Cooking with Coconut Oil

Many people consider coconut oil to be the black sheep in the cooking oil family. Coconut oil did not earn this reputation - it was just a victim of vicious lies and rumors (probably started by a vindictive cousin like walnut oil!). There are several good reasons to give coconut oil another chance and let it back into your kitchen cabinet.

Coconut oil is a saturated fat. We are told to avoid or limit saturated fats as much as possible. That warning refers to animal fats, however, not coconut oil. The reason is that animal fats are LONG CHAIN fatty acids, while coconut oil contains SHORT and MEDIUM CHAIN fatty acids. They are different and have a different effect on your body and your metabolism.

So yes it is true that coconut oil is a saturated fat, but not one you should necessarily avoid. Saturated fats (of all kinds) are more stable during the cooking process. This means that when cooked, less lipid peroxides are formed. (Lipid peroxides are toxins, like free radicals). Compared to an unsaturated fat that is commonly used for cooking – canola oil – coconut oil produces just a fourth of the lipid peroxides. Why is this important? Lipid peroxides are toxic and can lead to diseases like cancer. They also make your skin age faster, similar to the effect of sun exposure.

Going back to its effect on metabolism, since coconut oil is made up mostly of short and medium chain fatty acids, it is given preferential treatment by your liver for burning. In other words, it can actually help you burn fat. Here is a quote from the book The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, "[Short and medium chain fatty acids] have actually been shown to promote weight loss by increasing the burning of calories (thermogenesis); some research suggests that they lower cholesterol as well".

Unsaturated fats, like olive oil, are still important. These oils, however, are better suited for salad dressing rather than being exposed to heat.

BE SURE YOU GET VIRGIN COCONUT OIL. Everything stated above refers to virgin coconut oil (that can be purchased at a Whole Foods store or similar). Hydrogenated coconut oil is very, very bad for you and is usually found in processed foods.

Finally, it is recommended that no matter what type of fat you choose to use, it should only make up about 30% of your total daily caloric intake.

Here is more interesting info on coconut oil and fats in general - http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil/. This guy states it better than I ever could.