[3] Due to its high levels of saturated fat, numerous health authorities recommend limiting its consumption as a food.

[2][4][5] Coconut oil is widely used for cooking and baking due to its high smoke point and distinct flavor.

[1] More simply (but perhaps less effectively), oil can be produced by heating the meat via boiling water, the sun or a slow fire.

Modern techniques use centrifuges and pre-treatments including cold, heat, acids, salts, enzymes, electrolysis, shock waves, steam distillation, or some combination thereof.

Wet processes also require investment in equipment and energy, incurring high capital and operating costs.

[9] The copra is pressed or dissolved with solvents, producing the coconut oil and a high-protein, high-fiber mash.

Copra made from immature nuts is more difficult to work with and produces an inferior product with lower yields.

They then refine the oil to remove certain free fatty acids to reduce susceptibility to rancidification.

Producing it from the fresh meat involves either wet-milling or drying the residue, and using a screw press to extract the oil.

This crude coconut oil is not suitable for consumption because it contains contaminants and must be refined with further heating and filtering.

RBD oil is used for home cooking, commercial food processing, and cosmetic, industrial, and pharmaceutical purposes.

[4][65][66] Although lauric acid consumption may create a more favorable total blood cholesterol profile, this does not exclude the possibility that persistent consumption of coconut oil may actually increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases through other mechanisms,[65] particularly via the marked increase in total blood cholesterol induced by lauric acid.

[68] A 2017 review of clinical research by experts associated with the American Heart Association recommended against consumption of coconut oil due to its propensity for increasing blood levels of LDL as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

[4] A 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials on whether chronic consumption of coconut oil might affect risk factors for cardiovascular diseases found that low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (but also high-density lipoprotein (HDL)) concentrations were elevated compared with non-tropical vegetable oils.

Coconut oil has a long history in Asia, particularly in tropical regions where the plant is abundant, where it has been used for cooking.

It is the oil of choice in Sri Lankan cuisine, where it is used for sautéing and frying, in both savoury and sweet dishes.

Other culinary uses include replacing solid fats produced through hydrogenation in baked and confectionery goods.

Since straight coconut oil has a high gelling temperature (22–25 °C (72–77 °F)), a high viscosity, and a minimum combustion chamber temperature of 500 °C (932 °F) (to avoid polymerization of the fuel), coconut oil typically is transesterified to make biodiesel.

The Philippines, Vanuatu, Samoa, and several other tropical island countries use coconut oil as an alternative fuel source to run automobiles, trucks, and buses, and to power generators.