If you were trapped on a desert island and could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This question, or some iteration thereof, actually makes very little sense. Like for instance, how would anything be growing or be preserved on said desert island? And also, what if your one food was really some combination of several foods, like lasagne? Are multi-food foods disqualified from your desert island possibilities?
Though totally confounding, these sorts of considerations never really held me up because I always knew exactly what I would pick were I trapped on a desert or a tropical island — coconut.
Coconut is the most perfect and complete standalone food ever, supplying water, meat, milk and oil all in one vessel. It’s good for your skin, your teeth, your hair and your ass. Hell, you can even use the shell as a bowl — or, as a weapon.
Coconut is literally the only choice when trapped on a mono-culinary desert island. This fact seems to be up for debate (?!) however, which I noticed recently via something blasphemous I read on Lifehacker asking “Is Coconut Oil Good for You Or Bad for You?”
Coconut Oil is Fat AF
Coconut oil — or, copra oil — is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm. It has various applications and, because of its high saturated fat content, it’s slow to oxidize/breakdown. This gives it a super long shelf life, but it also makes it heavy duty AF.
In fact, due to its high levels of saturated fat — only cottonseed and palm oils have higher percentages — science places like the World Health Organization, the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA say that coconut oil consumption should be limited or avoided. This is disconcerting because I literally eat a spoonful of it a day.
Pictured: More than a spoonful… looks delicious!
Just Because It’s Fat Doesn’t Mean It’s Bad
With typical candor, Lifehacker wrote:
Coconut oil has a great reputation as a healthy, natural, even miraculous substance—even though, as far as we can tell, it never really did anything to earn that reputation. Now a professor is making headlines for calling it “poison” in a lecture in Germany. What do you really need to know about coconut oil?
The truth is, it’s an oil. It’s a food. It’s not going to poison you all on its own, nor is it going to magically melt fat or teleport you to an Instagram-worthy beach. It’s just a thing you eat.
Apparently this shit talking professor had some negative stuff to say about coconut oil that was making the rounds recently. Per the New York Times, regarding said professor’s online video lecture that has gone viral, coconut oil is “pure poison:”
The lecture, by Karin Michels, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was delivered in German. It was translated by Business Insider Deutschland and called “Coconut Oil and Other Nutritional Errors.” While not everyone takes such a harsh view against coconut oil, many experts are skeptical about its rising popularity as a purported health food.
Now, hold on just a minute here!
According to Lifehacker, not enough research has been done on coconut oil to suss out whether it’s better or worse for us than other oils — like olive oil or butter. Thus, we don’t know for sure if it’s poison or if it’s a natural miracle. Like most things in life, the answer likely falls somewhere in the middle.
When it comes to maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle, here’s the thing about miracles: There’s no such thing. A spoonful of coconut oil will add significant heft to your diet, but so will a Voodoo donut or some hideous sugary soft drink. Any one of these “calorie bombs” will have an impact on your overall constitution, especially if consumed regularly overtime.
So, just like you would think strategically about washing down a pink sprinkle donut (delicious!) with a Sprite (disgusting!), think strategically about your coconut oil consumption.
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Erika is a sex positive people watcher (and writer). Email her at erika@ynotcam.com.
Image via Tom Low.
