Sure, you’ve heard several things about coconut oil and its processing. But do you know they come in different kinds? Yes, they do. Coconut oil types differ in the way it’s produced. You need to purchase the right coconut oil depending on how you plan to use it.
Coconut oil has gained popularity throughout the years because of its numerous health benefits. To postpone signs of aging
In this article, we’ll help you differentiate between the types of coconut oil and help you choose what’s best for you.
The broad types of coconut oil are refined and unrefined coconut oils, and you’ll know their sub-types as we go on.
Refined Coconut Oil
Coming from dried coconut meat or ‘copra,’ coconut oil refinement is also ‘RBD oil.’ RBD stands for refined, bleached, and deodorized oil. Since the dried copra isn’t suitable for consumption, it goes through refining, bleaching, and deodorizing. The coconut must undergo these procedures to remove the contaminants it might get from the drying process.
Producing refined coconut oil is a good way to produce coconut oil massively. Going through the process will lose the coconut taste, making the refined coconut oil ideal for deep-frying. It’s best for external use.
Here are the sub-types of refined coconut oil:
- Hydrogenated Coconut Oil – This type of refined coconut oil isn’t edible. Better stay away from it if you’re planning to take coconut oil orally. It goes through a hydrogenation process wherein unsaturated fatty acids turn into saturated fats or trans-fat. It may cause heart disease or stroke. Regular intake may lead to weight gain and, worse, obesity.
- Expeller-pressed Coconut Oil – This coconut oil that undergoes refinement comes from a mechanical ‘physical refining’ from coconut’s dried meat at a high temperature.
- Liquid Coconut Oil – This edible refined coconut oil stays liquid even if you place it inside your fridge. The newest type of coconut oil refinement was discovered in 2013. It’s a coconut oil without lauric acid–coconut oil’s star component.
Unrefined Coconut Oil
Unrefined coconut oil is produced from fresh coconut meat. People call it ‘virgin’ or ‘extra virgin’ coconut oil. It has no additional chemicals and flavor. Its scent stays because it didn’t go through a process with a high temperature. The oil is safe to consume, and the nutrients remain because it doesn’t undergo other processes like coconut oils that undergo refinement.
It goes through two broad ways of production.
- Pressing oil from the dried coconut – This method starts by drying the fresh coconut meat and then extracting the oil. The procedure is the most common way to produce virgin or extra virgin coconut oil.
- Wet-milling process – In this process, the oil comes from fresh coconut meat. It doesn’t go through a drying process. Coconut milk comes first from fresh coconut meat. Then we separate the oil from the milk. The method includes some boiling, fermentation, adding enzymes, or centrifuge.