Coconut oil

DH uses it for cooking. We don't worry about saturated fats. We don't think there's any need to. You might like to look up Mark Sissons and see what he has to say. DH is keen on his ideas.

(jings always tells me I should worry about sat fats).

I haven't used it for cooking, but did melt it and put it on my hair overnight when I was a lot younger as someone told me it made your hair grow really fast...

Sorry to hear about your lousy week aka
There is a lot of marketing of coconut oil as a panacea at the moment (on the internet). No foundation in science. The fat is indeed saturated. Without the vitamin bearing benefits of animal fats I think bags.
In Pacific islands they tend to eat this stuff along with a root called taro.
Epidemic of obesity related diseases in that part of world. They are not an advertisement.
It is a great massage oil as it smells nice and is generally solid at room temperature and hence unlikely to spill.

Would the recipe work with ground nut oil?

Good point about the animal fat vitamins, jess. I'm not sure I agree about the 'nice' smell of coconut oil. DH cooks his bacon and eggs in it. Cue me opening windows. It's a very strong smell when heated.

Sissons would probably argue that it's the carbohydrates in the taro, and other high carb foods, eaten by Pacific islanders that cause the high levels of obesity.

I don't use coconut oil myself. I think DH is just on another fad diet when really what he needs to do is eat less and spread it out more evenly over the day. However, I don't say these things out loud anymore. Waste of time. I've lost count of the number of 'brilliant' dieting ideas he has tried, to no effect .

Further to the Sissons idea about high carb diets and obesity – I understand it's to do with mucking up insulin production. janeainsworth mentioned this on GN a bit back, the idea that it isn't obesity that causes diabetes type 2 but the diabetes that causes obesity.

I've got some which I tried on my hair....didn't do anything.......and on my body...................there are better things!
I would never eat it, I think it's horrible.

Thanks to everyone. I think I'll try the recipe once, as I've bought the stuff and see if it's worth eating first, then worry about the fats. I can always use it as a hair conditioner or body oil or might try it as a furniture polish if all else fails.
Two of the fats are lauric acid and myristic acid one of which is supposed to help restore memory loss, but I can't remember which one that was

PS Bags can you ask DH what he thinks the health properties are...unless that will expose you to an exceedingly boring lecture?

PPS talking of health fads, I'm trying out another recipe from the sane book, so DH has a treat in store when be returns from his walk....lentil and Brian rice nut roast. Yum, yum

brown rice.....

Sounds, er....wonderful, Aka!

(Good job it's not an insane book...)

I used to have coconut as a laxative - goes through me like a dose of salts! - until OH pointed out that perhaps I should not be quite so liberal with it as it is chock full of cholesterol. I have cut back a bit.

Sorry to hear of your health problems Aka and hope that things settle soon.

I just asked him, aka. He said it is the most highly saturated naturally occurring oil so is therefore good food. However, the important thing about it is the type of saturation. Apparently it contains (hope I remember this correctly) medium chain fatty acids which cannot be converted to triglycerides and therefore cannot be stored as fat in our body cells. So if you eat it, you either burn the calories or shit it out get rid of it.

I then mentioned the high levels of obesity in Pacific islands. He maintains (presumably via Mark Sissons) that where that occurs people have largely converted to western diets, and/or eat (as I said before) a lot of very high carb, low nutrients foods such as cava and yam.

I'm going out for the evening so won't be on here again until later.

That's really helpful Bags sort of supports what Mishap was saying about its laxative properties. Might need to rethink that one! However Mr Bags has made good point about western diet methinks.

Actually Ana the lentil and brown rice nut roast was surprisingly tasty

Thanks mishap and Jess for your concern.

Dr Weil sounds a bit like Dr Ali [I've got his nutrition bible]. I did follow a lot of what Dr Ali said a few years ago and felt better than I've ever felt before but lapsed into eating badly again. Looking at the foods recommended by Dr Weil I've been pretty much following that sort of diet for a couple of weeks; not sure if I feel good for it or not because I hate humidity and this weather makes me feel rotten. I've been using coconut oil on my skin [trying to find cheaper moisturisers] and eating some of it as well in smoothies; not bothered about it being saturated fat as eat very little fat anyway. But grateful for the warning of it's laxative properties and will watch what time of day I eat it at .

Can't stand coconut in any form.

Zucchini Bread sounded yummy so I googled the recipe Aka as I haven't made it with coconut oil before. I also prefer coconut oil to butter and margarine. I normally use it for frying an egg or tomatoes and spread it on my toast. It doesn't really have a taste even though it does smell coconutty when you first start to use it.

Nothing ventured Faye your spiced recipe looks better than my plain one so might try that instead

Mmm. I'm going to try that too.

Presume mishap it was coconut rather that coconut oil that had the laxative effect?

Coconut certainly has a laxative effect on me. I ate a whole Bounty bar recently, with serious consequences!

Mind you, lots of things have a laxative effect on me – peppers, nettle tea...

Enough!

TMI Bags