coconut oil

[SarahS]

I finally got some wonderful coconut oil today. It absorbs wonderfully on my skin, smells great, can make lip balm from it... anybody have input on their coconut oil uses? I've seen some great stuff on other forums, let's get some here...

[Mousehound]

I love to use it for cooking too, like frying chicken.

---------- Post added at 01:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 PM ----------

It's also good as a hair care product.

[SarahS]

I hadn't even thought of cooking with it... yet

[Mousehound]

Originally Posted by SarahS

I hadn't even thought of cooking with it... yet

You need the good quality kind. I find it in health food stores here.

---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:14 PM ----------

Coconut oil and weight loss, an article from the Mayo Clinic:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/coc...t-loss/AN01899

[flourbug]

Coconut oil gives a very, very mild coconut flavor/aroma to cooked foods. Love it for shrimp and any Polynesian dish, but it has a very high smoke temperature so it's also very good for popcorn.

[blue gecko]

I use it as my primary massage oil. Like your lip balm, it absorbs easily and still gives me the slip I need for massage. I like it much better than other commercial oils. I also use it for cooking.

[Auburn Boy]

Originally Posted by Mousehound

I love to use it for cooking too, like frying chicken.

---------- Post added at 01:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 PM ----------

It's also good as a hair care product.

What? You need EXTRA oil to fry bacon????



---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 PM ----------

C/O is great for greasing cooking pans. Adds a nice flavor to the result.

[occupant]

I like to cook with stainess steel frypans. Say for instance I'm going to pan fry pork chops so first I heat the pan, then I add a bit of canola(not) blend oil. I then cook the chops, providing I do not use the fond to make a sauce, and enjoy. Later at cleanup, I wipe out any remaining residue and then try to scrub the pan clean. It is darn near impossible to do without using a Brillo pad. There seems to always be a leftover residue when using any cooking oil, except when using coconut oil. Coconut oil washes out usually the first time everytime. No harsh scrubbing necessary. This situation, I am pondering, is similar to the residue left in your arteries ? So is using coconut oil much better for our cardiovascular system than say Crisco Oil?

[SarahS]

I would like to think so!

[MaxTheKnife]

In my opinion, comparing coconut oil to generic 'vegetable' oil is like comparing real butter to margarine. But what the hell do I know?

[Nightowl]

My Mom has moderate Alzheimer's Disease, and my Dad has started giving her a mixture of coconut oil & chocolate that has been frozen in an ice cube tray. He got the idea from a doctor, whose husband got early onset Alzheimer's.

Her theory behind it (if I understand it correctly) is that coconut oil is a medium chain fatty acid that the body can convert to ketones. In Alzheimer's, according to the theory, the brain is unable to utilize glucose to produce energy because it has trouble producing insulin, and the inability to do this starves the brain cells.

Ketones can be used as an alternate energy source for the brain instead of glucose.

When she started giving him the coconut oil, he started showing great improvement. Here's the book she wrote about it: Amazon
My Dad's a pretty level-headed guy, and he's usually suspicious of health claims like this. There haven't been any serious scientific studies about it, so it's not proven yet. My Mom's taking the regular Alzheimer's meds too & seeing a doctor, so I don't think it would hurt. I hope it does help her.

[occupant]

Originally Posted by MaxTheKnife

In my opinion, comparing coconut oil to generic 'vegetable' oil is like comparing real butter to margarine. But what the hell do I know?

You know a whole hell of alot, Max ! Do you use coconut oil for cooking?

[booger]

We love coconut oil in this house. I buy it by the five-gallon bucket from Tropical Traditions, opting for the cheaper expeller-pressed version combined with their (usually once a month) free shipping. The expeller pressed from TT is still good stuff (you can read the details comparing the differences of extraction on their website) but it's tasteless so more easily adaptable to all of your cooking. Wherever you buy from, read up on how they get it. Some of the common brands are hydrogenated and/or cut with other fats.

We cook exclusively with coconut oil and/or homemade ghee now. (We do use decent olive oil, too, but never heated.) Most of the treats I make for us these days rely heavily on coconut oil. Our current favorites are peanut butter cups, "mounds" bars, and nut balls -- and we've discovered we all like them much better without chocolate on any of them.

I also use coconut oil in my lotions, chapsticks, soaps, shampoos, and probably other things I'm not thinking of right now. Some might say I've gone a bit overboard...

[kanuck57]

I add a tablespoon of coconut oil ( a saturated fat) to my veg smoothies.

[Dude111]

Coconut Oil is QUITE GOOD for many things,altthough i hear its HARD TO SWALLOW so best mix it with stuff i guess..

[kanuck57]

Coconut Oil and Alzheimer’s Disease
October 5, 2010
http://www.anh-usa.org/coconut-oil-a...0%99s-disease/


How worried should drug companies be about supplements eating into their monopoly profits? A lot—as this story will show. Please share it with anyone you know who is suffering from Alzheimer’s or is worried about it.
Of course, just about everyone worries about Alzheimer’s. It currently afflicts 5.2 million people in the US and is the seventh leading cause of death. The cost of treating it is estimated at $148 billion.
Mary Newport, MD, has been medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Spring Hill Regional Hospital in Florida since it opened in 2003. About the same time the unit opened, her husband Steve, then 53, began showing signs of progressive dementia, later diagnosed as Alzheimer’s Disease. “Many days, often for several days in a row, he was in a fog; couldn’t find a spoon or remember how to get water out of the refrigerator,” she said.
They started him on Alzheimer’s drugs—Aricept, Namenda, Exelon—but his disease worsened steadily. (It should be noted that the latest research shows that the various Alzheimer’s drugs, like Aricept, have proven disappointing, with little real benefit and often distressing side effects.) When Dr. Newport couldn’t get her husband into a drug trial for a new Alzheimer’s medication, she started researching the mechanism behind Alzheimer’s.
She discovered that with Alzheimer’s disease, certain brain cells may have difficulty utilizing glucose (made from the carbohydrates we eat), the brain’s principal source of energy. Without fuel, these precious neurons may begin to die. There is an alternative energy source for brain cells—fats known as ketones. If deprived of carbohydrates, the body produces ketones naturally.
But this is the hard way to do it—who wants to cut carbohydrates out of the diet completely? Another way to produce ketones is by consuming oils that have medium-chain triglycerides. When MCT oil is digested, the liver converts it into ketones. In the first few weeks of life, ketones provide about 25 percent of the energy newborn babies need to survive.
Dr. Newport learned that theingredient in the drug trial which was showing so much promise was simply MCT oil derived from coconut oil or palm kernel oil, and that a dose of 20 grams (about 20 ml or 4 teaspoons) was used to produce these results.
When MCT oil is metabolized......................................continued
http://www.anh-usa.org/coconut-oil-a...0%99s-disease/

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[spinnerholic]

We are big believers in coconut oil here, too. Use it to fry the few things we fry and in place of butter in many things.

It is also super nice for dry skin! Love it.