Take Coconut Oil to Lose Weight and Increase Your Energy

In southeast asia somewhere, right now someone is living off of a mostly saturated fat diet. Everyday the majority of their calories come from saturated fat, it is spread or used to cook everything they eat- rice, stir-fries, grilling sauce, etc. "What!" you say "Saturated Fat?! Isn't that stuff terrible for you? Well obviously they haven't heard about how bad that stuff is for you, their cholesterol must be through the roof!"....hmmm, well here's the interesting part this person is probably healthier than, most of us...and that's because we haven't heard about how GOOD coconut oil is for us!

 (contains some science)

Ok well first let's look at that saturated fat term that coconut oil always gets labelled with. When you think of the word "saturated", what do you think of? something that is completely absorbed by something else probably, like a sponge saturated with water. The next word "fat" doesn't help because now you associated "saturated fat " with being completely absorbed by fat and naturally you picture this happening inside of you.

The fact is that "saturated" just means the structure of the fat is filled with hydrogens. In other words, at every carbon to carbon linkage there are also two hydrogens attached. This type of saturated structure actually is much more stable because the carbon chains are allowed to rotate around the bond axis.

Now we probably think of "unsaturated" as the absence of fat, and because we associate fat with "bad" we automatically think unsaturated fat is better for us. This is a dangerous presumption. Unsaturated just means at one (monounsaturated) or a few (polyunsaturated), carbon to carbon linkages there is the absence of a hydrogen and in it's place there is a double bond. This double bond holds the carbons more tightly and is more restrictive about how they move around, so in turn the chain can no longer rotate freely, it is locked in position. This is not good for the atoms because they want the freedom to move, they just don't have the energy to overcome the handcuffs (double bounds), but believe me, as soon as they do they will break free! For these reasons unsaturated fats are unstable.

Now we have 2 things to remember Saturated fat= Stable........UNsaturated fat= UNstable that is a much better relationship to remember.

In the 1940's some farmers looking to cash in on their pigs, decided to experiement with a new way of fattening them up, feeding them coconut oil. After all coconut oil was cheap and in abundance, so why not try it out? Well, what happened to these pigs was exactly the opposite- it made them leaner and more active, all the signs of an increased metabolism. Of course lean and active pigs are of no use to farmers! They wanted to make them as fat as possible. So by the time the word spread, others were already trying different oils to see what effects they had. Finally they discovered that when the animals were fed soy beans and corn (both oils are unsaturated) as feed they could gain weight without eating much food at all. A win win situation for the farmers..but what about you? Do you want to be lean and active, eating a healthy amount, or as fat as possible, with the least amount of food?

Coconut oil is an irrefutable metabolic stimulator, and is one of the easiest ways that you can increase your metabolism. This wonderful property has to do with the length of the carbon chains in the fat molecule. While most vegetable oils are long chain fats (LCT-long chain triglycerides), coconut oil is composed primarily of Medium chain fats (MCT's). These two classes of fats differ in that LCTs, when eaten, are stored in the body as fat while MCT are used for energy. In this way intake of MCT increases your metabolic rate because of its ability to quickly cause energy production.

The MCT's in coconut oil are useful in more ways than just losing weight, increasing energy and boosting metabolism, they also prevent you from getting sick- They are a health giving oil. One of the MCT's in coconut oil is Lauric Acid, which when metabolized in the body turns into monolaurin. This compound is similar to what is found in mother's milk and is what is responsible for many of it's healing and health giving effects. In fact, besides mother's breast milk, coconut oil is the highest source of lauric acid found in nature. Such health benefits have been known in Indian Ayurvedic medicine for centuries and have held up against modern scientific scruinty. One such study documenting the effects of coconut oil was conducted on Candida species in Nigeria (In vitro antimicrobial properties of coconut oil on Candida species in Ibadan, Nigeria; J Med Food. 2007 Jun;10(2):384-7. )

In the above study, It was found that coconut oil showed antimicrobial and anti-fungal properties similar to that of modern pharmaceutical compounds, and of course with none of the side damge pharmaceuticals cause to us. Additionally the monolaurin that coconut oil is converted into in our bodies is anti-viral and anti-parasitic. Here is what Mary Enig, PhD, a noted lipid researcher has to say about the biochemical properties of coconut oil.

