Coconuts

What foods are good to bake with coconut oil, due to the special taste?

-Zulu

Saturated fat isn’t so bad per se, but when it makes up a certain percent of your diet it messes with your insulin sensitivity.

"What foods are good to bake with coconut oil, due to the special taste? "

Zulu, what special taste? It tastes like any other oil.

Saturated fat affects insulin sensitivity? Never heard of that before… any links?

Well, people are mentioning the tropical flavor of it. And most oils taste very different. Vegetable oil taste pretty much like junk while olive oil has a particular flavor.

-Zulu

"Saturated fat affects insulin sensitivity? Never heard of that before… any links? "

Yes they can do this but it’s not a concern with MTC’s.

"Well, people are mentioning the tropical flavor of it. And most oils taste very different. Vegetable oil taste pretty much like junk while olive oil has a particular flavor.

-Zulu "

Oive oil is quite diferent from other oils but in my opinion coconut oil has no tropical flavour whatsoever. What’s a tropical flavour supposed to be anyway? Is it sweet? It doesn’t taste sweet to me, just oily.

Could someone talk more about saturated fats and their effect on insulin sensitivity please!!! I’ve never heard this before.

Is it a problem with butter or non-lean meat? (I’m thinking of increasing my consumption of both items)

-Zulu

Coconut oil that has not been bleached, refined or deodorized has a coconut smell and taste when you eat or cook with it. there are some coconut oils on the market that are made with inferior coconuts (spectrum is one brand that comes to mind, but i believe they’re getting better) and thus they have to deodorize it because it doesn’t smell fresh. some are just deodorized becuase that’s what people want, and that’s not really that bad. if it gets you to eat it, go for it.

vegetable oils (soy, canola, corn) smell nasty becuase they are rancid at room temperature and due to their highly processed nature. they are bleached, refined and deodorized like crazy so they will sit on the shelf for a year. they’re certainly not healthy (except olive oil, which is just pressed out of the olives and filtered). you could fry with vegetable oil and not notice a problem becuase it’s been so highly refined. (but i certainly don’t recommend it! :slight_smile: )

coconut oil is safe for frying with. i would only use it once or twice though, becuase you do heat the oil very hot and it will affect the oil somewhat (it can go rancid). burning/smoking any oil makes it dangerous to eat. but coconut oil can go pretty darn high and not burn.

great for making popcorn. potatoes are the best fried in it. you can bake with it, if you’re so inclined, and just melt it down to equal butter or other oils you would use and add it in. it’s perfect in smoothies/shakes. if you want it to mix in nicely, just melt it first (~10 seconds in the microwave or a few seconds on the stove will do it).

i’m not sure how fats increase insulin sensitivity. sorry can’t help on that one.

but yes, butter and fatty meats are also good alternatives. except that most meats are raised in less than good ways. you can find info on that probably on here in other posts (eat grass fed, free range meats etc.)

Dietary fat can change your insulin sensitivity because the exogenous fatty acids will change the composition of cellular membranes. A diet high in saturated fat will decrease the fluidity of the membrane and interfere with the ability of insulin to bind to the insulin receptor. A diet higher in poly fat will increase the fluidity and increase the binding potential. If you would like to read a recent review article on this you can see ‘Rivellese A. and Lilli S. “Quality of dietary fatty acids, insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes” 2003, Biomed and Pharmaco. 57:84-87’. The reason that type 2 DM is usually assiciated with studies on IS is because these people are the most affected by poor IS, but this paper does look at healthy persons too.

In reagards to MCT’s they are unstable at room temperature and they will go rancid faster than FA’s that have a longer chain length. Due to this fact it would be a good idea to consume at least 400 IU vitamin E when you eat these types of fat to protect against oxidation.

Stearic acid has been found neutral compared to other saturated fats in it’s impact on increasing blood cholesterol levels. And by having enough poly fat in your diet from both n-6 and n-3 sources will protect a person against the blood cholesterol raising effect of SA and other saturates like palmitic and lauric. So, make sure you get a balance of fats in your diet from all sources: safflower oil, canola oil, fish oil, olive oil, coconut oil and nuts, egg yolks, avocados and animal fats.

"Coconut oil that has not been bleached, refined or deodorized has a coconut smell and taste when you eat or cook with it. there are some coconut oils on the market that are made with inferior coconuts (spectrum is one brand that comes to mind, but i believe they’re getting better) and thus they have to deodorize it because it doesn’t smell fresh. some are just deodorized becuase that’s what people want, and that’s not really that bad. if it gets you to eat it, go for it. "

ummmm, I have never seen anything other than the deodorized kind then. Mine has this soft pleasant odor in the bottle but I don’t notice it in the food.

Seminole,

Do you know how much these processes affect the structure of the MTC’s?

I really don’t think any oil used for cooking should ever be reused. The heat damages its structure enough the first time around. Saturates may be less damaged than mono or poly oils but I’d still discard it after using. Udo feels that nothing should be fried or saut?ed in oil. Now I don’t necessarily follow that because I do have working taste buds. :slight_smile: This is an older interview with Udo from issue 98.

Extra virgin olive oil is cold pressed from the highest grade olives with the lowest oleic acid content. Lower grades have been refined to lower the acidity and make them palatable.

BingBong……….What’s this about Neil G being banned??? Is this true?