coconut oil

is coconut oil better to use then other cooking oils and shoull it replace the use of butter on food or toast

[claytex]

I have found two sides to coconut oil .. one  says its healthy... the other says its very unhealthy.. I did find on a Mayo Clinics site that coconut oil contains more saturated fats than either lard or butter and that it contributes to cardiovascular disease.. dunno.. guess one can find any answer he or she would like to find on here... Claytex

[gymdandee]

http://www.coconutoil.com/research.htm

[teuthida]

LOL, yes because a coconut oil website isn't going to have bias information on the subject...  I would totally disregard any of the information on that website as snake-oil salesmanship and look to studies such as the ones claytex recommended.

[gymdandee]

http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil/

From Dr. Douglass
a combination of several vegetable oils that offers a nice balance of omega-3s, omega-6s––including Evening Primrose Oil––and omega-9s, plus coconut oil and a little bit of vitamin E. I recommend 2 to 3 tablespoons per day.

                        The margarine meltdown: What you should do now

When reporters weave their college- and media-induced references to "low-fat, healthy foods" into their articles, I can excuse it on the grounds that reporters aren't expected to be experts in everything they report on. But when it comes to the FDA commissioner and a doctor who has written "more than 60 books on nutrition, fitness, and performance," we should expect to get something informative and intelligent. In this case, we get neither.

"Trans fats can no longer lurk, hidden, in our food choices," FDA commissioner Mark McClellan told reporters. Oh, they have been "lurking and hiding" there, have they? But, like rats in a sewer, the FDA didn't know they were there. If you believe this propaganda, then margarine has eaten your brain away.

McClellan's announcement came on the heels of a new government mandate that all food manufacturers begin labeling the trans-fat content of foods by 2006.

But what are people supposed to do in the meantime? Well, the first step is to know the enemy. Trans fats come from unsaturated vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated. So, knowing that, "corn, sunflower and soybean oils are examples of vegetable oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids--the kind…to avoid," reports Sue Schwendener of Reuters Health. Sue is right on target and scores 100. The "author of 60 books" scored a 30:

"If you were to rank all the oils that are best to cook with, certainly the two or three that rank highest would be canola, olive and perhaps safflower oil," said Dr. Frederick Hatfield, president of the International Sports Sciences Association and the author of those 60 books on fitness and nutrition.

Tell me, Fred, do you read your own books? You should know that canola oil is one of the worst free-radical-forming offenders when it's heated. And there's nothing "perhaps" about safflower oil--don't use it for cooking.

One step forward, two steps back

At least the American Dietetic Association has reversed itself somewhat: "I would put olive and flaxseed oil toward the top, and going on down the list: canola, peanut, soybean, safflower, sunflower," the ADA's nutritionist Lola O'Rourke said. Let's make this clear: Do not to use canola, peanut, soybean, safflower, or sunflower oil for cooking.

But then Lola really falls into the old, discredited vegetable oil can: "…while vegetable oils are preferable to animal fats, quantity consumed still needs to be limited. More is not always better." Vegetable oils are NOT preferable to animal fats, and neither monounsaturated oils (olive oil) nor animal fat need to be limited in the diet. When are we going to put that myth to rest?

Although the gods of the disinformation machine have finally decided to reveal what has been common knowledge in nutritional biochemistry for four decades, i.e., trans fats have been ruining the health of the American people, the bad advice they continue putting out will not improve things.

The best options for cooking are butter and the saturated oils, coconut and palm oil.
They were on the way to eliminating butter  but the trans fat revelations have busted the margarine mavens.
                                        Reference:

"Right cooking oil key to avoiding trans fats," Reuters Health News, 11/20/03

[madtram]

My perspective as a post-grad biochem student is that it's even more complex.  What is clear is no to hydrogenated fats, the addition of hydrogens to polyunsaturated fats, (PUFAs), tricks the body into increasing bad, (LDL) cholesterol carriers & decreasing good, (HDL) carriers.

Also clear is that undoctored, expeller, (as opposed to solvent), extracted PUFAs are healthier than saturated fats.

  The absence of double bonds in fully saturated fats creates a rigid structure that does not allow for vital carrier proteins to pass through the cell membrane.

It's possible that the saturate fat in coconut oil behaves differently to the saturated fat in animal fats but good quality studies are hard to come by & most of the saturated fat studies have been done using animal fats.

All fats will be oxidized to some extent by heating so if you are going to fry, use oils with the highest smoke point & make sure your olive oil is stored in cool conditions.

The better option is to drizzle on olive oil after food has been lightly steamed.

IMO, Dr Mercola is not a reliable source of information as he is selling supplements & has a vested interest; often does not cite good quality clinical trials in support of his claims; has been found by the FDA to have made unsubstantiated claims for his supplements & has a close relationship with the Weston Price Foundation whose purpose is to advocate for increased consumption of animal products, (again without any good evidence for their theories).

[gymdandee]

Please don't get me started with the FDA! I've mentioned this before My son is the Principle
scientist with a major  Pharmaceutical company and deals extensively with the FDA
and the stories he tells is just incredible. To change the subject a question for you. Do you use none stick cookware like Teflon?

[madtram]

I agree with you about the weaknesses in the FDA, my major gripe with Mercola is his vested interest in promoting some products & his failure to cite what are accepted as the best available scientific studies for some of his claims.  

I also agree that pharmaceutical companies have an undue influence on the health agenda but that doesn't mean that alternative health practitioners are also not motivated by profit or that herbs & natural remedies are better or safer than pharmaceutical compounds, until they have been established to be so by good quality double or triple blind trials.

I think I also share your view that food & exercise are the best source of health & hope that I don't have to take any prescription meds any time soon.

No teflon or aluminum cookware in my home, only iron & steel pots.  It took me forever to locate a home espresso machine with a non-aluminum boiler & I only use aluminum free antipersperant, (which unfortunately doesn't work very well but I would rather be smelly than alzheimic).

We are learning more about what is truly healthful nutrition every day & I would like to think that many of the current lifestyle related diseases will prove to be preventable, within my life time.

I am always interested in hearing new ideas as many great discoveries started this way.

Best wishes.

[gymdandee]

Dr Mercola's reports are free originally when he started it cost him a fortune to run it so to offset the cost he sell supplements. When you go to the doctors they give you samples that the pharma. push on them. When you see the adds for prescription drugs and the side effects
it's scary. Don't get me wrong Pharma. drugs are needed I'm on rat poison (Warfarin) because I have 2 factors for clots prothrombin and lupus anticoagulant I've taken enormous amounts
of supplements to thin my blood but it was just impossible.

[james1278]

I have read in many places that eating 2tablespoons (or whatever you like) of coconut oil daily is very good for yr health.....true?? it contains Caprylic acid and lauric acid which are good for you?

Should or can you even eat coconut oil like that??

[whitemore55]

Really!!! I do not know about coconut oil. But i think the taste of coconut oil is not so good and it has another type of smell. When i will apply coconut oil i think i get the small.Is it really?