Coconut Conundrum

I suspect many of you are under the assumption that coconut oil is bad for you.  Well I’m here to tell you why this long held assumption of yours is wrong.

Not that I blame you for thinking this way.  After all, coconut oil is loaded with saturated fat – a fat that’s long been derided as the worst kind of fat – and coconut oil is frequently used in the production of pastries, candies, and cakes.

While true, coconut oil is loaded with saturated fat – a whopping 92 percent of it is saturated – it’s this saturated fat that makes it so good to cook with.  That’s right:  The fact that it contains saturated fat is what makes it good.  This may seem counterintuitive, but let me explain why it’s healthy.

See, other oils that have high amounts of unsaturated fats oxidize when they’re heated.  This oxidation process is what contributes to health maladies like obesity, free radical formation, and other health ills.  The heating process changes its chemical make-up and how the body metabolizes it.

But because coconut oil is made up of medium chain fatty acids (not all saturated fats are made up of these), they are absorbed by the body better and are used more efficiently once they’re absorbed.  For instance, instead of fat being used for storage, the body uses medium chain fatty acids for energy expenditure.

You don’t have to take my word for it, though.  Studies abound on how healthy coconut oil is.  One such study looked at the health effects of mice fed diets high in coconut oil compared to mice fed diets high in animal fat (lard).  While both groups gained weight (mainly due to the fact that they were fed diets high in calories), the coconut oil rats gained less weight and showed less resistance to insulin, making it an ideal oil for people with diabetes (in fact the study was published in the journal Diabetes).

Aside from what it can do for your waist and blood-sugar ratios, saturated fats are also great for the skin, purifying it and providing it with an extra glow.  It also purifies the skin of foods, particularly foods often poisoned with food-borne diseases.

According to a study published in the Journal of Food Science,when Chinese researchers combined coconut oil with various binding agents, it was able to detoxify various food-borne diseases, like E.Coli, Bacillus subtilus, and Staphylococcus aureus.  Researchers believe coconut oil’s cleansing is due its high amounts of monolaurin.  Monolaurin is one of many extracts found in coconut oil, an extract with antimicrobial properties.

So, if it’s not coconut oil, then what does make pastries and candies so fattening?  The real nutritional nightmare is hydrogenation.  This is what creates trans fatty acids, and this is the thing that’s been contributing to weight gain more than anything else, not saturated fat. 
So, go ahead and cook with coconut oil.  Of course, I prefer things being consumed raw over cooked, but if you’re going to cook with any oil, coconut oil’s the best.  The best of the best, though, is organic virgin coconut oil, as it is the least processed of them all.  Any truly organic coconut oil will have a distinct coconut aroma when you give it a whiff.

This is not to suggest that olive oil is somehow “bad” to cook with.  It’s still good, but olive oil is best when it’s not cooked, like when it’s used in salad dressings, for instance.

Sources
sciencedaily.com
associatedcontent.com
littleabout.com
coconutoil.com
products.mercola.com
en.wikipedia.org