Where can I find the truth about coconut oil?

  • Thread starter Melissa Lakewoo
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Melissa Lakewoo

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I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.

For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped using
it, I heard.

So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really healthy
for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site selling
coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.

So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
authoritative source?
 
Try it!

It all comes back except one tablespoon becomes a reality, and it withstands up to ~550 degree
without becoming rancid.

"Melissa Lakewood" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.
>
> For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
> arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped using
> it, I heard.
>
> So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really
> healthy for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site
> selling coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.
>
> So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
> authoritative source?
 
Melissa Lakewood <[email protected]> wrote or quoted:

> I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.
>
> For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
> arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped using
> it, I heard.
>
> So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really
> healthy for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site
> selling coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.
>
> So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
> authoritative source?

Here's Dr Weil's 2p - from 2003:

http://www.drweil.com/app/cda/drw_cda.html-command=TodayQA-questionId=316479
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/ [email protected] Remove lock to reply.
 
Melissa Lakewood <[email protected]> wrote or quoted:

> I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.
>
> For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
> arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped using
> it, I heard.
>
> So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really
> healthy for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site
> selling coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.
>
> So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
> authoritative source?

Here's Dr Weil's 2p - from 2003:

http://www.drweil.com/app/cda/drw_cda.html-command=TodayQA-questionId=316479
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/ [email protected] Remove lock to reply.
 
Melissa Lakewood <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.
>
> For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
> arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped using
> it, I heard.
>
> So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really
> healthy for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site
> selling coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.
>
> So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
> authoritative source?

There are several excellent articles on fats and oils at:
http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/know_your_fats.html

And......they are not selling anything!
 
eldred30 <[email protected]> wrote or quoted:
> Melissa Lakewood <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...

[...]

> > For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
> > arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped
> > using it, I heard.
> >
> > So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really
> > healthy for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site
> > selling coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.
> >
> > So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial
> > scientific authoritative source?
>
> There are several excellent articles on fats and oils at:
> http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/know_your_fats.html
>
> And......they are not selling anything!

It seems as though they are collecting commisions from sales of the book written by their coconut
article's author.

They are doing that via the link on: http://www.westonaprice.org/book_reviews/know_your.html

Nothing wrong with that - but it can't be said they are not selling anything.

Note that Mary Enig is probably the world's #1 coconut oil advocate.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/ [email protected] Remove lock to reply.
 
On 1 Mar 2004 17:06:36 -0700, Melissa Lakewood
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.
>
>For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
>arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped using
>it, I heard.
>
>So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really healthy
>for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site selling
>coconut oil, or some group for advocating it.
>
>So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
>authoritative source?
>
>
This is an empirical assessment of the health effects coconut oil. I grew up in the Far East where
coconut milk, and therefore coconut oil, is common in everyday meals.

A few general words of advice. Its crazy to pay good money to buy coconut oil in health food store
pure or pill form. Coconut oil is bad for your health. If it is not part of your normal diet don't
add another unknown whose nutritional worth is unproven and may even cause you harm is taken in
pure form..

This "coconut oil is good for you" is a very recent dietary supplements' marketing ploy to sell
stuff based on your insecruities. We orientals have been eating the stuff for centuries and there is
no tradition of attributing any health benefits to coconut products. In fact we are of the opinion
that its really not that good for our health.

But like many I love the taste and aroma of coconut milk in cooked food. Coconut milk is the thick
white milky stuff squeezed from mature coconut flesh, not the thin sweet liquid that drains out when
a coconut is cracked open.

You can buy this coconut milk in frozen plastic packs from the Chinese grocery store and there are
lots of recipie books that use coconut
milk. The curries are exotic and delicious and not that hard to cook. Or go the easy way and warm
up premade curry from a can. You can also buy canned currry in an Indian grocery shop but I
find their stuff less to my tastes. So if you still think coconut oil is a good thing get
it in the form of an adventurous meal. It will be the healthier form of intake and
delicious to boot.

Since moving to Canada I rarely get to eat any meals containing coconut products. So I have been
resensitized to such foods. This is what I find that will keep coconut stuff off my meals except for
the rare occasion when I have an urge to eat (canned) curried stew again.

1. There is that uncomforatble feeling of "fullness" kind of like bloating.
2. The blood feels thick and hard to pump.
3. The chest feels tight as if something is squeezing it.
4. I get hot flushes.
5. I spend extra time in the loo.

