Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis has introduced her viewers to many good recipes over the years, but there’s one ingredient her dishes will never contain.

Giada De Laurentiis is apparently not alone. According to a 2026 survey by The Harris Poll and Instacart published on Allrecipes, 16% of American grocery shoppers don’t like coconut. Coconut can be a polarizing ingredient for its taste, but also for its health claims. De Laurentiis may be onto something in avoiding the fruit, because despite a popular belief that it might be beneficial for heart health, coconut oil is very high in saturated fat. Though it has been suggested that coconut oil can raise the “good” type of cholesterol, its reputation for being heart healthy doesn’t have much scientific backing.

While coconut is consumed in many iterations, from tropical drinks like piña coladas to riffs on classic desserts like four-ingredient coconut cake, it is also used as a cooking fat. De Laurentiis skips the coconut oil and instead leans into her Italian roots for go-to cooking fats like extra virgin olive oil or even butter. If you’d like to stick to Giada-approved pantry ingredients and forego the coconut as well, make sure to stock up on other colorful ingredients instead like canned tomatoes, fig jam, Calabrian chili paste, and dried pasta.