Palm and Coconut Oil

annepage
annepage Posts: 585 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Wondering what people's opinions are on using palm and coconut oil. A few years ago, I'd heard they were both bad for you. I've been reading some vegan recipes, which seem to use coconut oil quite a bit. I'm a bit confused on whether coconut (and palm for that matter) oil is "good" or "bad" for you. Aside from the whole, "everything in moderation" aspect.

Replies

  • popzork
    popzork Posts: 78 Member
    I personally feel that these oils (in moderation of course) are a much better choice over the fake oils like shortening or margerine. I think things closer to nature are always the better choices. Of course some doctors would disagree because of the cholesteral aspect.
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
    http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/surprising-health-benefits-coconut-oil

    I. LOVE. Coconut Oil. Use it every day, and I recommend it to everyone. :)
  • tschaff04
    tschaff04 Posts: 296 Member
    What? Bad for you?! I don't know much about palm oil, but coconut oil in true pure form is amazing for you!! It has great health benefits. I use coconut oil(virgin, unrefined) for all my cooking, it's the only oil we use. I also use it as a moisturizer and hair treatment. It's great stuff. :)
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,210 Member
    Tropical oils have been consumed by indigenous people of those regions from the beginning and without problems associated with modern diseases. Fish consumption will also have a big role in their overall health as well as the lack of processed foods, consuming more root type carbs, vegetables and fruit, not really rocket science.

    The opinion that saturated fat causes heart disease is never studied in a vacuum and will have other confounders that clearly contribute to heart disease, like refined carbs and trans fats and sugar. The opinion that cholesterol and saturated fat cause heart disease is a simplistic view that when analyses more closely fails to show adequate proof. Inflammation is the cause of most disease, free radical damage and oxidized cholesterol, not to be confused with dietary cholesterol, among other lifestyle factors. imo
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    Which palm oil, palm fruit or palm kernel? Few refined or extracted oils are actively good for you IMO and if they are the 'dose' is important, the whole extraction process removes a ton of nutrients. Generally better to get your healthy fats in wholefoods - oily fish, nuts, seeds, whole coconut, avocado etc. Please don't believe anything written by Dr Oz, he often claims something is amazing based on one flawed study. Research is very much ongoing.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=coconut oil
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&term=palm oil health
  • bearkisses
    bearkisses Posts: 1,252 Member
    palm oil is bad because people kill guerrilas to get it, so i hear
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,210 Member
    Which palm oil, palm fruit or palm kernel? Few refined or extracted oils are actively good for you IMO and if they are the 'dose' is important, the whole extraction process removes a ton of nutrients. Generally better to get your healthy fats in wholefoods - oily fish, nuts, seeds, whole coconut, avocado etc. Please don't believe anything written by Dr Oz, he often claims something is amazing based on one flawed study. Research is very much ongoing.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=coconut oil
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&term=palm oil health
    Yup, and yes palm and palm kernel are not the same thing. Palm kernel should be avoided.
  • Enigmatica
    Enigmatica Posts: 879 Member
    I used coconut oil and coconut butter pretty heavily last year, but with some trepidation about how all that "saturated fat" might affect my blood lipids. Turned out my lipid panels were better than ever at annual physical, so it clearly wasn't an issue for me. I've never used palm oil.
  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
    palm oil is bad because people kill guerrilas to get it, so i hear

    You can source palm oil from areas where they don't kill the orangutan to harvest the palm fruit. It is more expensive, but worth it. I stopped using Palm oil.

    This is what is happening to the orangutan population where Palm fruit is being harvested.

    Image removed by MFP Staff
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    Yup, and yes palm and palm kernel are not the same thing. Palm kernel should be avoided.

    Should it, why? Palm kernel has a similar fatty acid profile to coconut oil!
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,210 Member
    palm oil is bad because people kill guerrilas to get it, so i hear

    You can source palm oil from areas where they don't kill the orangutan to harvest the palm fruit. It is more expensive, but worth it. I stopped using Palm oil.

    This is what is happening to the orangutan population where Palm fruit is being harvested.

    image removed by MFP Staff

    Purchasing RSPO palm oil ensures the oil is coming from sustainable sources. Unfortunately the lions share of the oil is used for biofuel, and that's a problem but hopefully these companies that buy this fuel will have environmental pressure applied and find other more politically correct sources, it that's even possible. lol
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,210 Member
    Yup, and yes palm and palm kernel are not the same thing. Palm kernel should be avoided.

    Should it, why? Palm kernel has a similar fatty acid profile to coconut oil!
    I should have qualified that by saying the fruit oil has vit A and E and other micronutrients that imo make it the better choice than the seed oil.......avoided was not a good choice of words.
  • Alex
    Alex Posts: 10,137 MFP Staff
    Hey Folks,

    I edited a post just now to remove an image of a severely wounded animal. While we respect our member's right to have strong opinions about topics discussed on our site, we respectfully ask that members follow our community guidelines, including:

    Refraining from posting hateful or violent imagery

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  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
    Yup, and yes palm and palm kernel are not the same thing. Palm kernel should be avoided.

    Should it, why? Palm kernel has a similar fatty acid profile to coconut oil!

    If you want to consume it, it is a healthy fat to consume. I no longer consume it due to sustainability practives that I stated above of what they are doing to the environment and the orangutan population. It is very inhumane with some of their practices.

    I don't consume it due to moral reasons, but it is healthy to consume.

