Is Coconut Oil Healthy?

Some sources, in particular Bruce Fife, N.D. and Joseph Mercola, D.O. promote coconut oil as the healthiest oil to use.

Not everyone agrees. Dr. Andrew Weil believes coconut oil has no positive role in the diet, while Dr. Mehmet Oz believes coconut oil has some positive health benefits but shouldn’t be overused.

According to the George Mateljan Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation with no commercial interests, most coconut oil health research has been done on animals or in a laboratory using cells and other tissues. For this reason, solid conclusions about the role of coconut oil in everyday human diets are not possible.

A practical benefit of coconut oil is that it has a higher smoke point than many other oils, meaning that you can cook with it and have less concern about unhealthy oxidation. According to the Mateljan Foundation, the smoke point for lightly refined coconut oil is about 450ºF (232ºC) while the smoke point for unrefined virgin coconut oil is about 350ºF (170ºC).

If you want to use coconut oil, choosing organic virgin coconut oil is a good way to make sure you get a high-quality oil.

One company that makes organic virgin coconut oil is Tropical Traditions. They provided me with a free sample of this product to review, but I was under no obligation to review it or do so favorably.

I don’t really know how to review coconut oil. In the past, I used two other brands, and they all worked fine in my cooking. I do like Tropical Traditions attention to quality detail and their selection of products. So, if coconut oil interests you, take a look at what Tropical Traditions has to offer.

August 14, 2010 · Carol · No Comments
Tags: benefits of coconut oil, coconut oil, tropical traditions · Posted in: health