Coconut oil and your opinion re fat loss?

Uh no. Fat isn't bad for you - it's a vital part of our dietary requirement. What's wrong with having 500 cals of fat a day? That's hardly anything. MCTs are incredibly good for you - as long as you're not a 'tard with your diet of course. I'd hope that most people in la cuisine have a clue about a good balanced diet.
 
Freefaller said:
Uh no. Fat isn't bad for you - it's a vital part of our dietary requirement. What's wrong with having 500 cals of fat a day? That's hardly anything. MCTs are incredibly good for you - as long as you're not a 'tard with your diet of course. I'd hope that most people in la cuisine have a clue about a good balanced diet.
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I think thats the key thing here; your diet has to be balanced before you start necking coconut oil. I can imagine a lot of people who see those youtube videos go out and buy it and drink it by the bottle in the hope they will shed pounds.
 
panthro said:
I think thats the key thing here; your diet has to be balanced before you start necking coconut oil. I can imagine a lot of people who see those youtube videos go out and buy it and drink it by the bottle in the hope they will shed pounds.
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True and good point - but these same people probably eat macdonalds or ready meals thinking they're healthy just because they eat a few veg from time to time. :p
 
Freefaller said:
Uh no. Fat isn't bad for you - it's a vital part of our dietary requirement. What's wrong with having 500 cals of fat a day? That's hardly anything. MCTs are incredibly good for you - as long as you're not a 'tard with your diet of course. I'd hope that most people in la cuisine have a clue about a good balanced diet.
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panthro said:
I think thats the key thing here; your diet has to be balanced before you start necking coconut oil. I can imagine a lot of people who see those youtube videos go out and buy it and drink it by the bottle in the hope they will shed pounds.
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Aye, that's what I meant.

Obviously there's nothing wrong with 500 calories of fat. I was taking issue in particular with the advice that you should be eating this stuff off the spoon. That's clearly not going to form part of a balanced diet. It's not like a spoonful of coconut oil is going to replace your sandwich at lunch or whatever.

I'm genuinely not making any assumptions about people's astuteness here. The thread was started with a youtube video of a completely unqualified 'fitness trainer' telling everyone it's a good idea to swap to using an oil/fat that is significantly more expensive and is gonna make all of your food taste like coconut. This is based on some spurious health claims with him using words that I'm sure he'd struggle to spell if he had to write them down.

I'm not calling into question the stuff you've mentioned on medium-chain triglycerides - I've read a few few of your posts on here and you seem to know what you're talking about. There could well be merit to it, but I think the people in here swapping to using this stuff are wasting their time and money.
 
I'd hope that nobody in here is making the assumption that eating big spoonfuls of the stuff is going to make them super healthy and svelte.

Having an interest in hearing more about someone's views on various healthy foods is quite different to that. Also wanting to try out new food types and preparation methods is pretty common for this forum.

I can appreciate that you're trying to ensure that nobody is actually going to make incorrect assumptions of course.
 
Jolteh said:
Advocating that some "take" up to 5 tablespoons of fat a day is incredibly bad advice. Putting aside all of the special chemicals and whatever effect they may have, this stuff is basically fat, and it's common sense that you shouldn't be shoveling 5 tablespoons of pure fat in your gob for the hell of it. At circa 120 calories per tbsp, your 3-5 tbsp is weighing in at 360 to 600 calories a day. It should be very obvious that this is not a good idea.
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Sorry, but you are talking straight out of your backside! For a start I don't shovel anything into my gob, I use a knife and fork or a cup/glass. I'm not advocating anyone takes any amount of coconut oil, but the OP'r expressed an interest in trying it, so I attempted to give him the benefit of my experience.(probably not worth much, but whatever).

I take high amounts of VCO due to following a ketogenic diet and I find it to be an incredibly useful food for this, 600 fat calories is less than half of my daily fat intake, but again I'm not suggesting the op'r should take this amount, infact I'm sure that I stated he should start slowly on approx 1tsp (teaspoon) a day.

Jolteh said:
And for the record: the idea that this stuff is somehow beneficial because it's cleaning your digestive system out is nonsense.
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Actually it isn't, there have been quite a few studies showing the antimicrobial effects of lauric acid/monolaurin/caprylic acid all contained in coconut oil.

Lauric acid against propionibacterium

natural virucidal and bactericidal agents.

Antibacterial activity of monolaurin.

Bactericidal effects of fatty acids.

Susceptibility of Helicobacter Pylori

Inhibition of candida mycelia growth.

In Vitro killing of candida albicans by fatty acids and monoglycerides.

Monolaurin Provides Broad Immune Support


Byron's Comments:

Monolaurin has developed quite a following over the years. This review summarizes the science behind the nutrient.

