Separating PUFA From Coconut Oil

[X3CyO]

Just recently bought some coconut oil in bulk, but just now noticed the amound of pufa in it.

Since following peat, this is unacceptable, and ive been tryna figure out how to fix the situation. So far it seems like the solution is finding the ideal temp to solidify the batch, and the liquid thats left will be unsaturated. Gonna do that tommorow, but curious if anyone else has already gotten around an issue like this.

 

[yerrag]

How did you notice the amount of pufa in it?

 

[Travis]

 

[yerrag]

I see. 1.6% PUFA isn't much. In one of his articles, Ray Peat has said that the effects of the PUFA in coconut oil are minimized greatly by the action of the overwhelmingly saturated content. I'm just paraphrasing.

"Coconut oil, despite containing about 1% of the unstable PUFA, can be left in a bucket at room temperature for a year or more without showing any evidence of deterioration, suggesting that the predominance of saturated fat acts as an antioxidant for the unsaturated molecules. In the body, the saturated fats seem to act the same way, preventing or even reversing many of the conditions caused by oxidation of fats." Fats and degeneration

 

[Travis]

Separation of saturated/unsaturated fatty acids

The oldest and simplest method is slowly to cool and crystallize the mixture in shallow pans to form cakes which then are pressed in presses of different design. By applying high pressure, the liquid olein is thus squeezed out from the cake, leaving the stearin fraction behind.

 

[BobbyDukes]

10 tablespoons is 2.5g of PUFA, apparently. That's, you know, quite a lot lol

(There is more PUFA in a quart of whole milk)

How much are u eating?

 

[BastiFuntasty]

You shouldn't let yourself control by your diet, that's from nowhere near the philosophy of peat.

 

[bdawg]

Lauric acid is also a strong 5-AR inhibitor: Anti-androgenic activity of fatty acids. - PubMed - NCBI

 

[johnwester130]

it's not an issue

if it is, find hydrogenated coconut oil which has the pufa removed

 

[Travis]

Coconut oil, despite containing about 1% of the unstable PUFA, can be left in a bucket at room temperature for a year or more without showing any evidence of deterioration, suggesting that the predominance of saturated fat acts as an antioxidant for the unsaturated molecules.

The saturated fats protect the PUFAs from oxidation, so it could be considered an antioxidant. This is tautologically true, but I think that this is misleading. The saturated fats, as I understand it, don't act like electron scavengers in the manner that antioxidants such as CoQ10 and Vitamin E are usually understood. I think that the saturated fats act as a 'statistical antioxidant', or that there presence simply dilutes and therefore separates the PUFAs far enough that they cannot participate in free radical chain reactions. They also insulate the PUFAs from atmospheric oxygen.
Inside the body, they could act as 'structural antioxidants':

Cholesterol, vitamin E, progesterone, and vitamin D are considered to be "structural antioxidants," that prevent oxidation partly by stabilizing molecular structures.

Cholesterol, longevity, intelligence, and health.

I think it's pretty extreme to separate out the PUFAs, because unless you are eating all fruit and tons of coconut oil, you are likely getting more PUFAs from your diet that you would get from coconut oil anyway.

 

[X3CyO]

I am eating mostly fruit and coconut oil

Still learning about trans fats and hydrogenation so idk how to feel about that yet.

Just wanted to push family towards more healthy oils since they bought a fryer. They understand the damaging effect of pufa... but its in everything so they arent as strict as the average peatarian.

 

[tara]

So far it seems like the solution is finding the ideal temp to solidify the batch, and the liquid thats left will be unsaturated. Gonna do that tommorow, but curious if anyone else has already gotten around an issue like this.

I'll be surprised if this is something you can do in your own kitchen without very specialised equipment. But let us know. Even if you could, wouldn't separating out the more liquid oils from coconut oil give you more of the medium-chain fats, not necessarily the less saturated ones?

If you can keep your overall daily PUFA under ~4g, you'd be doing pretty well.

There is a thread discussing suppliers of hydrogenated coconut oil if you want to reduce the couple of grams of PUFA you are getting from the straight stuff.

Just wanted to push family towards more healthy oils since they bought a fryer. They understand the damaging effect of pufa... but its in everything so they arent as strict as the average peatarian.

Beef fat isn't as saturated as coconut, but it's a long way better than the liquid seed oils, and works and tastes great for frying chips etc.

 

[Travis]

There has been many ways developed to separate unsaturated fatty acids from saturated ones. My favorite is column chromatography. This is a really fascinating chemical technique, but the columns can be expensive. When separating fats, I think reverse-phase chromatography is generally used.

Another method I came across is centrifugation. The saturated fats are slightly more dense because they have straight-chains and pack together more efficiently. The bends induced by a double-bond lower the density of lipid. This method would probably be even more expensive than column chromatography though!

You can use gel electrophoresis to separate them of course in tiny amounts, but it would be very difficult to recover the lipids. You might just have to eat the agarose gel itself.

But the cheapest would be to slowly freeze the coconut oil and hope that the PUFA migrates to the top. This just might be possible if you can freeze it slow enough, I don't know. It might be a fun thing to try. There is probably information on this if you search hard enough.

 

[damngoodcoffee]

Just wanted to push family towards more healthy oils since they bought a fryer. They understand the damaging effect of pufa... but its in everything so they arent as strict as the average peatarian.

You have done a miracle!

 

[encerent]

Ray Peat has said he liked hydrogenated coconut oil, which of course has 0 pufa.

 

[yerrag]

Ray Peat has said he liked hydrogenated coconut oil, which of course has 0 pufa.

Hydrogenated coconut oil has some trans-fats:

What Type of Coconut Oil is Best? How to Choose a Coconut Oil .

However, Ray doesn't seem concerned about trans-fats, as there isn't much he says about the harm coming from trans-fats. He would compare corn oil and hydrogenated corn oil, and prefer hydrogenated corn oil over corn oil for the same reason he prefers hydrogenated coconut oil over virgin coconut oil - no PUFAs.

Yet, I still prefer virgin coconut oil as a supplement and refined coconut oil for cooking. Hydrogenated coconut oil, having trans-fats, is still something I avoid. Unless there is evidence that trans-fats is not harmful.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

Hydrogenated coconut oil has some trans-fats:

No it doesn't

 

[yerrag]

No it doesn't

The hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acids does not produce trans-fatty acids? With that reasoning, corn oil, soya oil, and canola oil, as long as it is hydrogenated, is safe then? Margarine anyone?

 

[Travis]

Fully saturated fats cannot be trans-fats. This only occurs when they are not fully hydrogenated. A fatty-acid still needs at least one double bond (C=C) to have a cis or a trans orientation.

It is possible to produce fully saturated fats from canola oil, but this is not generally done. The partial hydrogenation of canola oil is certain to produce unnatural trans fats.

I think partial hydrogenation is more common because of the demonization of saturated fats and because they want margarine to closely approximate the consistency of butter. A stiffer fully-hydrogenated margarine might confuse consumers (they are confused already if they buy margarine in the first place!).

 

[Travis]

There is also the problem of trace amounts of Nickel and Iron catalyst that remain in the hydrogenated oils after production. These exist in the parts per billion and low parts per million range [Table II].
Determination of Ultratrace Metals in Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils and Fats