Coconut oil is great!

Gunna

I have done nothing but read read read about coconut oil and the benefits for the last 2 days lol has really inspired me to use it on both me and my partner, cooking,moisturising, the oil cleansing method etc.....so many uses and so many benefits am going to try some from ebay see how it is. Am actually excited lol i adore Jojoba but i also love coconut smell compared to Jojoba's burnt smell so if it does all the same moisturising things and conditioning things as Jojoba but you can cook with it, eat it, use as tanning oil-after tan and smell gorgeous it has to be a huge plus......also it is slightly cheaper than Jojoba and longer lasting(shelf life).
Thanks everyone that has posted i have found this topic very very interesting and have found all the comments so useful hopefully now i am a coconut convert lol.

VfM4meplse

I would reserve it for external use only. It's great at keeping skin and hair healthy - but there is far too much saturated fat in it to ingest in my opinion and is a fast track to raised cholesterol levels (it is the only oil that solidifies at room temperature). If constipation is a problem a spoonful of castor oil should do the trick.

Mercy

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I would reserve it for external use only. It's great at keeping skin and hair healthy - but there is far too much saturated fat in it to ingest in my opinion and is a fast track to raised cholesterol levels (it is the only oil that solidifies at room temperature). If constipation is a problem a spoonful of castor oil should do the trick.

That doesn't explain the hundreds of thousands of people (millions, even) who use it regularly to cook their food and are alive, fit and well, though, does it :rotfl:

It is full of MCTs which behave differently when digested than other fats.

It really is important to understand what you are talking about. Coconut oil cannot be lumped in with other oils or fats. It has no omega 6 or 3. Find me another oil without the dreaded omega 6?

Mx

~*Plushroom*~

I've been using coconut oil for about a month as regular moisturisers just weren't working (Dry skin+Excezma+allergies = huge problems!) and saw it in small 90g pots for £1.10 in my local chemists, and I have to say, it really is good. I'm having less problems with my excezma and it seems to be healing better and fading faster.

The little pot lasts me about 3 weeks and is a fraction of the cost of those 24 hour hydration lotions people always told me to use. Plus it has no smell which is great as it doesn't interfere with any perfume/body spray I'm wearing

Ted_Hutchinson

[Fathead the movie Perhaps this is where some here need to start to learn how they have been duped.

Omega 6 is the fat you really need to fear

arunadasi

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I would reserve it for external use only. It's great at keeping skin and hair healthy - but there is far too much saturated fat in it to ingest in my opinion and is a fast track to raised cholesterol levels (it is the only oil that solidifies at room temperature). If constipation is a problem a spoonful of castor oil should do the trick.

This is all nonsense, but I don't blame you for falling victim to the hype.

Two points:

Firstly:

"The dangers of saturated fat" is but a myth, one propogated by th emedia and started through a marketing campaign by the vegetable oil industry. It's not saturated fat you have to avoid, it's trans fats = hydrogenated vegetable oil. But nobody in the Food Standards Agency seems to be aware of this.

There are many scientists - as opposed to dieticians -- who have been campagning for years to get the saturated fats myth stopped, but the media don't listen and so the public goes along with the rubbish.

If you want to know what scientists say, check out the THINCS website (International Society of Cholesterol Sceptics).

For decades, enormous human and financial resources have been wasted on the cholesterol campaign, more promising research areas have been neglected, producers and manufacturers of animal food all over the world have suffered economically, and millions of healthy people have been frightened and badgered into eating a tedious and flavorless diet or into taking potentially dangerous drugs for the rest of their lives. As the scientific evidence in support of the cholesterol campaign is non-existent, we consider it important to stop it as soon as possible.

Also, Dr Barry Grove

In February 2009, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) launched a concerted campaign to get us all to reduce the amount of saturated fat — by which they mean animal fats and tropical oils – in our diets.
But not only the message, but also they way they delivered it, showed their total ignorance of the science and evidence published over the last decades. This shows that, in fact, it is not natural saturated fats that are the problem, it is the unnatural processed polyunsaturated vegetable cooking oils and margarines.

Secondly:

The saturated fat in coconut oil is quite different to other saturated fats. I won't go into the chemical composition here, suffice it to say that it is almost identical to Mother's Milk and is practically the healthiest oil on earth. It is easily digested and provides quick energy, which is why the England Rugby Team has bene using it for a couple of years! Do a bit of research yourself and you will see.

Coconut oil has been used by tropical populations for thousands of years. These populations have always been disease free, have healthy hearts, and are not given to obesity -- until they change their diet because of the anti-sat-fat campaign and switch to so-called "healthy" fats and trans fats.
THINC!!!!!!

As far as my own experiences with coconut oil are concerned, I recently posted about then on this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21421999&postcount=1923

arunadasi

If you want the science behind coconut oil, here's an article by Dr Mary Enig, who is an internationally respected lipid scientist.
Mary Enig Ph.D. on the Effects of Coconut Oil on Serum Cholesterol Levels and HDLs

Enig also referred to epidemiological studies done by Kaunitz and Dayrit (1992) on coconut eating societies who found that "available population studies show that dietary coconut oil does not lead to high serum cholesterol nor to high coronary heart disease.." It is noteworthy that hydrogenated coconut oil was not consumed by these coconut eating societies; they only consumed natural coconut oil.

So go ahead everyone, enjoy your coconut oil without a bad conscience; it's the best thing you can do for your health!

arunadasi

Ted_Hutchinson wrote: »

[Fathead the movie Perhaps this is where some here need to start to learn how they have been duped.

Omega 6 is the fat you really need to fear

The link takes us to a lot of youtube videos about fat... this one says it all in a quickly digested way! Nice to see Sally Fallon up there... I have corresponded with her and she published a letter of mine in one of their journals!

I am almost resigned to reading the saturated fat myth in the papers, but I got a shock this week. I was in a hurry and needed single cream, so I grabbed a small tub which was on the dairy shelf and took it home. There my son alerted me to the label: it was not cream at all, but hydrogenated vegetable oil, ie trans fats! Those are the fats I have avoided like poison all these years, and there I was falling for the con of passing it off as single cream! I was furious, to say the least. Talk about deceptive labelling!

Edited to add: The label actually said "Single" on it so I assumed it was single cream. That is why it is so deceptive!

Ted_Hutchinson

Coconut oil Ketones Alzheimer'sIn the same way that Medium Chain Triglycerides are essential for the developing brain (human breast milk is a good source of MCT) so it's the ideal fuel for damaged brains. (Alzheimer's Parkinsons) or even for those who think it's a smart idea to delay the onset of these conditions for as long as possible. Coconut oil is roughly 50~60% MCT.

Yes I agree it's frankly appalling that anything sold as food is allowed to contain any transfat. However it's probably worse than you imagine as there are non trans fat hydrogenated margarines/vegetable oils that contain what is basically a mirror image of Vitamin K a sort of anti vitamin called dihydro-vitamin K1 that actually, because it's not a "NATURALLY" occurring vitamin isn't used in the same way as the naturally occurring form and inhibits the absorption of the natural form.

arunadasi

I edited my last post to add an important bit of info re the "cream" I bought!