Study Title:

A Review of Monolaurin and Lauric Acid - Natural Virucidal and Bactericidal Agents.
Study Abstract:

Monolaurin, a monoester formed from lauric acid (mediumchain fatty acids), has profound antiviral and antibacterial activity. Recognition of the antimicrobial activity of the monoglyceride of lauric acid (monolaurin) has been reported since 1966. A large body of the research can be credited to Jon J. Kabara, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., a professor emeritus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. His early pioneer work focused on the virucidal effects of monolaurin on enveloped RNA and DNA viruses. This work continues to be investigated by numerous researchers because of the potential benefits related to food preservation…
Monolaurin is many times more biologically active than lauric acid in killing viruses and bacteria, leading to the interesting question concerning the conversion rate in the human body. Unlike these medium-chain fatty acids, diglycerides and triglycerides are inactive against microorganisms…
Research has suggested that monolaurin exerts virucidal and bactericidal effects by solubilizing the lipids and phospholipids in the envelope of the pathogen causing the disintegration of its envelope. Recent evidence has also indicated that the antimicrobial effect is related to its interference with signal transduction in cell replication….
Some of the viruses inactivated to some extent by monolaurin include HIV, measles, Herpes simplex-1, vesicular stomatitis, visna virus, and cytomegalovirus.

Study Information:

Shari Lieberman, Mary G. Enig, Harry G. Preuss. A Review of Monolaurin and Lauric Acid - Natural Virucidal and Bactericidal Agents. ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES 2006 December
Georgetown University Medical Center.
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Jolteh said:
Your body neither needs nor wants some magical potion cleansing out the commensal bacteria of your digestive tract, since it's pretty important. The reason that your stool motion was altered when you started necking tablespoons of this stuff is because your body was not using to coping with great big dollops of pure fat being added to your normal diet.
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Wrong again, it turns out that VCO helped to provide me with exactly what I needed. I'd been suffering with digestive problems, and despite several GP visits I never received any effective recommendations or treatments. Anyway to cut a long story short, I came across information regarding coconut oils purported therapeutic properties and thought I would try it. Symptoms improved quite rapidly and within a short time I was back to normal, I'm not suggesting coconut oil was solely responsible for the relief of my symptoms and I'm not claiming it to be a magical wonder food that cures all ills, but along with a change of food habits it certainly helped me out and has remained in my diet ever since.
 
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FrenchTart said:
I'd hope that nobody in here is making the assumption that eating big spoonfuls of the stuff is going to make them super healthy and svelte.

Having an interest in hearing more about someone's views on various healthy foods is quite different to that. Also wanting to try out new food types and preparation methods is pretty common for this forum.

I can appreciate that you're trying to ensure that nobody is actually going to make incorrect assumptions of course.
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That's spot on.

However, VCO DOES have beneficial properties. This is further enhanced with a good rounded diet.

I'd rather use VCO to cook with than sunflower oil or olive oil which burns. It's a fantastic alternative.

You don't have to and wouldn't "eat it with a spoon" - however, it's just an example that you can eat it if you want. Based on my training regimen and lifestyle, I react to a reasonable intake of MCTs - however, as quite rightly stated by Jolteh it's not going to suddenly make you uber healthy.

However, it does have beneficial properties if you're willing to do try it out. It's a learning curve and everyone reacts differently - we all have different hormonal profiles depending on our build/health etc...
 
smit101 said:
Sorry, but you are talking straight out of your backside!
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With respect, none of the papers are really relevant to what we're talking about, ie, the dietary effects of coconut oil (or it's constituent parts), and even if they were, none of them are actual studies that prove anything. Doing a keyword search on PubMed and posting the hits doesn't actually mean anything unless you can interpret the results.

Realistically if you're swapping your vegetable oil for coconut oil to cook in (which is quite reasonable), the actually quantity you'll imbibe is tiny so the effect it would have on your health (if any) is minuscule anyway.

I've genuinely got no idea how you're managing to eat 5 tablespoons of it as part of an otherwise health/balanced diet.

When you said:

"no reason why you can't eventually take several tbsp's a day if you decide you like it"

That makes it sounds like you're literally just eating it, rather than cooking in it.
 
Jolteh said:
I've genuinely got no idea...
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coconut oil, butter, egg drink.

2 of these a day and that's 4 tbsp + whatever I cook with add to food etc.

You seem to be jumping on me here for making false claims regarding coconut oil, my reply to the op'r was just to share my experiences of using VCO, everything I wrote that could be construed as controversial or not backed up with citations or such was followed with 'IMO'.

I'm not making any claims here other that it's a food I have found to suit me, it's one I like the taste of and will continue to consume. As far as I'm concerned there is adequate evidence to suggest coconut oil can be an immensely beneficial food. But the overriding factor for me is that I've self experimented with varying amounts of VCO, and I have found it of benefit in my training (weight training, running). And I believe it has helped to improve my general health & well being, I can't prove it to you or anyone and have no wish to do so.
 
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That's the thing though Jolteh, you can just spread it on like butter, or eat it by the spoonful like peanut butter. It's rather pleasant. :)

Or rub it on your hands if you suffer from dry skin! It's a very versatile product! :D
 
Depends how warm you keep your kitchen, mine is like a walk in freezer at this time of year so my VCO is rock solid. Warmer it gets the softer the oil becomes, melting point is around 76 F (24 C).
 
Well it arrived this afternoon, it's an odd sensation going from solid to liquid. It's going to take some time to get used too. Cooked my chicken in it for tea, tasked nice.

I did try some from a spoon, hmm, I'll keep going.
 
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