The winner of the Tropical Traditions Giveaway is Lisa Brown! I will be emailing you to collect your information. Congratulations, Lisa. And thank you to everyone who participated!

Note: The previous winner did not send me the information needed to collect her coconut oil. Therefore, a new winner was chosen. The new winner will have 5 days to claim their prize upon receipt of my email.

*********************************************************************************************

As I have sought to learn all there is to know about fat, one thing I have learned is to keep it simple. It’s easy to get confused and discouraged when trying to remember what’s good for me and what is bad.

Here our list of fats we use on a daily basis:

For Salads:

Use Olive Oil. Olive Oil is best used cold due to its tendency to break down under high temperatures. When you use olive oil cold, you ensure retention of all the wonderful nutrients.

• Rich in Vitamin E
• Full of powerful antioxidants (polyphenols)

We use Olive Oil for salads almost always. The only exception is my homemade Probiotic Ranch Dressing.

One of my more famous dressings is my Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing. It is requested often (even by those who eat a conventional diet ).

Leigh Ann’s Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing:

In a pint size mason jar combine the following ingredients:

• 1 cup Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (you can substitute Balsamic Vinegar as well)
• 2 cups olive oil
• salt and pepper
• minced garlic (1-3 cloves)
• 1 t thyme
• 1 t basil
• 1/2 t onion powder
•  t dry mustard (optional)

Put the lid on the jar and give it a good shake. Store in refrigerator.

Note: It will solidify in the refrigerator. I will just pull the jar out when I start cooking to let it come to room temperature (or at least liquify).

For cooking:

Use butter liberally. The best butter is the kind you get from a local farmer. Your butter should be more on the orange-y side (is that a word?). Most butters that you find in the supermarket will be a pale yellow color.

I want to quote something for you from the book Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. This book has been invaluable! I highly, highly recommend it.

In her chapter on Real Fats, she explained the reason for consuming full fat milk and entire eggs. It is a lengthy quote, but completely worth your time to read, I think. It was a complete paradigm shift for me. My emphasis added.

Consider, for example, two near-perfect foods: eggs and milk. Both foods are a complete nutritional package, designed for a growing organism’s exclusive nutrition, and must contain everything the body needs to assimilate the nutrients they contain. Thus the fats in the egg yolk aid digestion of the protein in the white, and lecithin in the yolk aids metabolism of its cholesterol. The butterfat in milk facilitates protein digestion, and saturated fat in particular is required to absorb the calcium. Calcium, in turn, requires vitamins A and D to be properly assimilated, and they are found only in the butterfat. Finally, Vitamin A is required for production of bile salts that enable the body to digest protein. Without the butterfat, then, you don’t get the best of the protein, fat-soluble vitamins, or calcium from milk. That’s why I don’t eat, and cannot recommend, egg white omelets and skim milk. They are low-quality, incomplete foods (page 181).

Therefore, cooking with butter is a good idea because of it’s high saturation level. This means it can be heated to higher temperatures before breakdown (smoking) occurs. It is a much less delicate fat. By keeping it intact, your body has a better chance of properly assimilating all the nutrients from the food you are cooking. Not to mention, your food will taste better.

Use a combination of olive oil and butter. Most of us probably use olive oil for our cooking needs. We’ve been told it’s healthy and good for us. I’ve told you some of the possible troubles with olive oil when heated, but I think this will be a hard one to give up for most. However, due to olive oil’s delicate nature, I would submit that you at least use half olive oil, half butter when sauteing. The butter, which is much more stable, will help the olive oil stay in tact.

Use Coconut Oil. This is hands down my favorite oil for cooking. Did you know that the Polynesians, who eat coconuts and coconut oil every day, call it the “Tree of Life?” Coconut oil has been used for centuries, but went out of fashion when saturated fats were said to be bad for you. Thankfully, coconut oil is making its reappearance.

Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain saturated fatty acids, which do not have to be emulsified by bile acids before they are digested. Research shows that the medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil boosts the body’s metabolism, raises body temperatures, and helps provide greater energy which can lead to weight loss.

Additionally, coconut oil’s main fat, lauric acid, is an antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral fatty acid, which is also found in breast milk. Interestingly enough, Dr. Mary Enig suggests the average adult include about 3.5 tablespoons of coconut oil per day in their diet to take in an equivalent amount of lauric acid that a nursing infant would receive from breast milk. Furthermore, research shows that lauric acid helps build immunity and protects against (and even said to kill) many infectious diseases, such as HIV, measles, herpes, strep, and more.

Pretty impressive track record, if you ask me.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, which lengthens its shelf life and makes things flaky when used for baking. As a cooking oil, its chemical structure is kept in tact and therefore is resistant to mutations of fatty acid chains even when used in higher cooking temperatures, unlike most vegetable oils.

Where to buy Coconut Oil?

Finally, I have found that coconut is a scary oil for those who aren’t used to cooking with it.

For this reason, I was excited when Tropical Traditions asked me to try out a jar of their 32-oz. – Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. We had been using another brand of coconut oil for years. As  a result, I was prepared to be disappointed in Tropical Traditions. Alas, I was not. They have won me over.

Tropical Traditions’ coconut oil is by far the best I have ever had. I found myself dipping a spoon into the jar and eating the coconut oil raw. Yum!

We also used the oil for scrambling eggs, sauteing squash and zucchini, smoothies, and a spread on our toast. I learned that Samuel will eat anything if there is enough coconut oil on it. He loves sucking on veggies to get all the coconut oil out first.

What I like about Tropical Traditions is their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil  is that it is not mass produced. It is made by families who are coconut farmers using old-fashioned traditional methods that have been used in the Philippines for hundreds of years. Their coconut trees and family producers are certified organic according to strict USDA standards. The families who produce the oil are also trained according to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards and re-certified each year.

How can you get a jar of Tropical Traditions coconut oil?

Right now they have a sale for 2 jars – 32-oz. ea. – Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil – BUY 1 GET 1 FREE!, which means you get two jars of coconut oil for $40.00. This is a steal.

Or you can enter the Giveaway!

Tropical Traditions has graciously agreed to giveaway a free quart of coconut oil to one of my readers!

Here’s how to enter (must do one of the following, but can do both):
(Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry if you do both options)

1. Follow Tropical Traditions on Twitter (@troptraditions) or Like them on Facebook.

2. Subscribe to Tropical Traditions Sales email newsletter.

For additional entries (and a better chance to win):
(Be sure to leave a separate comment for each of the following entries)

2. Visit Tropical Traditions Free Coconut Recipes page and leave a comment below telling me what recipe you want to try out.

3. Subscribe to Intentional by Grace by RSS feed or by email.

4. Share about this giveaway through your blog or favorite social media.

Giveaway ends Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 5:00 PM EST. The winners will be picked using Random.org, and announced on this site. So stay tuned to see if you are the lucky winner!

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Find Intentional By Grace
On Facebook: Intentional By Grace
On Twitter: @n10tionalgrace

Here are some resources to help you explore the benefits of adding good quality fats to your diet and where (not all but) most of my information comes from.

Web information:

Know Your Fats – Weston A. Price Foundation (scroll down to the bottom for lots of wonderful articles)

This post contains my referral link. Please see my disclosure policy here.