BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Healthy Foods Healthy or Not Healthy ??

I've read several blogs online written by people who were healthy eaters (not necessarily dieting) but into eating healthy foods that have no preservatives or artificial ingredients and more often than not, into eating organic foods.

A couple of ingredients I've noticed these people mentioning in BOTH their cooking and in recipes are:

coconut milk
coconut oil

I am confused. If someone like me is watching their cholesterol and fat intake, aren't these bad for me? I looked up their breakdown online and while coconut milk might not have any cholesterol, it has high saturated fat, which am I right in saying that raises your cholesterol level even though it doesn't contain cholesterol?

Are these two foods/ingredients (coconut milk and coconut oil) bad for you or not? Do they raise cholesterol or not? Are they fattening or not?

Please clear up the confusion.

Thank you!

The studies saying that coconut oil is bad for you were done on hydrogenated coconut oil and not pure coconut oil.

Read more about the health benefits of coconut oil

i use coconut oil to cook with because it withstands high heat much better than olive oil.

Ah, okay, so I should buy virgin coconut oil and NOT hydrogenated. I think that is where I got confused. However, I just looked up the nutrition info and virgin coconut oil has 13 grams of saturated fat. Isn't that high?

I read a recipe of someone using it in salad and I was intrigued, but then said to myself, wait - is that healthy???

Great question, Amethyst22.
I personally avoid dietary saturated fats. This is to help control my blood cholesterol.
Tropical oils, including coconut oil, are rich sources of saturated fat. Coconut oil is 86 % saturated fat according to the Center for Health in the Public Interest. (Lard is 38%.)

Our understanding of the relationship between ingested fats and our own blood levels of fats (cholesterol and triglycerides are two common values reported out by your doctor) has been evolving over the past twenty years or so.
However, I'm not aware of any conclusive research establishing a health benefit to coconut oil that outweighs the danger of saturated fats.