I’ve written before about 101 ways to use coconut oil for everything from oil pulling to lotion to toothpaste. One question I often get asked is how to actually eat coconut oil, especially if you don’t like the taste…
The word is getting out about the health benefits of coconut oil, but especially for those just starting to use/consume it, trying to actually eat it can be a difficult task. For some people, eating too much at once can even cause upset stomach until the body adjusts.
For those who are trying to eat more coconut oil in their diets but have trouble with the taste or texture, here are a few of the ways we consume it without the taste or texture becoming too overpowering:
1. In Coffee or Hot Drinks
One of my favorite ways to consume coconut oil daily is in a cup of hot coffee or tea each morning. The trick is to blend the mixture enough for the oil to emulsify, which creates a creamy and rich consistency and not an oily consistency (which I personally don’t like). Here is my recipe for healthy coconut oil coffee, and check out the unusual ingredient I add to make it even more creamy (and healthy).
2. In Smoothies
It’s easy to hide the taste and texture of coconut oil in a smoothie, though sometimes it can leave clumps. I actually like the little crunchy pieces of coconut oil, but for those trying to hide the texture, the trick is to melt the coconut oil until it is just barely melted an add slowly as the smoothie is already being blended so it emulsifies in and doesn’t clump.
We often add 1-2 tablespoons to a smoothie this way and the taste and texture aren’t noticeable.
3. Homemade Energy Bars
These are another kid favorite at our house. The kids love the taste and I like that they are packed with healthy fats and are a great natural source of energy.
4. Coconut Butter Cups
Just like the energy bars, these coconut butter cups are a favorite in our house. They are a little chocolate cup filled with coconut and coconut oil “butter” and can be flavored however you’d like.
Here is the recipe for Coconut Butter Cups.
5. Cooking and Stir Frys
Coconut oil’s high smoke point and concentration of stable saturated fats makes it a good choice for stir frys and cooking. We often use coconut oil as the base oil to coat the pan when cooking eggs, stir frys and other pan-cooked dishes.
Many of the recipes on this page (especially the stir-frys) use coconut oil as a base.
6. In Baking Recipes
Coconut oil can substitute for butter in most baking recipes and can also replace margarine and vegetable oils in most cases. My recipe list has many recipes that use coconut oil to help you get started.
7. For Frying
If you’re going to fry something, stable oils like coconut oil, tallow and lard are great choices. This coconut shrimp recipe is one of my favorites as the coconut oil adds to the coconut flavor of the recipe.
At our house, we use coconut oil for pretty much everything…
From a previous article:
What Kind of Coconut Oil?
For external uses, expeller pressed or other types of refined coconut oil will work, but for internal use, an unrefined virgin coconut oil is best. This book provides more information about the benefits of coconut oil and the difference in the types of coconut oil.
I also love that this company supports small family farms in the Philippines. We order in five-gallon pails, which is more expensive up-front but which saves a lot of money in the long term.
My husband and I both take about 4 tablespoons a day and the kids get a couple tablespoons in food, smoothies, or hot herbal tea.
Where to Get Coconut Oil?
I love this organic virgin and fair-trade coconut oil from Thrive Market (which is like Costco online but for healthy products). Their coconut oil is 40% off retail, which is the best price I’ve found for it online. And Thrive Market sells many of my favorite products at 30-50% off normal prices!
Free Coconut Oil Book for You
If you’ve never ordered coconut oil before, now is your chance to try it. When you order through this link, you will get a copy of the Virgin Coconut Oil Book which explains the story of how they discovered this high nutrient coconut oil and the many ways it can be used to support health. The book will be automatically added the first time your order.
Do you use coconut oil as much as me? How do you use it? Share below!
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I’m wondering if anyone else has had an adverse reaction to ingesting coconut oil? I started taking it in November, did GREAT till mid February. Then, started getting acne, racing heart, tight chest, tight muscles. I started an elimination diet to find the culprit, and it was coconut oil 🙁 I have no idea why I did so great on it for a while, now I can’t even have cookies with coconut flour in them. Am I alone? Just curious.
Hi Kay D. ~ What your body might have an issue with are the salicylates in coconut. You might find this information helpful:
“People sensitive to salicylates may suffer from asthma, hives, nasal polyps, chronic swelling and a wide variety of gastrointestinal symptoms, including irritable bowel. Salicylates are also linked to a long list of physical and mental symptoms, including— just for starters—acne, bedwetting, restless leg syndrome, tinnitus, tics, styes, hyperactivity, headaches, anxiety, hallucinations, weepiness, blurred vision, fidgeting, bad breath, body odor, and even constant hunger! Obviously, there are many other risk factors for these complaints, but 2-4 percent of outpatients attending allergy clinics, 2 percent of those with Crohn’s disease, 7 percent of those with ulcerative colitis, and 15-20 percent of those who attend ear, nose and throat clinics are salicylate intolerant. — Weston A. Price”
Just a heads up for everyone out there… Almost anything published by the Weston A. Price Foundation should be taken with a grain of salt. The Foundation promotes a rather unhealthy diet and as far as I have heard most of their studies have not been reviewed by other sources. While their information may not necessarily always be wrong, their donations come from certain producers in the food industry which happen to have their products promoted heavily by WAPF. For instance, nearly all of the anti-soy campaigning can be traced back to WAPF studies that have not been peer-reviewed. Be careful!
I trust Weston Price over much of the junk health and diet info out there. I’ve gotten so much real great info that always pans out. I wonder if you’re paid by some soy company to spread rumors. Soy ruined my hormones!
When using coconut oil in smoothies, is it best to add it before blending or after blending ?
Add the coconut oil before you blend and raw. The texture will be hardly noticable, if at all.
I love homemade coconut oil chocolates! I want to lose some weight and but I’m wondering if the honey/maple syrup will offset that and if I should avoid added sugar? It sure is my favorite way to eat coconut oil!
O have just begun using coconut oil and it has improved my short term memory. I am anxious to learn various ways to consume this oil to my benefit and would appreciate useful suggestions. These recipes are very interesting and I’m anxious to try them. Thanks
Those blueberry muffins pictured for baking look delicious but I wasn’t able to find the recipe. Where can I find the recipe? Thank you
You fry in coconut oil? Considering how much you would need to properly fry your food I don’t think I could afford it lol. Coconut oil would burns easily so you could only use it once. Thats about $16 worth of coconut oil gone for one meal. Unless you are made of money then who cares.
If you’re talking deep fry, where you need a whole bottle, then no, I wouldn’t use it! But if you’re pan frying, a little vco goes a long way!! I just wonder if it retains all of its nutrients being fried, its smoke point is 177 degrees celsius.
vco is very stable at high heat, over 400 F. From what i’m reading it does not effect it’s
heath benifits !!
sounds crazy but melt coconut oil and drizzle it on chocolate frozen yogurt/ ice cream. The texture is like chocolate bits that don’t stay in your teeth.
I love coconut oil in my oatmeal….. big spoonful instead of butter.
Also excellent on popcorn. I melt 1/2 butter & 1/2 coconut oil. Very tasty!!!
I pop my popcorn in coconut oil. yum
Do you use refined for popcorn? Its supposed to be tolerant of high heat but I find it still smokes which concerns me.
We make this coconut drink in India a lot. Buy a full coconut and scoop out the flesh(it’s a bit hard to scoop the flesh but totally worth it). Use a blender and blend the flesh with some luke warm water. strain the resulting liquid using a muslin cloth.
Add a split cardamom pod to the strained liquid, sweeten it and drink it.
Much better tasting coconut milk than the store bought ones.