on Hydrogenated coconut oil

[Guest guest]

I saved the message below from the old Philippine Herbs list before the

owner ( Shilavy) killed the list. This is from Divina of the

Philippine Coconut Authority, which clears up my old question about

Hydrogenated coconut oil. Turns out commercial coconut cooking oil is not

hydrogenated - whew! It still is RBD oil though.

Incidentally I picked up some info from an article by Enig (linked off

coconutoil-online.com) that the hydrogenated coconut oil that raised LDL

significantly in tests was a mutant variety devoid of essential fatty

acids, not normally consumed.

From Enig: " Eating real coconut oil does not cause cholesterol

deposits; it never did and it never will. (Emphasis ours.) The mouse work

done by Kritchevsky and others was done using EFA [essential fatty acid]

deficient hydrogenated coconut oil; this is not the food oil eaten all over

the world. Yes, coconut oil does provide fewer calories because of its high

content (65%) of medium chain fatty acids, and yes they are more readily

digested than the long chain fatty acids. Coconut oil is added to infant

formulas to try to duplicate human milk; the lauric acid provides

antimicrobial support and the absorption of minerals is enhanced. "

------------------

From: <pgcp@...>

Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 16:32:41 +0800 (CST)

Subject: [philippineherbs] Trans fatty acid in hydrogenated oill

All coconut cooking oil in the supermarket are not hydrogenated or not

even partially hydrogenated. Since most of the fatty acids in coconut oil

are already saturated, it is already very stable against rancidity so it

does not need any hydrogenation to prolong its shelf life. Minola cooking

oil has the added advantage of being fortified with Vitamin A. One of the

functions of coconut oil in the diet is that it acts as a carrier of fat

soluble vitamins like Vitamin A.

Hydrogenated coconut oil (shortening and margarine) might contain trans

fatty acid but its amount is very very little compared to soybean oil. The

reason for this is that trans fatty acid is formed when polyunsaturated

fatty acids linoleic (C18:2) and linolenic (C18:3) acids in vegetable

oils are exposed to stream of hydrogen gas during the hydrogenation

process. Coconut oil contains only 2.3 % linoleic fatty acid and no

linolenic acid. On the other hand soybean oil contains 54.5 % linoleic

acid and 8.3 % linolenic acid for a total of 62.8 % polyunsaturated fatty

acids. So comparing 2.3 % in coconut oil against 62.8 % in soybean oil,

we can conclude that the trans fat formed in hydrogenated coconut oil is

negligible in amount compared to trans fat formed in hydrogenated soybean

oil.

As an additional note, when a polyunsaturated fatty acid is hydrogenated,

it forms saturated stearic fatty acid (C18:0), oleic fatty acid (c18:1

cis) and trans fatty acid (C18:1 trans) at different proportions.

Best regards,

Divina

P.S. I am a Chemical Engineer by profession and have studied the basic

chemistry of fats and oils including the different reactions for the

processing of coconut oil and the production of different coco chemicals.