Coconut oil has become a staple in my cupboard at home.

I always have some in because it has so many uses and all of them good!!!!

You can use it for baking right through to hair care.

You can even tell what the weather is doing outside as it is softer in hot sunny weather and harder in the cooler winter months, how clever !!!!

Part of the New Super Foods

It seems that coconut oil has become a bit of a super food in the last few years with everyone using it and raving about its uses.

What is it?

Coconut oil is made from the white flesh of mature coconuts and it contains a massive 90% of saturated fat.

Which of course is the good fat.

It very resistant to heat, light and oxygen.

That means it will retain the high quality of its fat and not turn rancid and smelly as quickly as other forms of oil and fat might.

Saturated fats are also good because they give us omega 3, which again is a great thing.

Lauric Acid, what even is that?

It contains almost 50% lauric acid (if you dont know what that is it read the excerpt below taken from healthline.com)

“Lauric Acid is a medium-length long-chain fatty acid, or lipid, that makes up about half of the fatty acids within coconut oil. It’s a powerful substance that is sometimes extracted from the coconut for use in developing monolaurin. Monolaurin is an antimicrobial agent that is able to fight bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and other pathogens. Because you can’t ingest lauric acid alone (it’s irritating and not found alone in nature), you’re most likely to get it in the form of coconut oil or from fresh coconuts”.

So in simple terms lauric acid has many different health benefits.

These include helping to lower your heart disease risk, helping with weight loss and more. 

The only other natural source of lauric acid that you can find in such high concentration is in breast milk!!!

Cooking with Coconut Oil

When I am cooking with coconut oil (which lets be honest is what I do the most with it) I like to use cold-pressed.

That just means that it has been gently processed but it still retaining high quality fats.

The brand you are most likely to find in my cupboard is Blue Coconut.

Its available in the supermarket, not just health stores and it is relatively inexpensive.

Probably because it comes from the Pacific Islands and with me being in New Zealand its pretty close by.

It also contains no additives.

I use mine for frying things like eggs and pancakes, smoothies, baking, homemade muesli and I rub some on any dry skin patches especially during summer when I might have got a little bit too much sun.

If you are looking for more ways to use it check out the article below:

https://bluecoconut.co.nz/pages/50-ways-to-use