The Mighty Mighty Coconut

I want to make known to you a little known nutritional power house that can change your health in many ways.  The shell that it comes in is like a security vault- well protected and tough to crack.  If you ever tried to crack open a coconut, then you know what I am talking about.  That shell is guarding a wealth of nutritional benefits for us.  Many of us can recall the old Looney Tunes cartoon, in which a squirrel spends the whole day trying to crack open a bowling ball, which he thinks is a coconut.  That squirrel tried everything from dropping it from a tree to trying to crush it with a piano.  That squirrel must have known the value of the contents of that coconut. In the middle of the 20th century, farmers tried to fatten up their cattle by feeding them coconut oil.  Instead of gaining weight, the cattle lost weight and became leaner, while eating more.  It was a lose lose situation for these farmers.  Today, because of modern technology and science we have an understanding of why the cattle lost weight when coconut oil was introduced to their diet. 

The following is a summary of the benefits of coconut oil.

Coconut Oil Benefits:

1.  Anit-bacterial, Anti-Fungal, and Anti-Viral

• Coconut oil contains a fatty acid called lauric acid.  The body converts lauric acid to monolaurin

• The body uses monolaurin to kill HIV, Herpes, and Measles

  2.  Coconut Oil Can help with weight loss.

• Coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides (MCTs)

• MCTs are immediately used for energy instead of being stored as fat

• MCTs can up-regulate a sluggish thyroid gland, thereby raising your metabolism.

3.  Coconut oil helps to keep your skin young and healthy when used topically.

• When used topically and consumed, coconut oil helps to fight fungal skin infections.

4.  Coconut oil may improve your cholesterol profile.

• Coconut oil is less likely to become oxidized than other cooking oils.  Oxidized cooking oil can have damaging effects to our cardiovascular system.

• Coconut oil was shown to decrease LDLs (“bad cholesterol) and increase HDLs (“good cholesterol”)

                           THE COCONUT MIRACLE STORY

The following is a story about a woman who used coconut oil to treat her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease.  It is an excerpt from Mary Enig’s article entitled, “In the Land of Oz: The Latest Attack on Coconut Oil”
“…..the amazing story of a case involving coconut oil and recovery from Alzheimer’s disease, widely reported in newspapers and on the Internet.  The story is a report by Dr. Mary Newport, a neonatologist and medical director of the newborn intensive care unit at Spring Hill Regional Hospital in Florida. About six years ago, her husband, an accountant who worked at home, began struggling with daily tasks. His deterioration progressed and he was eventually diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Dr. Newport searched the Internet for clinical drug trials that would accept her husband and discovered that a drug containing medium-chain triglycerides, the kind of fat in coconut oil, had achieved remarkable results—not just slowing the progression of the disease but providing real improvement.

She decided to give her husband coconut oil, two tablespoons per day, and her husband immediately improved, scoring 18 on a cognitive assessment, four points higher than he had scored the previous day. Within a week he showed tremendous improvement and five months later her husband was leading a relatively normal life, although still unable to resume his work as an accountant, apparently due to permanent brain damage.

One important test for Alzheimer’s progression is to draw the face of a clock from memory. The illustration above shows Mr. Newport’s improvement as he took coconut oil.”
You can read the full article here: http://westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/1576-land-of-oz-attack-on-coconut-oil
There is no set recommendation for how much coconut oil to intake daily. However you want to use Organic extra virgin coconut oil.
I recommend taking 1-3 tbsp/day.  I like to divide it into 2 tsp twice daily.  I either drink it straight (it actually tastes good) , mix it into my protein shake, or use it as a spread, instead of butter.  I also prefer to cook with coconut oil when possible.  I also include it in my detoxification program.  The results are phenomenal.  It is well worth the effort to crack open the hard shell of a coconut.