[Sca-cooks] Coconut Oil

[Lorenz Wieland]

Samrah wrote:
> If memory serves, coconut oil is extremely effective at cloging the
> pores in skin and the arteries in hearts. (I studied esthetics for
> several years, and oils that clog the pores, clog the arteries.) I
> must apologize, I can't find the documentation for this at this
> point, but I am sure coconut is on the "bad oil" list.

Unfortunately, science is making things complicated again, and it's now much
more difficult to separate fats into "good" and "bad" categories as readily.

Hydrogenated coconut oil does increase serum cholesterol levels, just as all
other hydrogenated fats do.  However, "virgin" coconut oil, while still
being 92% saturated, may not be as bad for you as previously thought.   The
medium-chain triglycerides that comprise much of the fat in coconut oil seem
to have some positive health effects, in addition to not raising
cholesterol.

Tropical societies who get most of the fat in their diet from coconut and/or
palm oils do tend to have very low incidence of heart disease.  There was
also a deliberate campaign of really bad science in the 50s and 60s by the
U.S. soy industry to undermine the tropical oils, since the soy farmers saw
these cheap imports as a direct threat to their industry.

Here's a few decently objective articles on the subject:

http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/hegde/coconut.htm
http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/coconut_oil.html

-Lorenz