in my home for cooking with. I can occasionally have Fritos, which are basically made with corn, corn oil and salt. But I can't have too many of them. I actually eat Fritos "rarely" rather than "occasionally". It doesn't take much for corn oil to start bothering me.

Peanut oil

I do my best to avoid peanut oil entirely. It is hard to avoid and is very common in snack items. (Read labels, read labels, read labels!) I grew up in Georgia, which is probably the peanut capital of the world, so peanut oil is very common here. It took a very long time for me to realize it was an issue. I find that I pretty quickly feel sluggish, fuzzy-brained, unwell and just 'not right' when I eat even a little peanut oil. Since I spent most of my life feeling kind of sluggish and unwell and just not right, I really had no idea for a very long time that it was possible to feel any different. The effect peanut oil had on me went unnoticed until I was in my forties. Since it doesn't cause me to be blatantly outright sick, it was difficult to conclude that I should try giving it up. It took a long time for me to slowly improve after I began doing my best to avoid it. The effect is subtle and hard to quantify. After three years of avoiding peanuts and peanut oil, my son was able to resume eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on occasion. I do that rarely. I am still not as well as he is.

NOTE:
I was recently told that peanuts do not contain arachidonic acid, that, instead, they contain arachidic acid. I will investigate this further at some point. Regardless of the details of the exact chemical makeup of peanuts and peanut oil, it remains a fact that giving up peanuts and peanut oil for a substantial period of time and continuing to limit the consumption of peanut products has been beneficial to me and my son. I chose to give up peanuts and peanut oil well before I had ever heard of arachidonic acid. My decision was based on how it was effecting me. I still recommend that anyone with CF consider giving these up for a time to see if it helps them.

Canola Oil

I do very poorly with Canola oil. I try to very strictly avoid it. I never have this in my home as a cooking oil.

Soybean oil

This is an oil I try to avoid. It's in a lot of snacks and I probably still get some exposure. I never have this in my home as a cooking oil.

Lard

When we began making flat bread, I did buy lard. The flat bread recipe we developed was based on a tortilla recipe. Tortillas are traditionally made with lard. My son and I each ate one piece of flat bread made with lard and promptly threw out the remain flat bread we had cooked, plus what was in the pan still cooking, the uncooked dough still in the mixing bowl, and the lard in the fridge. We felt pretty awful for the rest of the day -- similar to that sluggish, just not right feeling I get with peanut oil only more obvious.