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The Healing Properties of Coconut Oil  Oil is From the Meat of Mature Coconuts The fact that coconut oil is a highly saturated fat is a good thing. Your body needs saturated fats to most effectively use essential fatty acids (also know as EFA’s, the ones that your body needs to get from foods). Saturation is what keeps coconut oil from destabilizing or going rancid during cooking. All fatty acids are made of lengths of carbon chains. Saturation means that the chain of carbon atoms is fully “saturated” with hydrogen atoms. They have no double bonds between the individual carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain. There are many kinds of naturally occurring saturated fatty acids which differ mainly in the number of carbon atoms, ranging from 3 (extremely short chain), to 36 (extremely long chain). While all fats are made up of a combination of fatty acids, coconut oil is singular in that it is composed predominately of medium chain fatty acids (mcfas). The main mcfa in coconut oil is lauric acid, made up of 12 carbons (it makes up a whopping 47 per cent of the fat content in coconut oil). In your body, these high amounts of lauric acid are converted to monolaurin, and this is what makes coconut oil different from other oils and gives it its healing qualities. It is made only by the mammary gland and not in the liver, like other saturated fats. Coconut oil is found in large quantities only in mother’s milk, coconut oil, and palm kernel oil. Lauric acid has long been used in baby formulas. While longer-chain fatty acids, found in many foods, need to be digested by bile salts (which are secreted by the gallbladder), coconut’s medium-chain fatty acids do not. That’s why if you have trouble digesting fats, or are beginning to reintroduce fat to your diet, it’s best to begin with coconut oil. The medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil boost your metabolism. The body can use coconut oil for energy more rapidly and efficiently than any other fat source. Medium chain fatty acids are not normally stored in your body as fat. They are quickly converted to energy, making coconut oil ideal for weight loss. Many people find that they lose weight just by adding a couple of tablespoons a day of coconut oil to their diets. What a great oil to help prevent obesity. A number of years ago I happened upon an article in a “Women’s World” in a mainstream grocery store, which had an article titled “The Secret of Losing Belly Fat.” I was shocked to see that even this cheesy periodical contained some good information. They were on to the fact that coconut oil is utilized by the body to produce energy instead of being stored in the body fat like other dietary fats. The bad reputation that coconut oil undeservedly had for so many years (due to one study with hydrogenated coconut oil) is slowly crumbling. Nonetheless, the mainstream is still slow to change. Too many people are using copycat information, and too much money is invested in cheap oil production. Coconut oil is especially important to add to your diet if you are restricting calories. It will keep your metabolism humming along efficiently instead of slowing down; that’s what usually happens when calories are restricted. This oil is one of my personal “weapons” for keeping my weight to my desired level. Even though I normally cook with coconut oil; during those instances when I’ve packed on a few extra pounds, (like after a vacation), I bump up the amounts. I simply work a tablespoon coconut oil into each meal. It gets me back to my desired weight quickly and deliciously. Nowadays, coconut oil is even packaged into capsules as a weight-loss aide. Why take it in capsule form when it’s so easy to include in the diet? Coconut oil boosts energy and endurance and stabilizes blood sugar. In the 1940’s farmers attempted to use cheap coconut oil to fatten up their cows. It didn’t work: their cows instead became perky and lean. The famers then turned to soy and corn for more effective fatteners. Medium chain fatty acids found in lauric acid:
It is interesting to note that these oils have long prevented indigenous populations from bacterial and viruses found in the food supply. When populations switch from their traditional oils like coconut oil modern polyunsaturated oils, they have a hugely increased rate of modern illnesses. (I’ve witnessed this phenomena with friends and students from India and the Philippines.) The oil is good applied topically as well. It helps soften skin and relieve dryness and flaking. I used to have a recurring chest rash every year when the weather in New York got hot. Since using coconut oil regularly on my skin, I have not had a rash in almost 12 years! One of my students who had eczema reported that after only three weeks of applying the oil to his dry flaky skin, his condition was improved 70 percent. I lost track of him, so I was not able to discover whether his eczema completely cleared. More healing qualities of coconut oil:
Coconut oil is a traditional fat that has been used for many years in a multitude of cultures. Coconuts grow in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Pacific Islands, in equatorial Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. The trees produce between 50 and 100 nuts per year. They start yielding fruit at age six, and they continue to give off fruit for the next 55 or so years. Coconuts are ecologically sound, as they are able to grow in difficult environments, such as atolls, or under conditions of high salinity, drought, or poor soil. They play an important role in maintaining the fragile ecosystems of island and coastal communities. Moreover, most of the world’s coconut production comes from small farms. For more information on coconut, read Eat Fat, Look Thin, by Bruce Fife and Eat Fat, Loose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon.
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