Cold Pressed Coconut Oil

• Our oil is made from cold pressing of high-quality dry coconut (Copra) in a Wooden Mill 
• A wooden mill takes much longer to press the oil from kernels when compared to a metal mill. But it manages to keep the temperature lower than metal and preserves nutrients
• We slowly mill a 10kg batch of Copra for 4 hours to get the desired high-quality oil
• Our oil is pressed in small batches to ensure that you always get fresh produce
• Coconut Oil largely contains saturated fats and but it its better than other sources of saturated fats (like butter) because its more potent increasing HDL. 
• Benefits – Increases HDL, anti-microbial, 

Potential benefits of Coconut Oil 

• Helps in maintaining healthy heart – More potent than other saturated fats in increasing healthy cholesterol (HDL) (2015 study). 
• Energy boost & feeling of satiation – due to its MCTs (this benefit is lost if Coconut Oil is heated) 
• Super effective emollient and moisturizer for skin and hair
• Strong anti-microbial properties of Lauric Acid in Coconut Oil (1972 study)
• Promote healthy teeth and gums if used for oil pulling (2016 study)
• Anti-inflammatory 
• Improves gut health & digestion

How to use

• Avoid heating if you want to save its Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) (Benefits of MCTs)
• Pulling cold pressed coconut oil improves health of teeth & gum (Oil Pulling)
• Mix and match with other oils for daily cooking needs
• Use it to make homemade salad dressing
• Make sweets like Halwa, Besan Laddoo, Gulab Jamun, Cookies and almost everything else
• Make Puris, Parathas
• Make healthier chocolate using Cocoa Powder & Cold Pressed Coconut Oil
• Cosmetic application – Some oil can be kept in a separate bottle for:
  • Applying on hair
  • Applying on skin (Coconut Oil has a Comedogenic Rating of 4, people acne prone skin should avoid using it)

What makes a good cold pressed coconut oil?

• Manufacturer of coconut oil should clearly disclose the exact process used to extract the oil (more details below)

• Temperature of the oil during cold pressing shouldn’t rise above 45degrees Celsius
• Micro coconut particles floating in the oil or at the bottom of your bottle means your oil wasn’t mechanically filtered or chemically cleaned
• Good cold pressed oils are simply strained and then cleared using sedimentation (power of gravity)
• Shouldn’t be colourless, odourless and/or flavourless

Various types of Coconut Oils available in the market

Purchasing any oil could quickly become very confusing and is usually a murky business due to lack to standards & definitions.  For example – the terms “virgin” and “extra virgin” are not regulated for any of the oils besides Olive Oil! Hence, a Virgin Coconut Oil may have different meaning for different manufacturers. 

We will try to highlight various types of Coconut Oils available in market based on the method of extraction. We are consciously not using Virgin and Extra Virgin classification as it applies only on Olive Oil

Extraction from ‘fresh coconut meat’

• Cold-pressed – Machine presses Coconut Milk from the meat, which is then processed using fermentation, enzymes or centrifugations to extract oil. Lower yield
• Expeller-pressed – Oil is extracted from meat by pressing and applying temperatures above 120degree Celsius. Higher Yield, faster extraction & longer shelf life (NOT COLD PRESSED) 

Extraction from ‘dried coconut meat (Copra)’

• Cold Pressed – Wooden or Metal mill presses oil out of sun-dried coconut kernels at temperatures below 45degree Celsius. Lower yields & slow extraction
• Expeller-pressed – – Oil is extracted from meat by pressing and applying temperatures above 120degree Celsius. Higher Yield, faster extraction & longer shelf life (NOT COLD PRESSED)

Refining 

Oil is extracted from Copra using a solvent like Hexane. After being extracted the oil deodorized (using heat or steam), bleached and then filtered using activated clay. The resulting oil has higher smoke point, much higher shelf life and is flavourless/odourless up to a large extent. This process has the highest yield and most commercial coconut oils fall under this category. 

Partially or fully hydrogenated coconut oil is a complete NO-NO because it contains trans fats. (Check the label for trans-fat content)

Constituents of Coconut Oil

• 80-90% saturated fat
• Caprylic Acid (C-8, 8%), Capric Acid (C-10, 7%), Lauric Acid (C-12, 49%), Mytristic Acid (C-14, 8%), Palmitic Acid (C-16, 8%), Stearic Acid (C-18, 2%), Oleic Acid (C-18, 6%) and Linoleic Acid (C-18, 2%)

Coconut Oil vs MCT Oil

• From the above mentioned constituents of Coconut Oil, it’s clear that C6, 8 & 10 just constitute 15% of total volume. The remaining 85% Coconut oil is long chain fatty acids which take a long time to digest and are likely to be stored as fat in the body (rather than converting into energy immediately)
• From purely a healthy energy boost standpoint – Coconut MCT Oil is far ahead of Coconut Oil 
• For other benefits like higher HDL levels, immunity boost, anti-microbial properties etc, one should use Cold Pressed Coconut Oil