The Skinny On Cooking Oils

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Good post over at fitsugar about coconut oil and why it really isn’t such a good choice for cooking. You are better off sticking with olive or canola oil because they contain much less saturated fat. Coconut oil is trans fat free, but is about 90% saturated fat (the bad kind that clogs your arteries). So if you do use it, use it rarely and sparingly.

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• Coconut oil has relatively high smoke point of 400°F, this makes it stable and ideal for many commercial kitchens and bakeries.
• It has a long shelf life, which is why many food manufacturers are switching to coconut oil to avoid using hydrogenated oils – aka trans fats.
• It is 90 percent saturated fat, and in case you forgot, that is the “bad” fat.
  
• Fats, no matter the type, are not metabolized before carbs, and this oil should not be considered a good fuel for exercise. Unless you are training for super-distance events like ultra marathons (or training sessions over 5 hours).
• The high percentage of artery-clogging saturated fats in coconut oil should not be taken lightly. For comparison, olive oil contain 13 percent saturated fats and canola oil only 7 percent.

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You probably ought to start checking the labels to see what kind of oil they use since coconut oil is becoming more popular with manufacturers.