Lindsey_CA

Add coconut oil to your daily diet and your LDL cholesterol will go down and your HDL cholesterol will go up.

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This is amazing! Can you provide links to a few studies that prove this?

Sorry, I don't have any studies to provide. I speak from personal experience. It works for me, my husband, and my sister.

That's wonderful! I'm. Pretty sure that the company is AstraZeneca. It's nice to see that there are some honorable corporations around.

"Sorry, I don't have any studies to provide. I speak from personal experience. It works for me, my husband, and my sister."

How can you be sure it is the coconut oil and not something else y'all might have in common?

Tell me more about the coconut oil! How much!? I'm another than refuses to go on cholesterol meds!!

Yes, how do you "eat" the coconut oil?

It's well documented, Mimi. Google is your friend. As far as eating it, you can fry with it, put it in coffee, eat coconut manna which is sweet and tasty. You can even eat plain coconut oil, which I have done. I found some single serving packs that I am going to take on vacation with me, either to eat or put in my coffee.

And, as far as those altruistic pharma companies--guess again! Higher prices for the paying customers.

sleeperblues

It's well documented, Mimi. Google is your friend.

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Thanks for the sarcasm, now how about linking a study from a refereed journal, that supports the aforementioned contention?

Lucille asked me, "How can you be sure it is the coconut oil and not something else y'all might have in common?"

Because that is the ONLY thing that we all changed. Our diets (other than the coconut oil) remained the same (each of us has our own "will and won't eat" foods), our exercise remained the same, daily activities remained the same, etc., etc., etc.

Just as in a controlled study, the three of us changed NOTHING in our lives other than adding coconut oil to our diets.

Lindsey, it is good anecdotal evidence, considering the controls your small group seems to have in place. You just can't extrapolate and generalize to the population.

I've been using coconut oil, sort of trying it out, but perhaps I'll try to use it and set aside my evoo for awhile and see what happens.

Country_Bumpkin wrote, "Tell me more about the coconut oil! How much!? I'm another than refuses to go on cholesterol meds!!"

JoaniePoanie asked, "Yes, how do you "eat" the coconut oil?"

Coconut oil can be purchased in just about any grocery store, or from Amazon, as well as online from the companies that produce it.

Dr. Bruce Fife is a Certified Nutritionist as well as a Naturopathic Doctor. He has written quite a few books about coconut oil, and you can find lots of videos of him on You Tube talking about coconut oil. It won't cost you anything but a few minutes of your time to watch the videos, so you might want to do that.

Neurologist David Perlmutter, M.D., also advocates coconut oil.

Coconut oil does not need to be refrigerated. The expiration date on the jar will most likely be two years out from the date you buy it. It melts at temps above 76 degrees Fahrenheit (76ºF= 24.44444ºC). When you add coconut oil to your diet it doesn't matter if it is liquid or solid.

I add one tablespoon of coconut oil to my cup of coffee every morning. When I eat eggs, they are cooked in coconut oil rather than in butter. I also drink only coconut milk, never cow's milk, and that also adds coconut oil to my diet. I eat coconut milk ice cream and coconut milk yogurt.

As I had posted elsewhere, my husband has been on a brownies kick. If the mix or recipe calls for oil (most do), he will use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil or canola oil, etc.

Lindsay, do you drink your coffee black? I'm wondering what coconut oil does in coffee, or is coffee just another vessel to get coconut oil in your system? I use sugar and milk with a bit of half-and-half in my coffee.

I add coconut sugar to my coffee, along with the coconut oil.

As you know, oil and water don't mix, so the coconut oil will float on top, but if you blow on the coffee to cool it down, it has the effect of mixing the oil into the coffee. Or, you can simply stir it a bit.

I know others have said that they can taste the coconut in their coffee, but I don't. Wouldn't matter if I did, because I love coconut!

We buy the bags of coconut sugar at Whole Foods (we shop there every week), but you can also order it directly from the company (Big Tree Farms) and also from Amazon. I used to always use the "Blonde" sugar, which doesn't have any additional flavor, but a while back switched to the Vanilla -- I like it better. I also keep individual packets of the Blonde coconut sugar in my purse, so I can add it to coffee when we're not at home.

Hubs drinks his coffee black and adds coconut oil to it.

Your coffee (with added sugar, milk, and half-and-half) would be fine with added coconut oil.

