Coconut oil: everything you know about fashionable vegetable 'burns'

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It reached the peak of its success in 2017, when we talked about coconut oil as the panacea of superfoods. Now, four years later, this fat substance that is used in food and cosmetics also brings more scientific certainty about its benefits and properties. It is extracted from the pulp or meat of coconuts, Cocos nucifera, and is a fundamental part of the gastronomy of countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia. It has also had, since ancient times, therapeutic uses in traditional medicine and achieved its great popularity in the West by standing out as an accelerator of metabolism, recommended for burning fat and feeling satisfied, two qualities highly appreciated for people who diet.

Among the benefits of coconut oil that have been highlighted is its contribution to strengthening the immune system, improving cholesterol levels, favoring digestion and intestinal circulation, as well as its power to generate a sense of satiety and burn fat. Its content in lauric, caprine, capryl and polyphenols acids gives it antiviral and antimicrobial properties. In fact, it helps to compare Helicobacter pylori bacteria, related to gastritis and ulcers. A study published in 2016 found that supplementation of 2 grams of this virgin oil would reduce the markers of acute inflammation.

However, coconut oil became quite a boom in the diet because of its thermogenic properties. The story about the alleged discovery of their qualities dates back to 2003, when Columbia University published a review suggesting that medium-chain fatty acids "help burn fat" and this food contains them. However, it has only 14% of this type of fatty acids and did not even appear in the study, but these small details do not seem to matter much for its business drive.

Nutritional value of coconut oil

Aceite de coco: todo lo que se sabe sobre el 'quemagrasas' vegetal de moda

The nutritional value per 100 grams of coconut oil is as follows:

Calorie: 900 kcal

Protein: 0 g

Cholesterol: 0 g

Total fats: 100 g

Iron: 0.04 mg

Vitamin D: 0.11 mg

Iodine: 1 mg

Coconut oil in skin and hair

Coconut oil is one of the key ingredients in the cosmetics manufacturing industry to make soaps, moisturizers and other products intended to embellish the skin and provide deep and lasting hydration, reaching its inner layers and helping to eliminate dead cells. It is also used to protect itself from the sun and enhance tanning. In hair, this superfood has different uses, but all go through revitalizing and repairing hair with its active compounds that fix the damage caused by external agents and regulate the natural production of scalp oils.

The danger of coconut oil

Even so, it should be made clear that coconut oil is not panacea, but it is not "pure poison", as a professor of nutrition at Harvard University has called it. While there is no scientific evidence that this vegetable oil is healthier and nutritious than other oils and foods, it is not so harmful to our health either. A study published in Circulation magazine, edited by the American heart Association, warned that it could increase LDL cholesterol or bad cholesterol levels, but they have not been able to prove their direct relationship.

How to take coconut oil

It is important that coconut oil purchased, as with Amazon's best-selling, be extra virgin coconut oil to prevent it from being refined and / or bleached and preserving all its properties. If it's ecological, better than better. The daily amount, which nutritionists estimate at 30-40 milliliters per day, is also not to be spent. With this in mind, we can cook with it all kinds of vegetables or add it to tea or coffee as a supplement, although it is also ideal for making healthy desserts. In this way, we can cook with it all kinds of vegetables or add it to tea or coffee as a supplement, although it is also ideal for making healthy desserts.

Being an ingredient very much used in Asian cuisine, it gives an exotic touch to the taste of the dishes and resists high temperatures, so it could also be used for frying. Also perfectly connected with soups, rice, curris or pasta. It can be made at home with a ripe coconut from which you would have to extract your pulp with a spoon, cut the small pieces and liquidate them with a jet of water. It would be squeezed with the help of a coffee filter until all the liquid is extracted and, after letting it rest 24 hours for the milk to separate from the oil, we will see how the first layer will form a layer on the surface and the second will remain at the bottom.