Stop worrying about coconut oil.
That’s the headline of an article in the most recent issue of Clean Eating magazine. It appears that the poor coconut, long associated with things like, “sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t,” in Almond Joy and Mounds commercials, has been misinterpreted.
Sure, in artery-clogging, high-fructose syrup stricken candy bars, it seems like a bad idea. As does the cloying stream of fat-rich coconut milk that comes out of a can. But, in reality the coconut — and its many variations: coconut oil, coconut butter and coconut water — deserves a second look.
Think of coconut oil like an avocado: they both contain fat, but it’s the good fat, the saturated kind that, like the avo, it improves cholesterol by raising HDL, the “good cholesterol.”
It’s also blissfully free of those nasty trans-fats, and is great to cook with aside from that because it can, unlike olive oil, withstand high heat which makes it perfect for baking, searing, sauteeing or stir-frying (I used the other night on a red kuri squash, just rubbed the inside of the cut squash with coconut oil, salted it and roasted it for 40 minutes and it was delectable.)
And, just like other good fats, you can’t go hog wild with the stuff just because it is good for you. Clean Eating advises that moderate amounts of coconut oil (about 25 percent of your total daily fat) can be incorporated into your daily fat intake without risk of weight gain, or elevated cholesterol.
And the tropical smell? Well that’s just one more reason to invite this nut to the party.
Photo: Andrzej Gdula
