The Many Benefits of Coconut Oil
The coconut is a nutritional superfood, possessing a wide
variety of health benefits, but it is the oil specifically that makes the coconut such a remarkable source of food and medicine. Coconut oil has definitely earned its reputation as being the healthiest oil on the planet despite the fact that it was once falsely claimed to be unhealthy due to its high
saturated fat content.
Coconut oil is derived and extracted from the meat of
matured coconuts. Throughout the tropics the coconut has long been a primary source of. It has numerous industrial and cosmetic applications and has thus become very viable commodity. Coconut oil is heat stable, making it suitable for cooking at high temperatures. It is slow to oxidize, resists
rancidity and has a shelf life of approximately two years or more. Virgin coconut crème which is created through a wet-milling process has an indefinite shelf life.
What makes coconut oil special?
Oils and fats are composed of molecules known as fatty acids or triglycerides. These are classified according to their saturation (how many double hydrogen bonds exist on each carbon chain of the fat) and/or determined by the length of the molecule and size of the carbon chain within each fatty acid. Although many fats and oils contain more than one type, they are names according to the majority of the type of fatty acids they contain.
Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are examples of saturation – having one or more double hydrogen bonds respectively. The second classification is an expression of the molecular size or length of the carbon chain. Long chains of carbon atoms consist of each fatty acid with an attached hydrogen atom. There are short chain fatty acids known (SCFA), medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) such as coconut oil and long chain fatty acids (LCFA). The majority of fats and oils commonly consumed are comprised of LCFA in both saturated and unsaturated forms. There are only few dietary sources of MCFA, and one of the best sources by far is coconut oil. Coconut oil is predominantly medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) and the effects of the MCFA in coconut oil are distinctly different from the LCFA found in other foods. Both the saturated and