Regular Coconut Oil Vs. Virgin Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is extracted from coconut and can be used like any other cooking oil. You can use it to cook vegetables, shrimp, chicken or steak. Coconut oil can also be used for baking by replacing the butter, margarine or vegetable oil with the same amount of coconut oil. Coconut oil can either be labeled regular or virgin.

Ingredient

Regular coconut oil is made from copra, which is the dried kernel, or dried meat, of the coconut. Copra is made by smoke drying, sun drying or kiln drying. Virgin coconut oil is made from non-copra, fresh coconuts.

Extraction

Regular coconut oil is usually extracted from the copra with the use of chemical solvents. This technique usually results in higher yields. With virgin coconut oil though, the oil is extracted from fresh coconuts without any chemicals or high heating. Virgin coconut oil can be produced by quick drying fresh coconuts and then expressing the oil mechanically. Virgin coconut oil can also be produced by wet-milling fresh coconuts. With this process, coconut milk is first extracted from the coconuts and the oil is separated from the water either by boiling, fermentation, refrigeration, enzymes or mechanical centrifuge.

Other Treatments

Because copra is usually not dried under sanitary conditions and is not suitable for human consumption, it has to be refined, bleached and deodorized before being put on the market. The oil is bleached by filtering it through clays and sodium hydroxide is used to remove free fatty acids in the oil and the deodorization is done using a high heat treatment. None of these additional steps are used with virgin coconut oil, which is naturally very stable and can be kept for several years without any change to its composition, taste or nutritional value.

Nutrition Facts

Both regular coconut oil and virgin coconut oil have similar nutritional value, except that coconut oil is free of chemicals. A tablespoon of coconut oil contains 117 calories, 13.6 g of fat, of which 11.8 g are saturated fat, and is free of carbohydrates and protein. More than half of the saturated fat in coconut oil is lauric acid and other medium chain fatty acids that do not have a harmful affect on your blood cholesterol levels and cardiovascular risk profile.