Agreed pretty much across the board, to avoid dangerous fats, eliminate processed foods. Just start there. It is that simple. Starting there, and using whole foods, you've got many choices. Knowing where your food is sourced, less hands involved, you will find pure, less processed products. Many of the diets studied around the world that dcarch refers to are most likely sourced close to home. Probably eating local produce and using oils processed nearby? A much different diet than vegetable oils here. Those that use olive oils know how to cook with them. A low heat or med heat is fine using olive oil. Save the first pressing for dressings or a drizzle. A bit of heat will change the fresh flavor so save it for later off heat. The second pressing is lighter in flavor and color and better for cooking. Can handle a higher heat. Really depends on your cooking style. If you blast your veggies with high heat, most oils will burn and smoke. My coconut oils are always solid. I warm them and add other oils to keep it fluid. I rarely use high heat for anything but water to boil. And baking bread. A slow and low saute just needs a tbsp or less for a mirepoix and then broth to steam tender veggies or a slow roasting in the oven with even less oil. I just don't buy into the 'capsule on-line' supplement oils and their health claims. Raw and fresh food oils are in many things. Cold pressed/expeller oils are so easily available that it doesn't make sense to buy oils that use heat processed and chemically treated extraction methods. Use real butter over the cheap spreads like margarine and veg oils. Even some butter tastes weird and rancid. Buy quality organic and just use less. Research the source, buy local/fresh. Or a brand that you and others trust. It really does taste so much better. We don't use that much butter but have it in the freezer. We prefer good olive oils infused with herbs and garlic for fresh warm bread. Butter with eggs and toast or waffles with maple syrup. Just personal preference. A cod/fish cake, crab cake, i have to use good butter. I like the flavor for some things. No reason to change the way you cook completely and avoid oils. Or using gobs of butter on everything more out of habit rather than flavor.

I finally made a cake with the Meyer Lemons that fell from my tree. Grainlady, I thought I had coconut oil but I didn't. I looked where I normally shop and wasn't happy with what they had so I wound up using the quick lemon cake recipe that Shambo posted and my lightest, virtually flavorless, olive oil. I still think that the slight coconut flavor of coconut oil with the lemon would be great and I have put it on my phone shopping list. The spicy lime mayo you posted is definitely something we would love and I just looked at their website and one of my local supermarkets sells it, so it's on the list too. Thanks for your help. Sherrmann, coconut oil has been controversial, but from all the reading I've done, I feel it is healthy. We all have to make our own decisions on lots of foods and I will be quick to admit that I often feel there is conflicting research on all sorts of foods. I love butter too, but since my very serious heart surgery I have to be careful about how much I use. Coconut oil has no cholesterol and no sodium and butter is very high in cholesterol. I certainly do eat some butter, but it's in my best interest to limit it which is why my original question was to ask what to substitute for some of the butter. I'm sure this recipe would be fabulously wonderful with the original amount of butter. Lee

The recipe you posted will have a nice golden crust with that amount of sugar, and that may be the reason for that amount. The recipe would also work for making sweet rolls. Sometimes recipes say one amount of sugar for loaves with additional sugar for making the dough into sweet rolls. The next time you try the recipe see if you like it better with 3 T. of sugar. Anywhere between 1/2 T. to 1 T. per cup of flour will work well. If you reduce the sugar and don't like the pale crust color, just substitute part or all of the sugar with honey, which browns more than sugar. FYI: Two tablespoons of sugar per cup of flour is about the maximum amount of sugar that you can add without major gluten damage. So too much sugar is not a good thing either. -Grainlady

WOW!!! What's old is new again..... ;-) dian57, your recipe looks great! I have a new-and-improved add-in choice since this thread - it's High-Maize Resistant Starch. High-Maize would be a good substitute for wheat germ (measure-for-measure) in the Cornell Bread Recipe. Wheat germ is unnecessary in the Cornell Bread Recipe IF you use at least a portion of freshly-milled whole wheat flour in the recipe to begin with...fresh wheat germ is already available in whole wheat flour. Milling your own flour will also assure the highest amount of nutrients from the wheat. This is why I find it amazing the Cornell Recipe didn't use whole wheat flour in the first place. The nutrients in freshly-milled whole wheat flour begin to degrade within 3-hours of milling, and the wheat germ oil oxidizes quickly. You will find wheat germ purchased as an individual ingredient is basically a rancid product - which means it's a free-radical, which is destructive to the body. The rancidity in the wheat germ purchased commercially is covered by the toasting they do to the raw germ. Rancid oils don't have to smell rancid to BE rancid. If they smell rancid, then they have been rancid for a VERY long time. If you want to add wheat germ to a recipe, add freshly-milled whole wheat flour - it's in there... I add High-Maize Resistant Starch to all my recipes for baked goods anymore. Here's a bit of information from King Arthur Flour: -Natural dietary fiber is derived from corn. It's an easy solution for adding fiber to your gluten-free diet. -One serving of Hi-maize (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) contains 6g of non-soluble dietary fiber: about 20% to 25% of your suggested daily requirement. -Substitute for up to 1/4 to 1/3 the flour in your baked goods; adjust up or down to taste. -Add to soups, sauces, and smoothies. -Wheat-free, soy-free, nut-free blend is packed in a dedicated gluten-free facility. King Arthur - 12-ounces for $6.95. I buy High-Maize 5-in-1 Fiber from Honeyville Grain. $18.49 for 5-pounds. http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/hi-maize5-in-1-fiber.aspx Here's what Honeyville Grain has to say about Hi-Maize: Hi-maize has some real health benefits. Hi-maize is lower in calories than the flour it replaces. Hi-maize delivers between 2-l kilocalories/gram while flour delivers 4 kilocalories/gram. Hi-maize also helps your body burn more fat and may lead to lower fat accumulation. Hi-maize helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels in healthy individuals because Hi-maize increases insulin sensitivity in healthy people. Hi-maize helps balance your energy in the hours following a meal. It has a lower impact in blood sugar and blood insulin than the flour it replaces. For individuals following a "carbohydrate-control" diet, it lowers the "net" or digestible carbohydrates in foods. Hi-maize promotes digestive health. The fiber in Hi-maize is fermented within the large intestine and encourages the growth of friendly bacteria (a "prebiotic" fiber). It reduces harmful compounds such as ammonia, while producing beneficial compounds such as short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, the preferred fuel for colon cells. Hi-maize is ideal for use in a gluten-free diet. Hi-maize is well tolerated. It is slowly fermented and does not produce the uncomfortable digestive side effects sometimes found with fiber. I add a heaping tablespoon to my morning smoothie (homemade kefir, 100% fruit juice, flaxmeal, High-Maize and a nutritional supplement. I also substitute up to 15-20 percent of the flour in a recipe with High-Maize. Another good substitute for wheat germ in the Cornell recipe is amaranth (I believe I mentioned it above in an earlier post). You could add whole amaranth seeds or amaranth flour (amaranth is so tiny it needs to be milled in a seed mill or in a coffee/spice mill). The seeds look like golden poppy seeds and I like to add amaranth seeds to quick breads. Amaranth flour is high in protein, and protein is why wheat germ is used in the recipe. The fiber content of amaranth is three times that of wheat, plus good amounts of iron and calcium. Amaranth also contains vitamin E (also found in wheat germ). Amaranth is easy to digest. The Cornell Bread Recipe was a good start to improving nutrition, fiber and protein in bread, but there are a lot of other things you can add to your recipes way BEYOND what was used in this "old science" recipe. -Grainlady