The Best Coconut Oil Recipes You Need To Try (2024)

FAQs

What is the most effective way to use coconut oil? ›

Increased risk of heart disease and stroke

Coconut oil is full of saturated fat, which can raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol and your chances of cardiovascular disease and stroke. The American Heart Association recommends you to eat low-saturated fat foods and use healthier oils when you cook.

According to dermatologists, it's better to use unrefined coconut oil, specifically one that's been cold-pressed, not expeller-pressed. Cold-pressed coconut oil is thought to contain more nutrients than expeller-pressed, so using the former is more beneficial when it comes to skin care.

There's no need to refrigerate coconut oil. It'll last a long time—up to two years—in your pantry. Just keep the lid on tight. Depending on how warm it gets where you live, your oil might go from solid to liquid in the jar.

For example, if you want to utilize your coconut oil for beauty, adding Vitamin E oil, jojoba oil, or argan oil should keep it melted, and a ratio of 13 coconut oil to 23 liquid oil should keep it melted. For cooking, you could use olive oil or avocado oil.

Using it as a hair mask and leave-in treatment may help moisturize and seal hair. This can help prevent a dry, flaky scalp and dandruff, as well as split ends and hair breakage. For these reasons, coconut oil might make your hair look shinier, stronger, and longer.

The best coconut oil for cooking: the unrefined, virgin coconut oil you would use on your hair and skin is also great for baking and sautéing, but not for frying as it has a smoke point of 170C. If you want to get frying, opt for refined coconut oil as it has a higher smoke point of 204C.

Coconut oil is a high calorie food that contains mostly saturated fatty acids. Diets high in saturated fatty acids may increase the risk of coronary heart disease. However, researchers have found that 2 tablespoons (tbsp), or 30 milliliters, of coconut oil per day can have beneficial effects.

Coconut oil works as a moisturizer for your body, especially if you have dry skin. But that may not be the case for your face. Dr. Wu notes that it's generally not recommended to use coconut oil on your face because it's highly comedogenic (in other words, it's a pore clogger).

Applying coconut oil on your face and leaving it on overnight can help smoothen any dry and rough patches on the skin. It will help moisturise dry skin and make rough skin texture smooth and supple.

Who should avoid coconut oil? ›

High cholesterol: Coconut oil contains a type of fat that can increase cholesterol levels. Regularly eating meals containing coconut oil can increase levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad") cholesterol. This might be a problem for people who already have high cholesterol.

The authors concluded that because of coconut oil's effects on raising blood cholesterol including harmful LDL and in some cases triglycerides, and because its cholesterol-raising effects were comparable to other saturated fats, the oil should not be viewed as a heart-healthy food and should be limited in the diet.

Allergy to coconut oil or related plants: Coconut might cause serious allergic reactions in people who are allergic to coconut oil, coconut palm pollen, components of coconut, or other members of the Arecaceae plant family. High cholesterol: There is concern that eating coconuts might increase cholesterol levels.

The clear winner in this matchup is olive oil. That is because it is rich in good fat (polyunsaturated fat) and low in bad fat (saturated fat). Coconut oil contains 80 to 90 percent saturated fat. According to the experts, a tablespoon of coconut oil contains about six times as much saturated fat as olive oil.

The healthiest oil to cook with is olive oil. It's versatile, being used in everything from frying to finishing. It's also rich in healthy fats, antioxidants, and polyphenols, all of which have shown protective effects against cancer and liver, heart, and neurodegenerative diseases (27, 28).

Olive oil and coconut oil both have potential health benefits, but olive oil is the clear winner if you're looking for cooking oil with research-backed health benefits. Including olive oil in your diet may help you improve your blood cholesterol levels and heart health, and reduce your risk of several chronic diseases.

Is Cooking With Coconut Oil Healthy? Coconut oil has been touted as a good-for-you fat that helps with weight reduction, metabolism, and lowering cholesterol, but in reality it's a highly saturated fat that can cause atherosclerosis, a condition that can lead to clogged arteries and result in a heart attack or stroke.