If you are old enough to remember Mikey, that cute little boy who did not want to eat his cereal (OK, I can't remember which cereal), you will remember his older brother saying "Try it, Mikey! You'll like it!"
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I want to say the same thing to you about coconut oil.
I do not like coconuts. I avoid any food that contains coconut, so why would I try coconut oil? It is a very short story. I was having dinner with a friend who had sauteed some steak strips. She also served brown rice and fresh vegetables, and on the plate it looked inviting and healthy. At the time I did not know how she had prepared the steak, and at my first bite I exclaimed, "This is the best steak I ever had!" To my surprise, she told me her secret - she cooks almost exclusively with coconut oil instead of butter, olive oil or vegetable oil. If I had known that in advance I probably would have passed on the steak.
I am glad I did not. I have since had chicken, pork, vegetables and (confession time) even a hot dog sauteed in coconut oil.
Coconut oil is very light and adds a scrumptious flavor to everything I have used it on. And, the biggest surprise of all, like Mikey's mom knew about his cereal, it is one of the healthiest oils you can use.
For thousands of years, coconut oil has been a staple in the pacific and tropical islander populations. Although eating a relatively high fat diet, these populations have long been known to have very low rates of heart disease and cancer. Some thought a diet high in fish was the reason, and it may be contributory, but well-regarded lipid scientists have long known that coconut oil is a large factor, as well.
Why, then, did corn and soy oil become America's staple? Obviously, we grow more corn and soy than coconuts. And in the 1950's and 1960's, the farming industry lobbied very hard to win over the cooking oil market. Some people will say that their success was to the detriment of America's health, and a major contributor to today's obesity problem.
Cattle farmers long knew that corn and soy fatten up cattle faster than any other type of feed. Then it was discovered that the oils in these foods affect the thyroid gland and slow down metabolism, thus causing the weight gain. So what happens to people when they eat corn-fed meat, or cook with vegetable oil, or consume any number of food items that contain these types of vegetable or hydrogenated oils? It does not take a genius to make the connection.
Now here is the hardest thing to accept: Coconut oil contains a high amount of saturated fat. But isn't saturated fat bad for us? That is what we have heard for many years. But is it really true?
In the 1960's the American Soy Association started a media blitz against the tropical oil industries. You can't really blame them. Coconut oil was inexpensive and the soy farmers were protecting their turf from an interloper. Their message was: highly saturated oils such as coconut oil and palm oil are bad; soy oil is good. At the time, several highly regarded scientists - George Blackburn, Ph.D., from is virgin coconut oil good for keto diet Harvard Medical School, Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., from University of Maryland, and US Surgeon General E. Everett Koop among others - tried to set the record straight. They knew that coconut oil was healthy, but the Soy industry won out.
Not all saturated fats are created equal, and I am not endorsing a diet high in saturated fat. However, my eyes have been opened to mis-information concerning fats. After all, has the low-fat diet solved America's obesity problem? I urge you to do your own research on coconut oil and decide for yourself whether something that makes food so delicious can be healthy, too.
Many people are using virgin coconut oil today in their diets on a regular basis because they have found it helps them to lose weight, increase their energy and their metabolism. However, this oil has many other reported benefits, including helping to boost thyroid function and killing microbes, like bacteria, candida and viruses.
Coconut Oil in Your Diet Can Help Boost Thyroid Function
Many people report that eating foods with coconut oil in them helps to promote a healthy thyroid function and to increase their metabolism. And you know what and increased metabolism means, don't you? You can eat more without gaining weight!
But having a healthy thyroid does a lot more than keep your metabolism normal. In fact, thyroid hormones influence all the cells in your body. That's why they can have an impact on many things including reproduction, growth, nerve & muscle function, blood sugar and insulin and more. Some symptoms of low or hypothyroid are fatigue, cold hands and feet, depression, anxiety, constipation, easy bruising, insomnia, dry skin, unhealthy and brittle nails, allergies and asthma, migraines, acne, hair loss and low sex drive.
Lauric Acid in Coconut Oil Can Help Kill Microbes
In addition to helping with thyroid function and boosting your metabolism, the lauric acid found in coconut oil is proven to be anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal, so it helps to boost your immune system and to keep you from getting sick. The lauric acid helps your body to fight bacterial infections, including strep, viral infections, including HIV and herpes, parasites like giardia and candida fungal infections.
Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit, M.D., after a 1999-2000 study of HIV patients, concluded that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and that it "can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients."
So according to Dr. Dayrit, MD, if you are HIV positive, eating coconut foods including the oil may be beneficial. Even if you are not HIV positive, eating a food in your diet that can help you get rid of viruses may be helpful for you as well.
Some brands claim to be high in lauric acid, but in reality, coconut oil in general tends to contain around 50 percent of its fats in the form of lauric acid, and levels actually vary somewhat from batch to batch. So the most important thing to look for one that it is pure and processed without chemicals.
Coconut Oil Is Easier To Digest Than Other Oils
Another good thing about consuming coconut oil as a major source of oil in your diet, especially for the many of us who have spent years consuming harmful fats like the trans-fats in vegetable oils, is that this type of oil is easier to digest than other fats. It doesn't need bile in order to be broken down and used by the body. This is important since many of us now have a hard time digesting fats because we produce less bile after years of eating bad diets. Even if you don't have a problem with fat digestion, this oil is still great for losing weight because of the way the body is able to turn it directly into energy.
So next time you reach for a cooking oil, don't forget about this special oil from the tropics!