Is coconut oil harmful in baby food?
The dangers and beneficial effects of different types of fats are often discussed in the media, encouraging parents to be more attentive to the food they offer to their crumbs. Among the vegetable oils added to baby food, coconut is also present. Is it harmful to babies and why is it added to the mixture? Is it possible to give it to the crumbs who receive supplements? Let's see.
What are they doing?
Coconut oil is called, which is extracted from the fruit of the coconut. To obtain it, both hot pressing (more often) and cold is used. In the second case, the processing of nuts is more gentle, so it has more useful components, but this product is more expensive.
The inscription "Extra Virgin" means only that the product is obtained using the first spin, one option for which may be heating. The inscription confirming that coconut oil was obtained by cold-pressing is “first cold press” or “cold press”.
Benefit
- In addition to valuable fatty acids, it has a lot of vitamins, iron, calcium and other minerals.
- The use of this oil helps to eliminate food allergies.
- Due to its medium chain fats, it helps digestion and improves absorption of minerals and vitamins.
- It has properties to strengthen the immune system, reduce inflammation, resist fungi and bacteria.
- This is a good prophylactic agent of many diseases.
Harm
- Allergic reactions may occur.
- Excess consumption able to impair the work of the gastrointestinal tract and adversely affect the heart because of the high content of saturated fatty acids. If you use the oil in the normal range, the child will not have such side effects.
Special features
- At a temperature of +25 degrees, coconut oil melts and becomes transparent. At lower temperatures, it is a whitish solid.
- Due to the presence in the composition of saturated fatty acids, this product is little oxidized and long stored.
- The production does not use different chemical additives, so this product is completely natural.
In mixtures
Adding coconut oil to infant formula is due to the presence of palmitic acid in this product. This acid is found in breast milk and must be present in the baby’s diet. Often they are replaced palm oil in infant formulawhich has many side effects.
Coconut oil is also a source of medium chain triglycerides. These fats are perfectly absorbed by the child, without loading the pancreas, since they begin to split even in the oral cavity. This property is important for the organization of nutrition for premature babies and toddlers who have diseases of the digestive tract.
Another advantage of adding it to the mixture is the presence of lauric acid, which has antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal effects.
Application and addition to dishes for children
It can be used in the preparation of complementary food as a useful alternative to cream or any vegetable oil. When heated, it does not emit harmful substances, so it is often recommended for frying.
Coconut oil can be added to sweet pastries for children and cottage cheese casseroles. It can also be spread on bread or added to cereals.For baking, they are advised to replace margarine and butter, taking it to 75% of the volume indicated in the recipe.
