Myth: Coconut Oil is Healthy

Let me start off by letting you all know I am of Fijian descent (Fijian/South Asian to be exact).  Now no one loves some coconut oil more than Polynesian folks...mmmhmm.  We love that stuff...FOR PHYSICAL USE!!! 

Growing up I have seen it used for massage, face, and most popular for the hair.  As a beauty tip, honestly it seems to work wonders for moisturizing,  and keeping a lucious mane.

Having said all that, coconut itself is delicious.  The coconut meat, water, all is tasty, great and relatively healthy.  Nowadays coconut has become so mainstream, I cannot even detail all the many food products that exist. It's exciting (I really love coconut) because the Northern hemisphere now realizes its greatness. As a Vancouverite, people relish in food trends,  so I really wanted to bring this up for all you trendy eaters...as one of the latest and greatest is cooking with coconut oil. 

To avoid confusion,  let me just make clear we are only discussing coconut oil, not the other wonderful coconut products;  and only referring to it here strictly for the purpose of consumption.

Stop thinking that coconut oil is a healthy alternative to other fats.  Trend or not, we should be weary of switching our way of cooking without examining it closely.  Yes, there are lots of things that are "unhealthy" but we use in moderation,  including full fat coconut milk. However,  ask yourself, "would I have coconut milk curry daily?"  The answer is probably no...so then why are you throwing out your olive or canola oil?

The truth is all fats should be used sparingly but when using it, it's the type of fatty acids in an oil/fats profile we should be looking at.  The general rule is: the more unsaturated fats and less cholesterol and saturated fats, the better.  Most animal fats are highly saturated,  which people already know.  The confusion, I assume, arises thinking all plant oils are unsaturated,  which is simply untrue. Oils such as palm kernel oil and the beloved coconut oil are high in saturated fat, hence should be limited or avoided.   Oils such as olive, and even better than that, canola,  have a much more desirable profile and should remain the cooking oil of choice.

I could go into detail about this, if you care to truly understand the science behind it, but for this post's sake I won't here. However, for those interested, feel free to comment or send me an email and I can do a write-up for you.

I just urge you trendy eaters out there to please look into what you are eating before making an overhaul on your diet.  The best bet is ask a dietitian/nutritionist (vs reading an ad endorsed by a celebrity) to see the true nutritional value of a food.

You just never know and can't think all trends are good; I mean seriously if that were the case we would all still be feathering our bangs and wearing hammer pants.