Properties of coconut oil.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

IN... your... coffee?

Doesn't compute!

I use it in my coffee as well. It has a good taste and the health benefits are well documented.

My sister's doctor recommended it for hemorrhoids/sore butt...seems to work for that too...


Not kidding...

originally posted by: kaylaluv
If you like the flavor of coconut, then you will love coconut butter.

O. M. G.! We just got our coconut butter and it is truly the nectar of the Gods! I don't think I've ever tasted anything more wonderful! Thank you!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

I'm so glad you like it. I have a hard time staying away from it. Enjoy!

I use it in my coffee too. just a teaspoon or less per cup, granted I usually drink 2 in the morn. If you like coconut then you'll get used to it and then actually start to like it. I feel healthy and I my weight stays consistent so I think it must not hurt and probably helps.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

IN... your... coffee?

Doesn't compute!

Bulletproof coffee.. so good!

It's use is debated by various organisations, the BHF doesn't recommend it, advising occasional use, such as for butter.

I have read about all the reported good things and bought a jar here, which was £14, a lot more than a decent olive oil, but I got so bored of the taste of coconut everything and having to try getting it out the jar whilst solid due to it needing refrigerating, I stopped using it.

I used to like the scent of coconut hair products in my teens but since then I avoid it so wouldn't use it as a skin product.

I do use coconut milk / powdered coconut milk/ coconut cream/ dried coconut regularly though, for Thai and Korma curries and coconut macaroons.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

I've used coconut oil for years and have never refrigerated it. Does the label say to do that? It's a saturated fat, so doesn't need it.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

The label says refrigerate after opening, it isn't widely available here, mostly sold in health food stores with the usual mark up. I buy blocks of coconut cream also which has a high solid oil content and it also says refrigerate after opening.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Interesting. Both my coconut oil and cream say no refrigeration necessary, but to keep it under 75 degrees.

It's like honey. You could leave it out uncovered in the heat and it wouldn't go bad. It has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. That's another thing I use it for--if I get a small cut or scratch, I immediately put CO on it. Last summer, I got a pretty bad long scratch up my leg from a tree limb and I put CO on it and it was completely healed over and almost invisible in three days. So now anytime my kids get a cut or scratch, I just clean it out and put coconut oil on it.

I have never refrigerated mine or paid any attention to the temperature where I keep it. I get a large jar at Sam's Club and it lasts me probably a year or more. I keep a small jar in the kitchen and the remainder out in our converted garage where we have extra dry food storage. It gets hot out there in the summer but I've never had an issue with it spoiling or 'going bad' or anything.

The processed non-virgin coconut oil I think needs different storage. I do have some cheaper processed stuff that I use for cooking that I think might have spoiled. I ended up refrigerating the second container I bought because the first one turned yellow and I didn't trust it anymore so I threw it out.

a reply to: CoherentlyConfused

Oh! Ok. I bet you're right. I get the virgin. That may be the difference.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

I bought the virgin oil also, the highest quality I could find as a previous attempt years ago did the yellowing thing like another poster said.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

I read that some brands suggest refrigeration and others don't. Source

I keep mine in a dark cabinet, bottom shelf. One time the oil in the bottom of our tub was starting to turn yellow, but it was about 3-4 years old... We use it a lot more now and it doesn't have time to get old.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

I guess it depends on how hot it gets indoors and here it's cold in winter so the heating makes the kitchen hot. If I had an old style walk in larder (one of my aims) strategically placed facing North in the shade etc I would store it there. Perhaps some day when I get round to indoor cool storage I might try some, but it still makes things taste like coconut which is okay for some dishes but not for most, like European, French, Italian etc. I like butter in my mashed potato and my roasts with something like sunflower oil.

"Pure" coconut oil can practically conserve itself for eternity since it's a saturated oil. The problem is when there is supplemental compound like in "virgin" and "tasty" coconut oil. Those "supplemental" compound are less stable.

Avoid UV light (Sunlight) and refrigeration shall not be a requirement for reasonable storage time (like under 1 year).

a reply to: saadad
I keep the heat on in my bathroom. Then I can just pour the oil into my tub.

Sometime when coconut oil is bought, it is in solid state form with inhomogeneity like section of differing appearance and presence of crystal like blobs. This is because while standing on the shelf in a liquid state, it have slowly solidified and some constituents have separated from others.

My solution is to gently heat it to liquify it, then rapidly cool it in the freezer to avoid fractionation.

a reply to: PeterMcFly

Please provide your comment about this marvelous product.

Stuff and nonsense, most of it.

Coconuts are one of the principal crops in my country. Coconut oil is cheap here, and for generations it was the common people's cooking oil of choice. My family owned a coconut plantation until the 1970s, when it was expropriated under a government land reform programme.

Coconut oil, compared to other commonly used oils, tastes nasty and has a greasy quality that can be most unpleasant. That's why its principal use is as a base for soap and various cosmetics. There are sophisticated chemical processes that can help with both problems, but they are expensive to apply, and they make coconut oil too dear for ordinary kitchen use. Within a single generation, coconut oil almost vanished from our domestic markets, replaced by other varieties — soya, palm, mustard, sesame, corn, sunflower. All are imported and more expensive than coconut oil, but they don't have coconut's disagreeable taste and consistency. Hardly anyone in my country uses coconut oil for cooking nowadays.

In non-coconut-producing countries, the nastiness of coconut oil has stood in the way of its acceptance as a cooking oil or of its ingestion in any other form. So, of late, coconut-oil producers have started touting it as a 'health oil' in order to sell more of the cheap, non-deodorized variety.

The cooking-oil market around the world is huge, colossal. The amounts of money to be made in it are in proportion. The competition is cutthroat. Most of the 'health' claims you see for different kinds of vegetable oil are the result of marketing competition among industry lobby groups touting one kind of oil or another.

Cooking in oil is always more or less unhealthy. Consuming oil for its own sake is just silly. It's not going to make you healthier, that's for sure.

a reply to: saadad

if you drown your self in honey you will most probably get health issues.

Indeed. Mellified Man