    Most people will say that Palm kernel and coconut oils are bad for us do to them being saturated fats, which the research actually says that saturated fats are very healthy for us, especially plant based saturated fats.
  • annepage
    annepage Posts: 585 Member
    Which palm oil, palm fruit or palm kernel? Few refined or extracted oils are actively good for you IMO and if they are the 'dose' is important, the whole extraction process removes a ton of nutrients. Generally better to get your healthy fats in wholefoods - oily fish, nuts, seeds, whole coconut, avocado etc. Please don't believe anything written by Dr Oz, he often claims something is amazing based on one flawed study. Research is very much ongoing.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=coconut oil
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&term=palm oil health

    Was referring to palm kernel. Didn't think of palm fruit, not that I actually know the difference right now. I was really just trying to determine which would be the "best" to use when cooking/baking (of veg, canola, peanut, corn, coconut, palm, olive). I go between olive and canola and was just wondering if incorporating coconut was worth a shot. I have walnut, but it's kind of pricey. If you don't mind, which do you use when cooking?
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    Was referring to palm kernel. Didn't think of palm fruit, not that I actually know the difference right now. I was really just trying to determine which would be the "best" to use when cooking/baking (of veg, canola, peanut, corn, coconut, palm, olive). I go between olive and canola and was just wondering if incorporating coconut was worth a shot. I have walnut, but it's kind of pricey. If you don't mind, which do you use when cooking?

    I most often use coconut but sometimes olive or red palm (fruit). Canola/ peanut/ corn/ vegetable oil all have too much omega-6 for my liking and the conversion rate of short chain to long chain omega-3 is pathetic - I'd rather eat whole nuts and seeds and the minerals along with the omega-6s, and rather eat oily fish for omega-3s.

    Rather less scientifically I secretly like the idea of using oils that our ancestors might have used, fruit oils are easier to extract than that from hard seeds. Even less scientifically I keep the coconut oil in stock for my hair and even my cat thinks it's real food, ha ha!
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
    My daughter is allergic to both, so I seldom use it in cooking. I did once oil my waffle iron with coconut oil - yummers!

    Coconut oil is a great treatment for hair.
  • annepage
    annepage Posts: 585 Member
    Was referring to palm kernel. Didn't think of palm fruit, not that I actually know the difference right now. I was really just trying to determine which would be the "best" to use when cooking/baking (of veg, canola, peanut, corn, coconut, palm, olive). I go between olive and canola and was just wondering if incorporating coconut was worth a shot. I have walnut, but it's kind of pricey. If you don't mind, which do you use when cooking?

    I most often use coconut but sometimes olive or red palm (fruit). Canola/ peanut/ corn/ vegetable oil all have too much omega-6 for my liking and the conversion rate of short chain to long chain omega-3 is pathetic - I'd rather eat whole nuts and seeds and the minerals along with the omega-6s, and rather eat oily fish for omega-3s.

    Rather less scientifically I secretly like the idea of using oils that our ancestors might have used, fruit oils are easier to extract than that from hard seeds. Even less scientifically I keep the coconut oil in stock for my hair and even my cat thinks it's real food, ha ha!

    Wasn't aware of that with canola or that omega 6s were thought to possibly increase inflammation. Hmn.
  • mercyangel
    mercyangel Posts: 5
    Coconut oil is amazing! Read and educate yourself. A good book is coconut cures by Bruce Fife,N.D.
    I hope this helps. Yes, it hard to know what to believe I have been doing coconut oil v.s. Conola or veg. oils.
  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
    I personally feel that these oils (in moderation of course) are a much better choice over the fake oils like shortening or margerine. I think things closer to nature are always the better choices. Of course some doctors would disagree because of the cholesteral aspect.

    Agreed. I use coconut oil to cook my eggs every morning.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    Wasn't aware of that with canola or that omega 6s were thought to possibly increase inflammation. Hmn.

    I wouldn't say it's just a theory the research is solid, almost all omega-6s can be pro inflammatory, GLA from borage is the exception, tho we do still need some for health. Saturated animal fats can also be pro inflammatory. The ratio of omega-3s to 6s in the diet is critical, unfortunately the 6s are far more common in our food ... Of the common polyunsaturated oils for cooking canola has the better ratio but it's still two to one in favour of omega-6 IIRC, olive doesn't have that issue at all being monounsaturated.
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
    Was referring to palm kernel. Didn't think of palm fruit, not that I actually know the difference right now. I was really just trying to determine which would be the "best" to use when cooking/baking (of veg, canola, peanut, corn, coconut, palm, olive). I go between olive and canola and was just wondering if incorporating coconut was worth a shot. I have walnut, but it's kind of pricey. If you don't mind, which do you use when cooking?

    I most often use coconut but sometimes olive or red palm (fruit). Canola/ peanut/ corn/ vegetable oil all have too much omega-6 for my liking and the conversion rate of short chain to long chain omega-3 is pathetic - I'd rather eat whole nuts and seeds and the minerals along with the omega-6s, and rather eat oily fish for omega-3s.

    Rather less scientifically I secretly like the idea of using oils that our ancestors might have used, fruit oils are easier to extract than that from hard seeds. Even less scientifically I keep the coconut oil in stock for my hair and even my cat thinks it's real food, ha ha!

    Wasn't aware of that with canola or that omega 6s were thought to possibly increase inflammation. Hmn.

    they do indeed.

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