Benefits of Coconut Oil...
After so much consumer hype surrounding the health benefits of coconut oil, Ellie Krieger questions whether it really is better for our diets to cook with the white stuff Although it's been more than five years since coconut oil began its meteoric rise in the US marketplace, the confusion about it has not waned a bit. “Should I switch to coconut oil?” is consistently one of the most common questions that come across my desktop – not surprising given that you could throw a dart at the internet and hit a claim about the oil's amazing healing power. Mostly, there has been a paucity of good science on it, but a meta-analysis (a systematic review of the existing research) published this year in Nutrition Reviews has shed some light on the topic. I spoke with the lead researcher, Laurence Eyres, chairman of the Oils & Fats Specialist Group at the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, for further insight. The study found that coconut oil, which is 92 per cent saturated f...