"Monolaurin is the antiviral, antibacterial, and antiprotozoal monoglyceride used by the human or animal to destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV, herpes, cytomegalovirus, influenza, various pathogenic bacteria, including listeria monocytogenes and helicobacter pylori, and protozoa such as giardia lamblia. Some studies have also shown some antimicrobial effects of the free lauric acid."

Vegetable oils have been touted as healthy mostly as a commercial campaign to increase sales by US manufacturers, whom produce corn and soy in plentiful amounts. This has also lead to a smear campaign against coconut oil to decrease the presence of it on the US market.
Here's an example, remember this... Saturated fat= Stable........UNsaturated fat= UNstable. Saturated fats (coconut) can stay stable for long periods of time even through high temperatures, while unsaturated fats (vegetable) spoil very easily and go rancid. For this reason coconut oil is an excellent choice for bakery goods and packaged snacks, and it used to be used for this reason in the US. However since the smear campaign started from the vegetable oil manufacturers, coconut oil was abandoned and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils took its place. Remember, saturated= more hydrogen, so by hydrogenating an oil it is becoming more saturated with hydrogen and hence more like coconut oil. These partially hydrogenated oils are dangerous, they are produced by heating the vegetable oils to high temperatures and bubbling hydrogen gas through them to produce oils that are not existent in nature. The result is a partial trans-fat that your body has no idea what to do with- and so they begin to clog your arteries. So why produce a man made toxin to fill our food with when the natural alternative worked fine? Well because it makes vegetable oil producers and manufacturers in the US rich, and eliminates their competition from overseas coconut plantations. in 1988 US Congress wanted to hear the story on the oil debate so they held hearings. Harvard medical researcher Dr. George Blackburn spoke at those hearings and expressed, in his opinion, there was no need to fear coconut oil, after all it has no effect on blood cholesterol as seen in populations who use it as their main source of fat. He went on to call the public fear "foolishness" and proclaimed how it was all rooted in the commercial interests of the vegetable oil companies. Unfortunately coconut growers do not have the political influence of the US based vegetable oil corporations, so eventually the interests of the corporations won out.

Because of its stability and the fact that its molecular structure is free to move around as it wants, coconut oil can handle the high heats present in cooking without breaking down. Vegetable oils on the other hand have those pesky double bonds that act as handcuffs on the molecule's movements.  However as soon as the vegetable oil has enough energy (heat), it can overcome the force of the double bond and shift its position, except not enough to break free of the double bond so it just shifts to a more stable position, however this position is what is known as the trans position, the well known culprit of many ill- effects.

Also because of it's structure coconut oil is solid at room temperature.  You see because the saturated chains have no double bond kinks in them they can pack one on top of the other and maintain this shape beyond the kinetic energy that is introduced at room temperature. However slightly above this, 76F/24.5C, coconut oil turns into a liquid.  So because our body temperature is 98.6F/37C there is absolutely no need to worry that coconut oil will become solid inside our bodies, it's physically impossible!

Coconut oil increases your metabolism, causes you to lose weight and gives you increased energy.  This alone is enough to start taking it....but the list goes on.  Due to the compound lauric acid which turns into monolaurin in our bodies, it is antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-parasitic. Coconut oil is much more stable than vegetable oil in cooking applications and general use, and will never produce the trans fatty acids that lead to heart disease as vegetable oil does.

Some more facts to consider...we need at least 50% of the fat we eat to be saturated fat in order for our bones to absorb calcium properly.  Is it any wonder osteoporosis has shot up since the 1950's when this smear campaign started?...The Omega 3 fatty acids we all hear about are better absorbed when our diet is rich in saturated fat....Saturated fats protect the liver from the detriments of modern life.

The Coconut story goes on and on, and we are probably only beginning to uncover its benefits. The answer is clear, coconut oil can and will improve your health when you start taking it.  Try it out and take the first step today.

You should only be taking Extra Virgin Coconut oil that is Expeller Pressed, I have provided links to a well known and respected producer, Nutiva, which is sold though Amazon at the absolute best prices.

You can take it fresh by the tablespoon, or add it to your cooking. It is also great spread on toast or mixed into rice.

Start with 1Tbs/day for the first week and then can be increased to 2 Tbs/day or even up to 3 Tbs. You will begin to feel the positive effects after a few days use.