Garden of Life Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

A few months ago, while restocking on my protein powder, I ordered the Garden of Life Extra Virgin Coconut Oil on vitaminshoppe.com.  I have heard all kinds of great things about coconut oil, as I'm sure you have as well.  Vitamin Shoppe has web special for this brand for only $8.97 with 5 star reviews, so I bought it to try.

I had never used coconut oil before, but I've read that many people have found it to be a great aid for weight loss, I'm talking like pounds just melt off.  It's also supposed to help lower cholesterol, and not to mention you can use it as eye cream or hair conditioner.  I guess it's like a magical oil?!  I had to try it for myself of course.  I've been actually using it to cook just about everyday for 2 months now.

I was really surprised when it first arrived that it looked just like a candle!  I seriously thought they sent me a candle instead, until I realized vitamin shoppe probably doesn't sell candles.  When you open the jar, it looks like this:

This is the solid state, but it melts extremely fast.  And when it does it becomes a very clear, colorless liquid.  When it's in its solid state, you can use it as a spread.  I actually LOVE the way it tastes as a spread on a slice of bread.  It's so much better than butter!  Sometimes I use it on a rice cake or something as a snack so I can get my carb and fat intake at once.  When I use it to cook, it doesn't become greasy at all, and it provides a very mild coconut flavor.  It's so mild that you may not even notice, depending on how much you use.  I have cooked chicken and baked fish with it, both are very good with it.  I sometimes even give some to Whiskey.  I figure it could be like an egg which makes his coat shinier.  He might love it more than I do!  Every time I open the jar in the kitchen, he can smell it no matter where he is in the house, and he runs over and sits next to me hoping that he will get some too.  He's not like this with any other type of food!

You can refrigerate it or just leave it in the cabinet.  I find the texture to be too hard when it's refrigerated, so I leave it out.  It's been really warm lately, and when we don't have AC on during the day, the oil turns into liquid even while sitting on the shelf.  Then it turns back into the solid form overnight.  Lol.  Whatevs.

As far as weight loss properties go, I don't think I've seen any.  But I did notice during the first few weeks of using it that I was hungry a lot more often than before.  So maybe it was revving up my metabolism a little.  I can't be sure.  Either way, I was struggling to eat more fat, so I'm happy to add this to my diet.  I know it sounds weird, but when you try to eat healthy, it is actually hard to get enough fat intake.  The whole "fat is bad" thing is such a dated idea from like 30 years ago.  Fat is essential, especially for women, as it is very beneficial for the joints and skin.  There are studies that have shown that even saturated fat, which has a bad rap, helps lower cholesterol and chances of heart disease.  I would like to eat around 70 grams of fat a day, so sometimes I need to have two servings of this oil a day to meet my quota.

Here's the nutritional information on it:

It basically has only fat and nothing else.  You can calculate it yourself since 1 gram of fat = 9 calories. 14 grams X 9 = 126 calories which is basically what the calorie amount is stated as.  

Anyway, I have tried using this as eye cream.  It's very very very moisturizing.  Basically you only need to use a tiny bit of it and it will stay on your eye area all night.  I thought it was a bit too much and didn't want to get it on my pillowcase so I don't use it much.  I haven't used it as hair conditioner though -  I am quite happy with my Bumble & Bumble conditioner!  But since it's super moisturizing, I would guess that it would probably do a good job.

So I am pretty used to using this as my main cooking oil now and I will probably continue buying it.  At 8 bucks it's totally a good deal because it lasts pretty long!