Oh, Lucille, in answer to your question, "How can you be sure it is the coconut oil and not something else y'all might have in common?" I wanted to add that, obviously, since my sister and I are blood relations, one might think that genetics has something to do with it. But, please know this --- my sister is thin, and very careful about what she eats. She eats red meat twice, maybe three times, a year at most. I am overweight, love a good filet mignon or New York steak, and have steak often. My cholesterol is lower than my sister's.

Lindsey

I'm not arguing, just curious. Genetics are a very important part of cholesterol outcomes, but it is not the only factor. And of course unless they are identical twins, siblings do not inherit the exact same genetics.

Having been in the medical field, and having lived in the managed care era when doctors often are overwhelmed and see patients for less than ten minutes on a visit, before issuing prescriptions, I think that threads like this are incredibly important, in that they inform readers of possible alternatives to a prescription that may have unacceptable side effects that may outweigh their benefits for a particular person.

But care and thought are needed so that one does not jump out of the frying pan into the fire, what is a good alternative for one person may not work for another. It might be a good plan to check out both sides of a possible alternative and be in tune with one's body to see what happens when a change is made.

I also put coconut oil in my coffee, but I only have it in one coffee a day. My first coffee in the day is strong hot and black, my favourite way. My next cup I make in a travel mug (by Cognito, it has a good seal which you need....). I put in 1T virgin coconut oil (not processed!), 1T grass fed Kerry Gold Butter (which I bought in the US, we can't get it in Canada), a 1T heavy whipping cream. I add my cup of strong (very strong, almost espresso strength) coffee. Put the lid on and shake the living beegeebies out of it. If you don't mix it, the oils float and it's gross. I don't use "natural" sugar because all sugars react the same way in your body. No sugar is healthy sugar. I've done this every morning for close to 2 years. While I have also given up all processed sugars (I do allow a hand full of berries now and then), and grains (no wheat, grains, rice) and starches, I've lost 50 pounds. The added fats in my morning coffee help keep me satiated until my lunch break at work.

High cholesterol runs in my family. My sister has a THREE bypass surgeries. But I flat out refuse to take drugs as a quick fix. I researched and researched and researched and saw that diet plays a HUGE role in blocked arteries and that high cholesterol is not necessarily a death sentence. You can fix it by knowing what science is saying and by doing your own research and sticking to your guns. I think in most (not all) cases, you can fix yourself without self medicating.

The pharmaceutical companies don't want you to know that you can fix a lot of what ails you on your own. If people would just take the time to do their own research they could save a ton of money. We have been lied to for over 50 years by the government who has told us to eat carbs and less fat and how it's so unhealthy to eat fat. WRONG! It's the opposite. Eating healthy fats (olive oil, coconut oil, nut oils) and remove all processed foods and anything with trans fats (margerine) and see the difference in your health and body.

A good watch is That Sugar Film, (Look for it on Netflix) it's not as strict as my way of eating, but you learn a lot!

I wasn't being sarcastic, Mimi, google IS your friend. I would link a study but my stupid computer is so old and ancient that for some reason it won't let me. I did get a new Macbook for my birthday, but haven't really figured it out yet. Just google lowering cholesterol with coconut oil.

And as far as putting oils in your coffee, I use a bullet. Mixes it up perfectly and doesn't separate.

If you don't want to purchase coconut oil, the latest "fat burning miracle oil" is MCT oil (medium chain triglyceride oil). It comes liquid and stays liquid. I use Now brand. It's also great for making salad dressing. It has no flavor.

I was looking at coconut oil today, and there were 2 that specifically said Virgin Coconut oil. One was made in Vietnam and the other in the Philippines. Where are yours made, Lindsey and Debby_AB

This is what I use. I buy it at Costco (they have the best price!) and it's made in the Philippines.

Can it replace everything that I use butter/margarine in?? I get the sauteeing, but can it go in my breads and baking instead of butter? We're having a heck of a heat wave (setting records) and it will be a puddle in the cupboard.

Debby we were at Food Basics and it was their Irresistible store brand. $5 or $6 for 375 ml. Depending if it was Vietnam or Philippines, I guess. They were both Virgin

I would google that and find out. I'm not sure if you can replace butter with coconut oil. We don't eat flour so I've never tried to bake bread with it. I use it mostly just in my coffee.

Jasdip -- We use both the Nutiva, for which Debby provided a photo, above, as well as Tropical Traditions Gold Label (which is currently on sale). I like getting the Tropical Traditions because it comes in glass jars.

