The great news is that there are more coconut products in the market than ever before. However this makes choosing the highest quality product a bit of a challenge. The products that are widely available and most familiar to most of us are coconut oil, coconut butter, and canned coconut milk. We will briefly explain why choosing these products on a regular basis is not in the best interest of your health.

The problem with any canned coconut milk is the pasteurization and canning it must go through. This process very effectively destroys enzymes and nutrients and damages the health giving oils leaving it a nutrient barren food. Not forgetting to mention the preservatives, stabilizers, and emulsifiers that are usually added to produce a more visual appealing product. Maybe better for aesthetics but not for your health.

Next is coconut butter which is a spread typically made by grinding dehydrated coconut fiber from which its oils have been removed from it. Most companies opt to use high heat for the dehydrating process to save time and prevent the coconut from molding before it fully dries. They will claim dried using “low temperatures”, but will never tell you the precise temperatures because it would not meet the standards for those seeking a truly raw product. When it takes just as little effort to write the precise temperatures as it does to write “low temperatures”, it doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to know what is going on. Those familiar with coconut butters also know that there are very small amounts of oil in the product(mostly located at the top). The rest is all fiber that makes for an extremely dry paste no matter how much you stir it. It is a highly processed food that should be eaten on rare occasions if at all.

Lastly, as most of us know, coconut oil is quickly gaining the reputation amongst the health conscious as the healthiest oil to cook with. Indeed it is the best choice for cooking but it is not best choice for cold food applications. Because even if you purchase the highest quality extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil, it would still have had some of its integrity compromised from the dehydrating process of the flesh or the heat created from the machines during the pressing of the oil. And if somehow you were fortunate enough to find a small very conscious company, fully aware of the heat issues, that was producing its products by hand, the oil still wouldn’t be at its best due to the high heat of the tropics where the product would have to be transported from. For these reasons coconut oil should primarily be reserved for when cooking food and not when used in cold applications. (e.g. protein shakes, smoothies, topping on fruit)

Coconut Craze’s Raw Coconut Cream vs. Canned Coconut Milk

Coconut Craze’s Raw Coconut Cream vs. Coconut Oil