Tasty Banana Cookies and the Benefits of Coconut Oil for Cystic Fibrosis

Nutrition is an important issue for cystic fibrosis for a number of reasons: pancreatic issues can cause problems with weight maintenance and vitamin levels, and eventually pancreatic dysfunction could potentially lead to diabetes. Since digestive health correlates to lung health, it’s important to be careful of nutrition; at the same time, since CF patients need more calories than normal, it’s also important to have fun tasty foods that are healthy, especially for young kids.

My most recent discovery on nutrition related to CF came from a couple brown bananas that I had in my kitchen. I was debating what to do with them when I remembered a recipe I’d come across for banana cookies. So I looked it up in my bookmarks, and as I was reading over the ingredients, I noticed it called for coconut oil. I haven’t used coconut oil before so I read through the comments to see if anyone else asked about it. Sure enough, there were lots of comments on it - including a link to this article about the health benefits of coconut oil. Reading through it I was surprised to see that cystic fibrosis was listed as one of the diseases that can benefit from the oil.

It turns out that coconut oil has long been recognized for antifungal, antibiotic properties. Additionally, the fats in coconut oil are structured in such a way that they are fairly easy to break down, making it a great source of fat and calories for CF patients who have trouble with fat digestion. The article above goes into more detail on the numerous health advantages of coconut oil (and coconut milk, which contains coconut oil). The site also has another article on potential ways to incorporate coconut oil and milk into your diet, including mixing it into teas and smoothies, using it for baking, and Thai and Indian curries. Sounds pretty tasty to me!

I baked these cookies last week and was quite pleased with the results. They were pretty simple to make, and they have so many nutrition advantages: low carb/sugar, good protein from the almond meal, and of course the coconut oil. The hardest part for me was finding all the ingredients, because some are a bit unusual. I found almond meal at Trader Joe’s, and bought the coconut oil at Whole Foods. If you can’t find almond meal you can always grind up almonds in a food processor, and the recipe states that you can substitute olive oil for the coconut oil. If you do, you might want to add a splash of coconut milk (which is easier to find, usually in the ethnic section of grocery stores) to add in some of the nutritional benefits. I did not add the shredded coconut, and when the cookies first came out I thought they could use some more sweetness. Next time I might either add the shredded coconut or a bit of brown sugar (I have a sweet tooth), but the fact that they don’t have sugar added makes them great for diabetics. I also was happy to discover that the flavor improved after a day or two in the fridge. My husband was pretty happy with them too - they didn’t last very long!

Here’s the recipe (from 101 Cookbooks, a great site with healthy recipes):

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, warmed up just a bit so it isn’t solid (or alternately, olive oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt (I used regular salt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don’t worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet (I just greased regular baking sheets with a tiny bit of the coconut oil). Bake for 12 - 14 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies.