Coconut cooking oil

We have always been led by our noses by those so-called experts who kept dishing out supposedly professional advice on what is healthy and what is not. Even the plain old cooking oil has generated a lot of interest among health experts.

I grew up on lard oil and 'knife' brand vegetable oil, which is palm oil mixed with some other stuff. My mum used to buy pig lard, cut it into small cubes and fry. The crunchy crust was then stir-fried with pounded dried prawns and chilli. As far as my memory could recall, it tasted yummy. I thought I used to like the smell of the frying lard, but now when I am in the vicinity of lard being fried, I realised that I find the smell quite repulsive.

Then the experts ruled that lard oil is unhealthy and could cause heart attack, so the lard oil disappeared from our diet. Though when I was growing I hardly heard of anyone dying from a heart attack even though lard oil was widely consumed.

Then there is peanut oil, corn oil, soya bean oil, sunflower seed oil, canola oil. The pricier types are olive oil and grapeseed oil. When canola oil first came on the market, it was touted as very healthy but pricey. Then word got around that it was actually unhealthy and that it was something trumped up by the Canadian government to make money. This was subsequently refuted, but by then I had already decided that canola oil was not for me.

I have been told that oil from seeds and nuts are better and healthier.

Dr Mercola recommended coconut cooking oil. It's supposed to be healthier and can withstand high heat cooking. I had a hard time looking for coconut cooking oil in our supermarkets. They carried all kinds of oil but not coconut cooking oil. I finally found it at Mustafa's. 1200ml (1.2 ltr) for S$9.90 which is about double the price of sunflower seed oil. The label says it contains capric and lauric fatty acids similar to that of mother's milk (mmm hmm). It is also cholesterol and transfat free, and odourless too.

Nutrition information (serving size 1 Tbsp or 14 g)
Energy 120 kcal
Protein 0 g
Fats 14 g
Carbohydrates 0 g
Polyunsaturated fats 0.3 g
Saturated fats 13.7 g
- of which Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs)
- Caprylic (C8) 1.03 g
- Capric (C10) 0.7 g
- Lauric (C12) 6.58 g
MCTs when consumed are easily converted into energy for an active lifestyle.

So, I am using coconut cooking oil for now until someone comes up with some other ideas, although geting my supplies from Mustafa's will be a little troublesome for me. I will probably contact the importer and get them to supply to the other supermarts.