Not all fats are equal - have a look at Coconut Oil.

Coconut oil (or butter) often gets a bad rap due to it's relatively high levels of saturated fat in comparisson to other vegetable oils. However, I have recently been asked about it more than once, so I started experimenting with it again and my initial flirtations with this lesser-used fat are proving to be both delicious and healthy!

While coconut oil does have its fair share of saturated fats, its predominant fat is made up of medium chain fatty acids which the body processes quite differently to most other types of fat....specifically, they are used mainly for energy production and are less likely than other fats to add to our 'fat deposits' (yay!). Due to this unique feature of coconut oil, it has a pluthora of health benefits which make it a food worth concentrating on:

• It is a great moisturizer - I'm presently using it on my long-suffering hands which are plagued with cracking, bleeding excema due to the harsh environment of Vegas. I'll let you know how I go with it - so far, I'm loving it. It is also reportedly healing for cases of dandruff, psoriasis and acne.
• One of my best friends in Sydney, Australia, uses it on her face and swears by it. There's a movement which suggests one shouldn't put anything on ones skin that one wouldn't eat...it makes sense if you think about your skin being your body's largest organ?!
• It's a proven immune-strengthening food, having anti-bacterial and anti-viral activities.
• It's beneficial to a healthy heart.
• It has been shown to decrease LDL cholesterol levels.

So, I hear you ask: 'How the hell do I use it?'....including this functional food in your diet is easier than you might think. For starters, the 'Babycakes' recipe book I blogged about last week uses it as its main fat-source, as do many other vegan recipes, but more immediately, you can use it in place of your existing fat-of-choice for your sauteing, frying and baking. While you might (correctly) imagine that coconut flavor doesn't infuse particularly well with your italian sauce, when drumming up some Thai or Indian food, it will enhance the flavors of the spices to no end.

In addition, you can add it to smoothies (1 tablespoon/serving) and even use it in place of butter on muffins/bagels/toast etc, if the mood takes you. If you're like me and you pretty much eyeball the amount of fat you use to cook with (baking aside), then you can just continue to do this with coconut oil.

When buying coconut oil, Gabriela Rosa, a leading clinical naturopath in Australia, stresses that you must try and find the raw, unrefined, organic version. I particularly recommend the extra virgin, raw, unrefined, organic variety.

And a final note on allergies; in 2006, the FDA classified the coconut as a nut. However, it has not been shown to elicit the same allergic reactions as other tree-nuts, and the small subset of the population who have shown an allergic response to coconut do not appear to be the same individuals as those who are allergic to other nuts. However, to be safe, check with your intended food-samplers before using it as some doctors recommend nut-sensitive patients to avoid it.