I know I've posted before that if we're making something that calls for vegetable oil or canola oil (Hubs makes brownies a lot), we use coconut oil instead. There are a LOT of coconut oil cookbooks available (look at Amazon, or even in your local library), and I'm sure they must have something about coconut oil in bread. I know there are recipes for using coconut flour instead of "regular" flour...

Here's a link to Free Recipes Using Coconut Oil.

(You can always put the jar of coconut oil in the fridge to solidify it.)

And here is a link to the Canadian distributor for Tropical Traditions. Not as much info as on the US link, but if you do decide to order, that's the link you'd need.

OK, here's a photo of the Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. I recommend going to the top of the page that I've linked so you can read about the differences in the way coconut oils are made, etc.

A quote from the Tropical Traditions web site: "Any recipe calling for butter, margarine, or any other oil can be substituted for coconut oil."

So, I've ordered the capsules! Don't want nothing in my 1 cup of coffee....especially oil of any kind! lol

What a treasure-trove of recipes Lindsey! I've got to do more noodling around, I realize. I'm just wondering, if I start to replace olive/vegetable oil with coconut oil, it will congeal into an unappetizing blob on salads etc. e.g. my Asian coleslaw etc.

At least with this hot weather, it will be easier to mix into recipes instead of a solid. I did try baking cookies or something with it once, but it didn't break down and blend into the batter as shortening or butter, etc does. It stayed in hard chunks which I didn't like.

Buying a big jar is pretty pricey, so I'll just buy a smaller jar and use it for certain things till I get the hang of it, and what I like using it in, and not.

Country_bumpkin_al, the secret to putting oil in your coffee is to make sure it is blended really well. I used to put all my ingredients in the blender and blend for a minute. But now I put them in my travel mug (Cognito brand, also from Costco), screw on the lid and shake like crazy.

My co-worker was really leary about oil and butter in coffee. I reminded her butter is made from cream and people put cream in their coffee. Butter is better because it's less processed. I made a cup for her one day and she was afraid to try it, but after just a couple sips, now drinks a "bulletproof" coffee a few times a week. Not for weight loss or any other health benefits, but because she likes the taste. I add a few drops of vanilla because I don't like the nutty flavour from the coconut. Sometimes I'll put 1 square of 90% chocolate in the coffee to make it a mocha.

Jasdip, coconut liquifies at 24.44444 degrees Celcius, so if you were baking with it, it should have melted. Maybe what you were using wasn't pure coconut oil.

People add coconut oil to smoothies and it doesn't solidify and clump up, so I think when it is mixed with other stuff it stays "runny."

Also, the Tropical Traditions site does two-for-the-price-of-one sales from time to time, so periodically check it. The Nutiva brand is good, and you can get it from Amazon if you can't find it in grocery stores.

Lindsey, I think it was a pie crust that I used the coconut oil in. It was winter, so it stayed hard in the cupboard. It was so hard, that it wasn't blending into the pastry but stayed in hard chunks. Very hard to work with.

I'll definitely be using it, so thanks so much for all of your advice and help.

This is what I bought today. It's organic, virgin.

They have Grace Organic Virgin on sale for $15 for 1000 ml. I'll see what Costco has next time we're there.

The side effects of statins are such that I'll just control my diet rather than go on them. It's not the level of cholesterol that is a problem, it's triglycerides and the HDL/LDL level -- and with the last one, there's some nuances there. For me (YMMV) low carb works, and my triglycerides, not high to begin with, dropped like a lead weight. No, I'm not a doctor.

For folks who want to know a little more about the differences in coconut oil, please follow this link to read about it.

And, for Mimipadv, there is even a link on that page to a STUDY that shows that "virgin coconut oils actually lower LDL cholesterol, while raising the 'good' HDL cholesterol."

Jasdip, I'm glad you found organic virgin coconut oil. But, the downside of your purchase is that cold pressed coconut oil doesn't have as many antioxidants.

Lindsey, the organic, virgin coconut oils were only cold pressed. I'm going to have to do a lot of reading. When regular coconut oil's ingredients are 100% coconut oil, what the heck is virgin??

I just looked at Grace organic virgin coconut oil, and it proudly claims that it's cold-pressed.

Unrefined, or virgin, coconut oil is coconut oil extracted from fresh coconut meat rather than dried.

Refined coconut oil is derived from dried coconut meat.

