Cooking Coconut Oil?

renegade

Any ideas who sells this product, thought it may be healthier for me as I have high Cholestrol.

Nada666

Supermarkets. Grocers. Delicatessens. Dispensaries.

Haffiana

You can buy coconut oil in 500g jars from most Asian and Afro-Caribbean shops for about £2. KTC brand. Ignore all the hype about it needing to be virgin oil - it doesn't. KTC is a refined oil - not bleached and deodorised, but simply refined, just as most cooking oil is refined.

The properties of coconut oil are due to the unusual nature of the fatty acids - these are different from most other oils, and this is what causes coconut oil to be solid at room temperature, and also to have a very light, non-greasy texture and taste. I can't say whether it will benefit your cholesterol levels - it certainly shouldn't make them worse.

And remember, if anyone starts trying to persuade you that only (extremely expensive) virgin oil is any good (and not surprisingly all the websites that say so are selling the stuff!) that eating normal coconut oil and a small square of coconut will give you all the ingredients of virgin coconut oil.

gardengull

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/coconut-oil-healthy_n_5167057.html

Natural coconut oil is made of 90 percent saturated fat (butter, a distant second, contains a comparatively puny 64 percent saturated fat), but the kind of saturated fat matters just as much as the amount. About half of virgin coconut oil's saturated fat is lauric acid, a medium-chain triglyceride that turns out to have a number of health-promoting properties, including the ability to improve levels of "good" HDL cholesterol. People can also more easily digest medium-chain triglycerides and convert them to energy, according to The Wall Street Journal, making coconut oil a good choice for athletes. That said, because it's so high in saturated fat, even the purest, most natural coconut oil could be problematic for longterm heart health, according to a Harvard nutrition professor.

"Most of the research so far has consisted of short-term studies to examine its effect on cholesterol levels. We don't really know how coconut oil affects heart disease," wrote Walter C. Willett, M.D., chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School for Public Health, in a newsletter. "And I don't think coconut oil is as healthful as vegetable oils like olive oil and soybean oil, which are mainly unsaturated fat and therefore both lower LDL and increase HDL."

Kirkpatrick herself cooks with coconut oil about once a week for taste, but is hesitant to use any more than that until there's more research. "I really stick with olive oil," she says. "It's not as sexy, but there are so many more studies about its benefits."

stephen77

renegade wrote: »

Any ideas who sells this product, thought it may be healthier for me as I have high Cholestrol.

When you say "cooking". Coconut has a low smoke point, so you would not want to fry in it.

NigeWick

stephen77 wrote: »

When you say "cooking". Coconut has a low smoke point, so you would not want to fry in it.

Incorrect. Coconut oil has a high smoke point and is quite good for frying. Lard also has a high smoke point and that from naturally fed animals is preferred to those that eat grains.

As to Cholesterol, we need the stuff to survive. "High cholesterol" is not an indicator that one is liable to heart disease. It is the ratios between the LDL, HDL and triglycerides that are more likely to show the inclination. Have a read of this for some good information on the subject. Low cholesterol in older people is actually an indicator that they are more likely to die of other causes. There is evidence to show that lowering cholesterol does not extend life at all.

Haffiana

In addition, the evidence is finally becoming mainstream that saturated fat is also not actually as bad for you as everyone has assumed. I say 'assumed', because the scientific evidence -from cardiologists rather than the Daily Mail and its ilk - has been there for decades but has been ignored. It is still being ignored by most so-called nutritionists - I suppose the alternative is to actually do some study instead of repeating the same old comfortable mantras.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christiane-northrup/saturated-fat_b_4914235.html

jemb

£2.60 odd in tesco for a bit tub

SlowCooker

Haffiana wrote: »

You can buy coconut oil in 500g jars from most Asian and Afro-Caribbean shops for about £2. KTC brand. Ignore all the hype about it needing to be virgin oil - it doesn't. KTC is a refined oil - not bleached and deodorised, but simply refined, just as most cooking oil is refined.

The properties of coconut oil are due to the unusual nature of the fatty acids - these are different from most other oils, and this is what causes coconut oil to be solid at room temperature, and also to have a very light, non-greasy texture and taste. I can't say whether it will benefit your cholesterol levels - it certainly shouldn't make them worse.

And remember, if anyone starts trying to persuade you that only (extremely expensive) virgin oil is any good (and not surprisingly all the websites that say so are selling the stuff!) that eating normal coconut oil and a small square of coconut will give you all the ingredients of virgin coconut oil.

I'm not sure about the difference in health benefits, but there's a huge difference in flavour between the cheap stuff and the virgin oil. I've bought KTC before and honestly I wouldn't use it for cooking. Having said that, you must really like coconut to enjoy the virgin oil because the smell of coconut in it is strong (and for me amazing). Of course, when cooked with it, the smell and flavour won't be as strong, but they would be lovely still.

I buy Biona Organic Raw Virgin Coconut Oil from Amazon and health stores.

Edwardia

I tried cooking with coconut oil and I just didn't like everything tasting of coconut eg fried eggs eww. Makes great body moisturiser and makeup remover.

Haffiana

Interesting. I find that KTC is only very faintly coconut scented, and that it doesn't come through in cooking at all. It is an excellent oil for browning meat/chicken as it has such a high smoke point, and as I said, I find it to have a non-greasy texture and a pleasant, neutral flavour.