Coconut Oil: What Industrial Food Doesn't Want You to Know

Preface.

The first thing I should state on here is that I had great hopes for this website. Then I realized I had a family, and they liked to eat. On clean plates. And wear clean clothes. And even sometimes sing songs or play games together.

Since then, this thing's been utterly abandoned. Now I'm desperate enough to settle for a compromise: there's plenty of things out there I think are important, things I want to contemplate -- decisions I want to make. Thing is, I can't put in the time to make this the glorious blog it should be -- has the capability to be -- if I had the time. No, family comes first, and right now they come middle and last and everywhere in between, too. So this website will have incidents of poor grammar, of run-on sentences (but you already knew that,) and of meandering, poorly-planned thoughts. But at least it will be written in, if only sporadically.

It's me. Did you really expect anything else?

Where She Actually Makes A Point. Or Tries.

Here's the thing about coconut oil: it's a medium-chain-fatty-acid. Since we're on such close terms, I just call 'em MCFA, or McFaahs. Well, I actually had never heard of them until tonight. Please don't tell anyone. That little acronym didn't mean much to me until today, but I'm putting it in my permanent memory -- it's too important to forget.

So since we're already swimming above my head, I'll be quoting heavily from one of the Green Smoothie Girl's articles on the subject. Her website is of a personal nature, and she has no monetary interest in the industry. Her article words the information more succinctly and precisely than any other website I came across:


"Coconut oil is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-parasite, and anti-fungal. It prevents heart disease, linked by recent research to lingering infections in the blood and tissues that coconut oil kills. It has been documented to inhibit carcinogenic agents that cause colon cancer and breast tumors in animals.

Coconut oil is highly alkaline and purifies the blood—never clogging arteries since it’s liquid above 76 degrees. It is used in hospitals around the world: it’s ideal for people with digestion problems because the medium-chain triglycerides don’t require pancreatic enzymes or bile to digest. It’s perfect for diabetics because it helps regulate blood sugar and supplies energy to cells without affecting blood sugar or insulin levels. It’s been shown to improve insulin secretion and utilization of blood glucose."

For someone like me, who has a weak pancreas and gallbladder, coconut oil is a Godsend. They can be digested quickly and easily, and are especially helpful in infants' milk. (See the book Coconut Oil: For Health and Beauty by Cynthia Holzapfel for more on its ability to help with the digestive track.) Green Smoothie Girl goes on:


Another rare feature of coconut oil is that its main component is lauric acid, the powerful antimicrobial, immune-function compound in mother’s breast milk. That’s why baby formula companies use it for fatty acids in formula—it’s the closest they can get to mother’s milk. (Unfortunately, they use an inexpensive processed version of the oil.)

Much has been written about EFAs—essential fatty acids with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that your body cannot manufacture itself and therefore must receive from food. I put a tablespoon of fresh flax oil in my green smoothie to get these compounds. Although coconut oil isn’t a significant source of EFAs, it can increase the efficiency of EFAs by as much as 100%!

Coconut oil health benefits include combating viral infections including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and AIDS; helping with gallbladder disease, osteoporosis, Crohn’s Disease, and hypoglycemia; and nourishing premature, low-birth-weight babies. Many people say coconut oil helps them control sugar cravings.

"Fat" has such a negative connotation in contemporary culture it can be hard to believe any health claim can be worth increasing your intake. But good fat is essential to optimum brain function, and nothing in our body operates without receiving its direction from our little noggins. Fat is the principal source of energy for our bodies; it protects our body from the cold; they aid in the development of secondary sex characteristics. They are truly vital for our well-being, and the healthier the fat, the healthier and happier the body.

If you'd like to learn more about coconut oil -- and you're feeling studious -- there are plenty of peer-reviewed articles on the subject. A quick Google search will provide plenty of results, but it can be trickier to find websites without a monetary interest on the subject.