Coconut Oil – How Healthy is It?

Coconut Oil

 Coconut oil is the latest rage in health and beauty. You see it being used for everything from cooking to skin and hair care.

How healthy is it though? Is it really better to cook with?

Let's compare it with a few other kitchen cooking staples and see how it stacks up. Coconut Oil Nutritional facts for raw, unrefined coconut oil and refined coconut oil do not vary much. Both average about 115130 calories for a 1 tablespoon coning Both also 12 grams.

Both have no cholesterol. Raw, unrefined coconut has a creamy coconut flavor. It also has a smoking point of about 350 degrees, which is pretty low for stovetop processing and smokes at around 450 degrees. Both types of coconut oil have a high lauric acid content, which is why it is touted as such a healthy alternative.

Coconut oil, considered a functional food, has antiviral, antimicrobial, immune-boosting, and cancer preventative properties from the lauric acid content. Raw, unrefined coconut oils are also rich in phytochemicals, which the refining process does remove.

Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening Right from the start you know this can't be all good, right? Hydrogenated is a bad word as far as dietary health goes, the root of the evil trans fat everyone tries to avoid. However, partially hydrogenated shortenings and oils continuously boast o grams of trans fat.

How is this possible? The combination of fully hydrogenated with partially hydrogenated oils results in a decrease in the trans fat. Keep in mind that the FDA has stated that anything with less than .5 grams of trans fat may labeled zero. In truth, you might still be getting at least a small bit of trans fat in these products.

Surprisingly, for a 1 tablespoon serving, they tend to have lower calorie counts, at around 110. With around 12 grams of fat, only about 3.5 grams are saturated fats, while the remainder of the fat content is a combination of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

There are no other known health benefits to these types of shortening. Lard The least healthy of the options listed here, lard weighs in at 120 calories per serving with 13 grams of fat in a 1 tablespoon serving. Of this, 6 grams are saturated fats, 1.5 grams are poly fats and 5 grams are monounsaturated fats. If you are doing the math, you see that there is.5 grams unaccounted for. This is the .5 grams of trans fat that can be labeled as o grams. Lard also has 10 milligrams of cholesterol, something none of the other options have.