Now 2, 3 & 4 sound like psycho mumbo jumbo. But I trust what my body tells me and don't pretend to
understand the chemistry or physiology. So I rarely eat that stuff anymore. We have a sizeable
community of immigrants from my part of the world who have arrived the same conclusion, that coconut
milk is way too rich for our diets, and have eliminated it from out meals. This assessment is not
from reading nutrition news, none of us care for this kind of reading, and many in the group are
doctors and health professsionals, but because that's how we react to foods. We are like lab rats in
that we don't have the many health and food problems that bug our cousins back home. And they have a
high incidence of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attacks and stroke, cancer, many
early deaths. Is it due to coconut milk? We don't know. But to us coconuts is a non essential food
and easy to avoid. We wouldn't dream of buying pure coconut oil in a pill.
 
Nice post

"KLM" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> On 1 Mar 2004 17:06:36 -0700, Melissa Lakewood <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to the bottom of this.
> >
> >For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are solids at room temperature can clog the
> >arteries and cause heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie inmdustry stopped
> >using it, I heard.
> >
> >So now there are all these web sites saying that it's actually a lie, coconut oil is really
> >healthy for us in so many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually connected with some site
> >selling coconut oil, or
some
> >group for advocating it.
> >
> >So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on this, from an unbiased impartial
> >scientific authoritative source?
> >
> >
> This is an empirical assessment of the health effects coconut oil. I grew up in the Far East where
> coconut milk, and therefore coconut oil, is common in everyday meals.
>
> A few general words of advice. Its crazy to pay good money to buy coconut oil in health food store
> pure or pill form. Coconut oil is bad for your health. If it is not part of your normal diet don't
> add another unknown whose nutritional worth is unproven and may even cause you harm is taken in
> pure form..
>
> This "coconut oil is good for you" is a very recent dietary supplements' marketing ploy to sell
> stuff based on your insecruities. We orientals have been eating the stuff for centuries and there
> is no tradition of attributing any health benefits to coconut products. In fact we are of the
> opinion that its really not that good for our health.
>
> But like many I love the taste and aroma of coconut milk in cooked food. Coconut milk is the thick
> white milky stuff squeezed from mature coconut flesh, not the thin sweet liquid that drains out
> when a coconut is cracked open.
>
> You can buy this coconut milk in frozen plastic packs from the Chinese grocery store and there are
> lots of recipie books that use coconut
> milk. The curries are exotic and delicious and not that hard to cook. Or go the easy way and warm
> up premade curry from a can. You can also buy canned currry in an Indian grocery shop but I
> find their stuff less to my tastes. So if you still think coconut oil is a good thing get
> it in the form of an adventurous meal. It will be the healthier form of intake and
> delicious to boot.
>
> Since moving to Canada I rarely get to eat any meals containing coconut products. So I have been
> resensitized to such foods. This is what I find that will keep coconut stuff off my meals except
> for the rare occasion when I have an urge to eat (canned) curried stew again.
>
> 1. There is that uncomforatble feeling of "fullness" kind of like bloating.
> 2. The blood feels thick and hard to pump.
> 3. The chest feels tight as if something is squeezing it.
> 4. I get hot flushes.
> 5. I spend extra time in the loo.
>
> Now 2, 3 & 4 sound like psycho mumbo jumbo. But I trust what my body tells me and don't pretend to
> understand the chemistry or physiology. So I rarely eat that stuff anymore. We have a sizeable
> community of immigrants from my part of the world who have arrived the same conclusion, that
> coconut milk is way too rich for our diets, and have eliminated it from out meals. This assessment
> is not from reading nutrition news, none of us care for this kind of reading, and many in the
> group are doctors and health professsionals, but because that's how we react to foods. We are like
> lab rats in that we don't have the many health and food problems that bug our cousins back home.
> And they have a high incidence of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attacks and stroke,
> cancer, many early deaths. Is it due to coconut milk? We don't know. But to us coconuts is a non
> essential food and easy to avoid. We wouldn't dream of buying pure coconut oil in a pill.
>
 
Melissa Lakewood <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> [email protected] (eldred30) doth postedeth:
>
> > http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/know_your_fa-
> > ts.html
>
> Thanks! That's along the lines I was looking for! My
> popcorn group thanks you too!

I'd suggest searching the google archives for discussions of
coconut oil, Mary Enig, and the Price Foundation/Weston
Price that have taken place on this newsgroup in the past.
Me--personally I don't consider the source to be an
"unbiased impartial scientific authoritative source."
 
As an American who loves Asian food, especially curry sauces
with coconut 'milk', I'd like to second at least part of
this advice. Why buy processed expensive capsules of pure
oil (which is questionable) instead of just using the whole
'coconut milk' product for wonderful sauces?

