MCT Oil

I've been working hard to take control of how my diet interacts with my CPT2.  My brother has taken MCT oil regularly for years -- and he has also been less symptomatic than I am.  I had long assumed that this was because he is a good weight for his height, whereas I struggle with my weight.  I still think that this has something to do with it, but there is a bigger role for MCT oil than I thought.

Over the past month, I've been regularly adding MCT oil to my diet.  My muscles have behaved much better with added MCT oil.  I'm going to stick with this for several more months and reevaluate, but my current thinking is that it is going to end up being a permanent dietary change.

MCT oil apparently has a smoking point of 350 degrees, so it is a bit limited as to how it can be used.  An easy way to incorporate MCT oil is substituting it for regular oil in cookie and brownie recipes and boxed mixes.  If using boxed mixes, look for ones that have minimal fat already in the mix.  Pillsbury makes a brownie mix with less than 5% of calories from fat in the boxed ingredients.

Because the goal of adding MCT oil is to develop a tasty and well-tolerated MCT delivery system, I haven't cut the amount of MCT oil in the recipes.  That said, MCT oil appears to saturate the food far better than regular oil -- the food is far more moist than with normal oil.  It hasn't been an issue for me (kind of a plus), but there is a difference in texture.

Also, be sure to label your food as "MCT Oil".  Hypothetically, if my daughter's friend slept over, smelled freshly baked cookies, didn't know they had MCT Oil, ate a dozen of them (without asking!) and then destroyed the bathroom, that wouldn't be good.  MCT Oil is tough on the stomach.  So label, label, label.

Update 12/12/14:  Here is a mini-cookbook for MCT oil: https://louisville.edu/hsc/compliance/site-medschool-pediatrics/clinical/wcec/genetics/nutrition/about-mct/recipes/MCT%20Recipes.pdf/at_download/file  [UPDATE:  Looks like that link is dead now]