Think Coconut Oil Is a Healthy Option? This Might Make You Think Differently!

Scott: What about coconut oil?  That's the new one on the block, like I mentioned.

Dr. Peter Glidden: Ok, so coconut.  Our problem with oil is that it's only a matter of time before it oxidizes, right?  Now, when butter goes bad, you know it right away.  You can smell it, you can taste it, it's not good.  When lard goes bad, you know it right away.  But when oil goes bad, you don't know it, unless it's like really bad, right?

So when there's olive oil in a bottle, at the top of the bottle is air.  And you have no idea how long that bottle's been there.  You have no idea how long it's been in the truck or on the shelf, or in the manufacturing or distribution center.  You have no idea.  While it's sitting in the bottle, unless they've sucked the air out and put nitrogen in, which the more progressive companies do, the oil is slowly oxidizing.  It's not all oxidized, because if it had, it would be rancid.  But it's oxidized.  And then when you heat it, when you put it in a wok, it takes about ten minutes and it oxidizes completely.  

Coconut oil is the slowest of all the oils to oxidize.  It takes a long, longer time for coconut oil to oxidize than it does for olive oil.  But it's only a matter of time.  So that's like saying, I mean, you know, I'm not going to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, I'm just going to smoke three cigarettes a day, and I'm going to be ok.  Right?  Or I'm not going to work in an asbestos factory, I'm going to work in the office next to the asbestos factory, I'll only be exposed to a little bit of it, right?  So from our point of view, even though coconut oil takes the longest amount of time to oxidize, of all the oils, it still will oxidize.  And what the heck do you need it for anyway?  You don't.  Cook with butter or lard and you're good to go.