What's easy to get here is Chaokoh or Thai Kitchen brand in
cans. Both of them will separate in the fridge if you want
either the fatty part or the thin liquid alone. Thai Kitchen
seems to have more of the thin part, is sweeter.

I've been doing a temporary very low-carb diet and just now
adding coconut 'milk' as alternative to sour cream
/yoghurt/etc in some dishes. To me it seems lighter and less
clogging/cloying. Also less acid. For a quick soup I can add
it to V8 or a canned tomato sauce and it balances the acid
of the tomato product, making a nice 'comfort food'. If I'd
used yoghurt it would have been too acid.

On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 13:05:51 GMT, KLM wrote: /snip/

>>
> This is an empirical assessment of the health effects
> coconut oil. I grew up in the Far East where coconut milk,
> and therefore coconut oil, is common in everyday meals.
>
> A few general words of advice. Its crazy to pay good money
> to buy coconut oil in health food store pure or pill form.
> Coconut oil is bad for your health. If it is not part of
> your normal diet don't add another unknown whose
> nutritional worth is unproven and may even cause you harm
> is taken in pure form..
>
> This "coconut oil is good for you" is a very recent
> dietary supplements' marketing ploy to sell stuff based on
> your insecruities. We orientals have been eating the stuff
> for centuries and there is no tradition of attributing any
> health benefits to coconut products. In fact we are of the
> opinion that its really not that good for our health.
>
> But like many I love the taste and aroma of coconut
> milk in cooked food. Coconut milk is the thick white
> milky stuff squeezed from mature coconut flesh, not the
> thin sweet liquid that drains out when a coconut is
> cracked open.
>
> You can buy this coconut milk in frozen plastic packs from
> the Chinese grocery store and there are lots of recipie
> books that use coconut
> milk. The curries are exotic and delicious and not that
> hard to cook. Or go the easy way and warm up
> premade curry from a can. You can also buy canned
> currry in an Indian grocery shop but I find their
> stuff less to my tastes. So if you still think
> coconut oil is a good thing get it in the form of
> an adventurous meal. It will be the healthier form
> of intake and delicious to boot.
>
> Since moving to Canada I rarely get to eat any meals
> containing coconut products. So I have been resensitized
> to such foods. This is what I find that will keep coconut
> stuff off my meals except for the rare occasion when I
> have an urge to eat (canned) curried stew again.
>
> 1. There is that uncomforatble feeling of "fullness" kind
> of like bloating.
> 2. The blood feels thick and hard to pump.
> 3. The chest feels tight as if something is squeezing it.
> 4. I get hot flushes.
> 5. I spend extra time in the loo.

Nothing serious for me, but I tend to get a bit more of
that sort of thing from dairy milk products than from
coconut 'milk'.

When you don't use the coconut milk, what do you use
instead? Do you still eat a lot of rice or noodles with
some kind of rich sauce, or do you have some quite
different kind of dish?

>
> Now 2, 3 & 4 sound like psycho mumbo jumbo. But I trust
> what my body tells me and don't pretend to understand the
> chemistry or physiology. So I rarely eat that stuff
> anymore. We have a sizeable community of immigrants from
> my part of the world who have arrived the same conclusion,
> that coconut milk is way too rich for our diets, and have
> eliminated it from out meals. This assessment is not from
> reading nutrition news, none of us care for this kind of
> reading, and many in the group are doctors and health
> professsionals, but because that's how we react to foods.
> We are like lab rats in that we don't have the many health
> and food problems that bug our cousins back home. And they
> have a high incidence of high blood pressure, high
> cholesterol, heart attacks and stroke, cancer, many early
> deaths. Is it due to coconut milk? We don't know. But to
> us coconuts is a non essential food and easy to avoid. We
> wouldn't dream of buying pure coconut oil in a pill.
 
Here's a commercial site that tells about different methods of extracting
coconut oil:
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm

I wonder if it's the modern methods of extratction that
produce the kind that causes the problems. I just use the
whole canned coconut milk for cooking.

Skinny
-----------

On 1 Mar 2004 17:06:36 -0700, Melissa Lakewood wrote:

> I've been digging around for months now, and can't get to
> the bottom of this.
>
> For many years, I've been hearing that oils that are
> solids at room temperature can clog the arteries and cause
> heart attacks, and to avoid coconut oil. Even the movie
> inmdustry stopped using it, I heard.
>
> So now there are all these web sites saying that it's
> actually a lie, coconut oil is really healthy for us in so
> many ways, etc. But I notice that they're usually
> connected with some site selling coconut oil, or some
> group for advocating it.
>
> So WHERE can I find the real latest scientific info on
> this, from an unbiased impartial scientific
> authoritative source?