Coconut Oil - Are You on the Bandwagon?

To be honest, I have been quite scared of coconut oil for the past few years. Mostly due to the incredibly high amount of saturated that I didn't feel I could justify consuming. After much research, I discovered a few things about a specific fat that is in coconut oil, lauric acid, which encouraged me to give it a try. I am not going into too much detail here about the nutritional benefits or possible drawbacks of coconut oil, but I will mention some things that have been heavily researched and proven to be true. Here are a few of my thoughts and some facts I have found concerning coconut oil....and why it may not be so bad after all.

In 1 tablespoon of coconut oil there are 14 grams of fat and 12 of those are saturated. However, the medium chain fatty acids (some of the saturated fats) are said to reduce LDLs (bad cholesterol) and raise HDLs (good cholesterol). It is specifically the lauric acid which helps to raise HDLs, which is found almost nowhere other than breast milk and coconut oil.

There is also research showing that the process of breaking down these medium chain fatty acids leads to efficient burning of energy, and because of that it can help with weight management.

Due to it's high level of saturated fat it is a much more stable oil than other less saturated oils, and therefore is a good choice to use while doing high heat sauteing. It would be ideal to use this instead of olive oil which will have destroyed nutrients and become carcinogenic if heated too hot. However, I don't want everything to taste like coconut, and I do still use olive oil for some high temp cooking. 

It is also fabulous for your skin and hair. 

These facts started settling in with me, and I also started to realize that I was being stubborn about not using it. You may be wondering what I mean by this. Maybe the following paragraph will help answer that question for you...

My nutrition philosophy in a hazelnut shell is everything in moderation. Basic, yet so useful. Meat? Good! Veggies? Good! Would either be a good source to get all of your calories from? No way! Peanut butter? Fantastic! Dark chocolate? Divine! Could I survive if that's all I ate? Maybe longer than some people, but no! And if I didn't eat a piece of pecan pie on Thanksgiving and start making Christmas cookies today I'd be depriving Marshall and me. So in other words - if I'll eat pecan pie and cookies than why not some coconut oil? Christmas cookies don't have much to brag about nutritionally (unless I'm WAY out of the loop) and coconut oil has a whole bunch of pros falling on his side (yes, coconut oil is a boy), so why not give it a try?

I purchased my first jar recently, so I'm not very experienced, but here are some of the ways I use it.

Makeup remover, moisturizer, I will be using it in my next batch of homemade body soap, POPPING POPCORN!!!!, and greasing muffin cups. I look forward to trying it in a couple of my muffin recipes as well.

Have you jumped on the coconut oil bandwagon yet? I would say that I'm not really on the bandwagon.....I'm hanging on the side, reaching in with my finger tips, deciding if I should jump on, jump off, or hang right there in between. For now I am happy in between....consuming in moderation.