I bought some coconut oil at Big Lots but haven't used it yet. The jar says 100 % pure but nothing about organic or virgin. The brand is Louana from a company in California but doesn't say if it was made there. I am wondering now if I should purchase the virgin kind or use this? I take 20 mg. of Pravastatin a day . My cholesterol was 214 last year which I think is good and the rest was good. My stepson was a pharmaceutical rep. And would not take a statin.

Well, this morning I tried a tablespoon of the coconut oil in my coffee and liked it! I used a real small whisk to mix it up and that worked really well...couldn't even tell there was anything in the coffee! (I also use cream)I will look also look though for the organic virgin. Hope to get off the statin!!

I'm trying to get my head around the different aspects of coconut oil. I just read that virgin co tastes like coconut. I don't want to taste coconut in everything I use it in.

Jasdip, my jar says " Refined from the meat of mature coconuts so there is no coconut flavor or aroma." There was no coconut taste at all in my coffee.

I've got a mixed veggie saute going now, and there's a definite coconut aroma. I noticed it as soon as it melted and when I put the garlic in. :-(

Walmart has LuAnna, but it isn't virgin.

Verdict: I made a toasted tomato sandwich for lunch and put the coconut oil on one of the slices. Coconut flavoured tomato sandwich. I gave hubby a bite and he didn't like it at all. So there's no sense buying Virgin coconut oil if he doesn't like the flavour.

I did buy some coconut oil a year ago for us and the cats. It wasn't virgin, organic and there was no flavour at all. Although the cats didn't like it, regardless. So I figure any coconut oil, is better than no coconut oil, and I'm going to get the regular kind.

I'll use the flavoured in smoothies and in muffins, etc.

I looked at Lindsey's link, and to me the descriptions there are confusing. What I took away from the article is that there are no worldwide standards for coconut oil, seemingly this allows a company to describe their process and say it is better than their competitors.

A particularly worrisome paragraph describes commercial unrefined coconut oils, but it does not go on to say how or whether, since there are no standards, those commercial oils can be marketed for consumer use.

'Most commercial grade coconut oils are made from copra. Copra is basically the dried kernel (meat) of the coconut. It can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying, or derivatives or a combination of these three. If standard copra is used as a starting material, the unrefined coconut oil extracted from copra is not suitable for consumption and must be purified, that is refined. This is because the way most copra is dried is not sanitary'

Here is an article I found just doing a search. It says that unrefined coconut oil should be heated if it is going to be eaten, and I am wondering whether a hot cup of coffee is hot enough to sanitize it:

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/oils/unrefined-coconut-oil.html

I subscribe to a number of emails, and got one today about coconut oil. The group that I subscribe to, recommends a particular brand. It's the best one they've found. It's from the Philippines, is virgin, organic, and fair-trade, so that the labourers are paid a fair wage. It's also cold-pressed, which of course is opposite to the recommendation of the brand that Lindsey uses.

So you know what, every brand is going to say that they're the best for whatever reason. I'm just going to use a coconut oil that is unflavoured, and a reasonable price. I don't care if it's cold-pressed, hot-pressed, virgin, or a tramp.

virgin or a tramp. HA! Good one.

Jasdip, the coconut oil I have is organic, cold pressed, extra virgin according to the label. It definitely has a coconut aroma and flavor. I can think of several dishes where I wouldn't want to prepare the ingredients using it, or at least not the main ingredient....most things containing beef come to mind - beef and coconut not a good combination for our tastes. As would most things with a tomato or tomato sauce, I have trouble thinking 'yummy' there. I did use it to sauté yearling oysters and those were quite good, but definitely tasting of coconut which was fine for the oysters and would be for shrimp.

Since I read that Virgin has the coconut flavour, I bought a 'tramp' yesterday, a can of non-virgin. I made a refrigerated cheese-cake yesterday, using crushed pineapple and bananas instead of the cherry pie filling. I used the virgin coconut oil in the graham crust, and it was fine.

We use coconut oil when we make popcorn in our Whirly Pop. It's delicious!

I remember: Vit C is a cure-all...no, Vit E is it...no, B vitamins do it... beta carotene is it...no, Vit D is it... margarine is good...no, butter is good...whole grains are great...no, whole grains are evil...eliminate fat...no, eliminate *bad* fat...no, eliminate carbs...no, eliminate *bad* carbs...drink red wine...don't drink red wine...eat chocolate...no only eat dark chocolate. It's enough to make one's head spin.

