What Does Coconut Flour and Gasoline Have in Common?

...Unfortunately a lot more then I would have ever suspected.

My Story: 

Just moments ago, I made myself a nice little dish of grain-free berry cobbler. It tasted all right, but I always dislike coconut flour (which I used a Tablespoon full of in my recipe), so that kind of made the whole dessert barely palatable by my standards...but what is a girl to do when the craving for some berry cobbler strikes? I have quite a stockpile of Organic coconut flour (5 bags full, that stuff is scarce, you have to stock up! :P). Coconut flour is one of the few grain-free flour options and is a staple in Paleo recipes. Besides, coconut flour is so "healthy"....right?

Apparently its not that simple.

If you make your own coconut flour from natural additive-free coconut, then congratulations, it is indeed quite healthy! But if you buy yours commercially processed...beware.

I started wondering if my aversion to coconut flour was not just the taste that made me shy away from it. I noticed tonight that I also got very upset stomach and was quite nauseous from the coconut flour dessert I made tonight and the more I thought about it, I realized that coconut flour has always seemed to make me feel rather ill.

And then I was talking to my dad about my new theory of how the coconut flour has been making me feel sick every time I eat it and how I just do not understand why coconut flour is bothering me when fresh coconut, dried coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut water are all perfectly fine! And then he asked the magic question: but what chemical do they use to process the coconut flour?

AAAAGH! Here we go :S

The Dirty Secrets of Coconut Flour Production:

Chemicals?... in "Organic" coconut flour? *gasp* Would they do that?

YES. Of course they would  ~ (T _ T) ~

Hexane.

n-hexane to be more precise.

Here you can see the article I found on commercial coconut flour production where I discovered the use of the solvent hexane in some methods of coconut oil extraction.

If we check out what Wikipedia has to say about n-hexane, we find out in the same paragraph that:

"When n-hexane is ingested, it causes nausea, vertigo, bronchial irritation, intestinal irritation and CNS effects. It has been reported that ~50 g of n-hexane may be fatal to humans. Furthermore, n-hexane is biotransformed to 2-hexanol and further to 2,5-hexanediol by cytochrome P450 mixed function oxidases by omega oxidation. 2,5-Hexanediol may be further oxidized to 2,5-hexanedione, which is neurotoxic and produces a polyneuropathy."

And then the article goes on to happily inform us that:

"n-Hexane is also used as a solvent in the extraction of oil from seeds (soybean, cottonseed, flaxseed, safflower seed, and others). It is sometimes used as a denaturant for alcohol, and as a cleaning agent in the textile, furniture, and leather industries. It is slowly being replaced with other less toxic solvents."

Even more reasons to avoid soybean, cottonseed, flaxseed, safflower seed, etc.!!!!

Other uses: hexanes are used in the formulation of glues for shoes, leather products, and roofing.

Oh joy! So now we are using fatal solvents that are used in making glue.... in our food...not to mention organic baby formula?!! (0_0) Yikes!

So what does coconut flour and gasoline have in common? "Hexanes are significant constituents of gasoline". (wiki)  Oh joy. Isn't that lovely :S

In the future I will be far more aware of what brand of coconut oil I will be buying. Thankfully I unknowingly bought Nutiva Organic Coconut Oil which "according to Nutiva, no hexane is used in the processing of this oil". Whew! Which I can believe since it has given me no adverse reactions Yay! At least I can still eat my tasty coconut oil! Yum! (^ _ ^)

So be careful to check out the company that you are buying from, before you purchase your coconut flour and coconut oil!