The Orthodox Church's guidelines for fasting are based on rules used by monastics and are applied differently from church to church, locale to locale, even person to person. Because of this variability, questions often arise around what is permissible and what is not. One such question about oil in an Orthodox Facebook group recently garnered the usual opposing arguments—1) at the time and place of the canons' composing, olive oil was the only oil available, therefore, one ought to abstain from all oil, and 2) fasting shouldn't be about slavish legalism; don't worry so much about every jot and tittle.
Steve Robinson wrote this wise reply:
Funny how this works: People who tend to be "strict with the canons" will say regarding oil, "The SPIRIT of the canon would mean NO oil at all", but if someone appeals to the "spirit of the canon to RELAX a "rule", they will cry "FOUL!".... The canons are like the scripture: they need interpreting by the Church and "the Church" has not universally declared coconut oil to be forbidden either in reality or in spirit. What it HAS declared universally is that strictness or laxity can both be signs of spiritual disease that needs to be addressed by a spiritual guide. [emphasis mine]
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