I'm at the stage where I'm leery of any of the new "wonder" natural products just as I'm leery of the "wonder" drugs. Perhaps more so as the drugs do have to go through more testing and analysis than the natural products do. And drugs are tested to see that they actually contain what they say they do, unlike so many natural products. Even if the studies done are modest in their conclusions, the internet/media hype around them certainly are not. (Do some diligence to see if the study being hyped has been done on more than a handful of people, for longer than a week, or even if it's been done on people at all, and check to see who sponsored the study and when the study was done.) For every positive report, there seems to be a "myth buster". The latest one I've heard is that the truism that breakfast is the most important meal of the day (brought to you by the breakfast foods industry) may not be so true after all. Even well done studies can disagree...that's why repeatability is so essential in creating good scientific conclusions. (Anyone remember cold fusion?)

My take is, it's nice to have another fat option in coconut oil to enjoy, esp one that tolerates high heat for cooking. But don't expect it to equal the hype. If it seems to help you personally, then go ahead and have some. But individual differences (genetic, epigenetic, microbiome, etc.) are such that it's unlikely to be a cure for all, maybe harmful for some, and most likely benign to most.

What isn't benign is overall fat/carb/protein intake, calorie intake, weight management and exercise levels. There is more than enough evidence to show that cutting calories lowers weight, that lowering weight reduces a number of health risks, and that exercising is good for your health.

I like popcorn. I am willing to try coconut oil when making popcorn. What type should I buy? What do you use Bluebell66?

I'm with AnnieDeighnaugh. I clearly remember back in the 80's or 90's when Coconut Oil and Palm Oil in processed food were vilified and demonized to the point where you'd think they were actually constructed of tiny molecules of evil linked together. Health proponents encouraged you to eat freshly made food using olive oil or canola oil instead.

Manufacturers then switched to using partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in their processed foods. But those are now called "trans-fats" and are deemed to be even worse for you than the "Tropical Oils"

Now coconut oil (and previously red palm oil) are being lauded and praised to the point that seems to just stop short of asserting that if you pour coconut oil on a recently deceased person, they'll come back to life. You are told to avoid trans-fat containing processed food and instead eat freshly made food using unprocessed, unadulterated coconut oil because it will be much better for you.

If you disregard the articles written by people who sell coconut oil or the journalistic puff pieces that newspapers and popular magazines carry, everything I've read says that coconut oil raises both HDL and LDL and it is uncertain as to whether the beneficial rise in HDL outweighs the corresponding rise in LDL.

Furthermore according to some articles about statins mentioned above it is unclear whether cholesterol numbers are all that good of a predictor of health status considering that statins lower cholesterol numbers for a large percentage of patients, but only seems to have a 1 in 100 chance of preventing a fatal heart attack in a given patient.

Trying to separate the wheat (of actually valid health information) from the chaff (of contradictory, self-serving, over-hyped, delusional or just plain false health information) is hard, especially when there is so much chaff. One common thread to the statements from the 80s or 90s and the claims made today seem to be that "processed food" is bad for you (seemingly irrespective of the ingredients used in the processed food), compared to eating freshly made food using unprocessed ingredients.

I'm voting for the Annie/Bob ticket in the Presidential primary.

I don't know why but there are sooo many people who jump from eating or ingesting one pseudo-scientific "health" miracle to another. It becomes their lifestyle. Most are unproven, many come from self-promoting hucksters who are more media "personalities" than people with true qualifications, and most in time are disproven or even found to be dangerous.

Everything in moderation, including moderation (O. Wilde).

Bringing the thread back around to the original topic....

Yesterday I read (much of) an article in Bloomberg Businessweek titled: "Big Pharma is Here to Help You Help Them Make a Lot of Money Through Charities that Make Them Look Good" that discusses charities (that are often funded by the drug companies) that cover a patients co-payments for a drug to ensure that the drug company get ever increasing amounts from Medicare as they charge ever increasing prices for their drugs.

one part of the article states: "A million-dollar contribution from a pharmaceutical company to a copay
charity can keep hundreds of patients from abandoning a newly pricey
drug, enabling the donor to collect many millions from Medicare."

One medicine they discuss cost the company about $200 to manufacture the amount needed by a patient for an entire year. The company then charges Medicare $120000 for that amount of that medicine.

I'm sure in cases where the drug company "compassionately" gives a this drug to a patient that is facing financial hardship, the company claims a deduction of $120000 rather than the $200 it cost to manufacture it.

I just found the article is currently available online:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/the-real-reason-big-pharma-wants-to-help-pay-for-your-prescription