For the love of Coconut Oil

If you haven’t tried this amazing, multi-functional, health benefiting product, let me tell you why it’s time to start.

If you have ever looked at the nutritional profile of coconut oil, you will see that 1 tablespoon has 120 calories and 14 grams of saturated fat. Most of us would shy away from this product because advertising on TV has programmed us to immediately think that all fat is bad. We say that fat is bad, because it makes us fat! Well there are definitely bad fats out there that will make us fat, and do more harm to us other than our waist lines. You may not believe me, but the fat in coconut oil does wonders to your body inside and out. Let me explain.

The saturated fatty acids in coconut oil are mostly Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFAs). The main contributor to coconut oil is of a type rarely found in nature called Lauric acid. When consumed our bodies convert Lauric acid into Monolaurin, which has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-protozoa properties. MCFAs are better for the body since the molecules are smaller and are easily digested. They are immediately burned by your liver for energy, like carbohydrates, but without the insulin spike. Other oils such as vegetable or seed oils are comprised of Long Chain Fatty Acids (LCFAs), which are larger molecules, so they are difficult for your body to break down and are predominantly stored as fat.

How do they know this? Well, back in the 1940’s farmers tried to fatten their livestock using inexpensive coconut oil. But to their surprise, it didn’t happen! The Livestock became lean, active, and hungry. MCFA’s can actually boost your metabolism and help your body use fat for energy, as opposed to storing it, so it can actually help you become leaner.

Now that we know that the fat (MCFAs) in coconut oil can increase our metabolism and help us lose weight, let me tell you what else it can do. There are actually a plethora of benefits which include stress relief, hair and skin care, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, and the list goes on (literally). Here are a few discussed in further detail:

Hair Care
Coconut oil aids in healthy growth of hair and giving them a shiny complexion. With regular massage of the head with coconut oil, it ensures that your scalp is free of dandruff, lice, lice eggs, and dry scalp. It works as an efficient hair conditioner and provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair. From personal experience, I recommend to only use a small amount to start with. I went a little oil happy one day and had some oil slicked hair.

Skin Care
You can use it for massage oil, and it is an effective moisturizer for all skin types. It also delays wrinkles and sagging of the skin which become prominent with age.

Digestion
When cooking with coconut oil, it helps improve digestion since it prevents various stomach and digestion related problems. Since the saturated fats in it have anti-microbial properties, it helps in dealing with various bacteria, fungi, and parasites that cause indigestion. To make things better, the fat helps aid in the absorption of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

Heart Disease
Since coconut oil contains a high amount of Lauric Acid, it helps prevent various heart problems such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The oil actually increases HDL (good) cholesterol, but does NOT increase LDL (bad) cholesterol.

So there you have it. Coconut oil is an amazing food and body product that we should all consider using. If you are still not convinced, just Google the question and you will get an enormous amount of results. When buying it, make sure you buy Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil as it is the best quality to get the full range of the coconut oils health (see why here).

One final thing to be aware of is the melting point of coconut oil. Unlike most other oils, coconut oil has a high melting point - about 24 to 25 degrees Celsius. Therefore it is solid at room temperature (meaning don’t put it in the fridge or it will be as hard as a rock) and melts only when the temperatures go high. Due to the hot summer we just had (and no air conditioning in my apartment), my coconut oil remained in its liquid form for most of the season (as pictured above). 

If you are ready to pick yourself up a jar and add it into your diet, you can do something simple as adding it to your smoothies to get all its health benefits.

To good, pure, clean health, inside and out.