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.

Great food ideas...its kids stuff

It's evident you are food obsessed when even an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood, a popular updated rendition of Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood on the PBS Kids network, gets you in the kitchen trying out recipes.

I was watching the show with my son and niece one day. The topic was all about trying new foods, a great message for youngins.  In the show, the various characters tried different vegetables whilst singing "you have to try new food because it might taste go-od" (a ridiculously catchy tune by the way).  Anyways, the characters took turns, some enjoyed, some not, but everyone enjoyed their bowl of something called banana swirl.   Now of course anything looks great in animation, however, these tigers were on to something. 

It turns out banana swirl is just frozen bananas blended up. Yes, simple...yet genius!  I know because I gave it a try.

Nowadays kids, and adults, alike, are exposed to way too much sugar.  It's sometimes hidden or it's often grossly underestimated how much is even consumed. So why not try variations of common treats that fill the sweet tooth but don't feel like a sacrifice. 

Yes folks, it's entirely possible...shocker.

I took frozen bananas,  added a hint of vanilla extract,  a splash of skim milk and blended away, adding milk to induce creaminess (you don't necessarily need to add milk, but if you don't then I suggest a sturdy blender).  And voila! I had instant,  low sugar, low fat, banana ice cream!  I tested it with my niece,  who is definitely a food critic in her own right, and she absolutely loved it, didn't even notice it wasn't really ice cream.

This was fabulous...so I started experimenting and here are some of my favorite banana ice cream creations:

PB'n J
Blend the bananas,  add a touch of your favourite nut butter, and some frozen strawberries.  Add milk until you have the consistency of ice cream.

Dark Chocolate
Same premise...bananas,  vanilla,  milk. This time add pieces of dark chocolate or cocoa powder.  Just note, add the amount of dark chocolate that you know you enjoy. 

S' mores
Same as the dark chocolate but add a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs. I personally am not a fan of marshmallows,  but I suppose you can add that too.

Berry Banana Blast
Bananas, blueberries, blackberries...yes and the milk. Add a touch of fresh mint

Perfect for summertime!  

Now that I think about it, you could easily add more milk and make it a smoothie consistency,  then use molds to create banana popsicles...I will get on that tomorrow.

The basic beauty of this is, just play around with something that makes sense.  You don't have to have recipes for everything; case in point this very simple kid show idea. Just know what you like, keep it still relatively healthy, and try it out...

...because it might taste go-od (yes I am still singing that song in my head...those darn PBS  geniuses).

Banana ice cream with milk added

The First Bite

Hi everybody!  I am extremely excited,  yet oddly nervous,  about kicking off my "Just a Few Bites" blog. I have so many things I want to discuss, rant about,  explore,  critique, and, of course, spread some knowledge, if I may; all in due time, post by post. I have a lot of ideas of what I want this blog to be, therefore,  I am nervous about getting my voice across and getting a good reception.  However, I am doing this to share what's in my head, my passion,  my inner voice yearning to yell out "Here I am...hear what I have to say about health, nutrition and seriously yummy food!!!!"  So I must just dive in, and be me and hope you all love it...love me??? Ah, you will...hopefully.

I know there are a million and one food bloggers, writers, advocates out there already.  Why one more? What will be so different?  Truthfully,  I don't have an answer.  My goal is to get out what's in my brain,  straining and twisting to get out (virtually speaking) about my take on health fads, foods I like or don't like,  commom misconceptions, pet peeves, what I wish I could change, my stab at prevention,  and who knows what else. 

I feel like I have taken my sweet time in getting this going.  I studied food, nutrition and health ten years ago. While I always worked in aspects of health,  I always thought I should write or design a means of reaching people. I did some writing,  and I also ran programs and also did coaching.  However, I felt I wanted a louder voice, to really get myself across... not what I was supposed to do but what I really wanted to.  Although you play with ideas, sometimes life just gets ahead of you and you put things off...or simply you procrastinate...but really I think things happen when they are supposed to.  I want this blog to be about what I learned and know,  not a journey.   And maybe I didn't know enough before, not about food and nutrition, but about myself...my voice.

So here I am, ready to start my "I'm not 100% sure what this is yet" blog (I don't want to call it a food blog); and hoping to find those that resonate with me and love reading what I want to write. This may become something or nothing at all, but I am happy still to explore this new avenue.

Cheers!