Coconut oil is great!

londoner2009

I paid £1.68 in Tesco but that is for refined oil - cold pressed, organic costs a lot more.

robb192002

skypie123 wrote: »

Has anyone lost weight while using this? What benefits have you noticed?

According to my Mum, she read that coconut oil has an ingredient that speeds up your metabolism.She also said that its better to use olive oil just in salads, as heating it when frying changes its chemical properties for the worse. Coconut oil doesnt have that problem apparently. I have to say that she has lost weight since she started using it for frying regularly. The first benefit I noticed was that I did feel full up after eating just a couple slices of bacon and sausages fried in coconut oil.

veronarona

robb192002 wrote: »

heating it when frying changes its chemical properties for the worse. Coconut oil doesnt have that problem apparently.

That's what I understand too.

I have to say that she has lost weight since she started using it for frying regularly. The first benefit I noticed was that I did feel full up after eating just a couple slices of bacon and sausages fried in coconut oil.

If that isn't an inspiration to me to get out my tub, I don't know what would be!

veronarona

Lotus-eater

robb192002 wrote: »

She also said that its better to use olive oil just in salads, as heating it when frying changes its chemical properties for the worse.

I've heard this as well and from research, I don't believe it's true, but I'm happy to read a study that shows it is?

Just run across this thread, coconut oil seems very interesting.

There_Goes_Trouble

Finally bought some today!!

OK so it's only the cheap stuff from the asian supermarket, but I really need to test it before I buy the expensive stuff and although I know it's not the best you can get, it's better than a lot of the other cr*p I've used on my skin over the years!! The bottle says 'pure' but not 'virgin' or 'cold pressed' so I know it's probably quite heavily refined.

Anyway, I have got a date on Thursday (first in many years!!) so I'm not going to use it on my face until after then, just in case I react (I can be sensitive to some things and can't predict exactly what!) so in the mean time I will try it as a body moisturiser and on my hair.

I do however have a couple of daft questions which I should know the answers to having read the whole of this thread, but I don't:

1) Do I have to keep it in the fridge since it is a food product?
2) If I put it on my hair does that mean I can't use heat stylers such as straighteners? (I don't wash my hair everyday but do 'iron out' kinks in the morning - don't want to fry my hair!)
3) Is it worth bothering to take the cheap stuff orally? I'm sure it's food grade since it was on the shelf with all the cooking oils, but it's probably quite heavily refined since it was only cheap.

veronarona

There_Goes_Trouble wrote: »

I'm not going to use it on my face until after then, just in case I react (I can be sensitive to some things and can't predict exactly what!) so in the mean time I will try it as a body moisturiser and on my hair.

1) Do I have to keep it in the fridge since it is a food product?

3) Is it worth bothering to take the cheap stuff orally? I'm sure it's food grade since it was on the shelf with all the cooking oils, but it's probably quite heavily refined since it was only cheap.

It's very oily on skin, so you are wise to wait until you've got time to yourself before trying it.

Use it for shallow frying if you don't mind foods tasting of coconut. It's probably not so beneficial dropped into tea/coffee like some do in order to take their daily dose.

I'd keep it in the fridge, there's always a danger of it going slightly rancid if it's kept in a warm room for any length of time. That means it will be rock solid and you'll need to shave some off and warm it to use on skin or hair.

That's the opinion of a non-expert!!!

veronarona

There_Goes_Trouble

Thanks for that.

I've used it instead of lip salve last night with no problem so it'll probably be ok on my face, but I'm not going to risk it till the weekend. I've currently got some on my hair, I read further back in the thread that someone used it as a pre-wash treatment so I'm trying that tonight. I used some as a body moisturiser last ngiht and it was OK. It actually doesn't seem that oily to be honest, maybe the cheap stuff is less oily than the 'proper' stuff.

jenniewb

Just wanted to clarify the statements made about co!!!! oils not becomming bad for you when you cook with them:
The fact is with ALL oils, they have the potential when heated to become bad for you, to turn from healthy unsaturated fats to trans fats (which have no health benefit at all and are actually harmful).

The difference is that different oils do this at different temperatures but they all do this, no oil is safe from this, its a bit like saying "this type of bread doesn't go brown when you toast it", they all do. Its what they do. (Wiki or find a medical journal that states otherwise, I'll edit my statement)

Just don't want people to think that frying with this stuff or using it as oppose to other oils will be a get-out-clause. It wont be.

There are a few sites which list the smoking points of different oils and you can see some oils have higher smoking points then others and so are better to cook with, but then you have to weigh this up with the amount of trans fats or other stuff already within the oils, a smoking point isn't a good way of seeing if it has less trans fats when being cooked as oils can start off with different qualities to begin with, but they can help you see how lower the temperature needs to be to have the oils qualities changed to become trans fats.

So all in all, although coconut oil is better for you to cook with then many other oils (such as palm oil or butter or even extra virgin oilive oil) it isn't totally safe and will still have toxins when heated highly or to cooking temperatures just like all the others.

A few sites that may help are:

http://www.healthcastle.com/cooking-oils.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CookingOilTypes.htm

purplephoenix85

I tend to stay away from eating foods containing coconuts/coconut oil, but beauty-wise, I do swear by the coconut body lotion from Superdrug for my skin. It works wonders on my eczema and dry skin

UtopiaOpera

Hey! Shame on you!!! Shame on you MSE Forum members for recommending the 10X more expensive virgin coconut oil. lol. Check this blog post out: h.t.t.p://180degreehealth.com/2010/11/refined-coconut-oil.html

I've been eating 3 teaspoons a day after each meal since Tuesday. The brand is KCT 100% Coconut oil. It is refined but it isn't hydrogenated or bleached. It just means that it's boiled in a pot of water and then the oil is skimmed off. But seeing as one of the revered qualities of coconut oil is that it is not damaged or changed by heat, then it's qualities aren't lost.

I just noticed half and hour ago that my hair felt really soft, looked in the mirror and my skin looks great too... Let's see if it continues.