Coconut Oil - My New Favourite Thing!

Good Evening!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a fantastic Monday. Today I want to talk about my new favourite thing - coconut oil! For a long time I thought coconut oil was a 'bad fat' but then I started talking to Trevor (dietician) and started learning just how awesome and versitile it is.

Coconut oil is used extensively in tropical countries especially India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Phillipines etc, which have a good production of coconut oil. The oil was also once popular in western countries such as United States and Canada; however, there was a strong propoganda in 1970s spread by the corn oil and soy oil industry against coconut oil. Coconut oil was considered harmful for the human body due to its high saturated fat content till the last decade (2000s) when people started questioning this propoganda. Did you know that multiple studies on Pacific Island populations who get 30-60 percent of their total caloric intake from fully saturated coconut oil have all shown nearly non-existent rates of cardiovascular disease?

And back in the 1940s, American farmers discovered the beneficial effects accidentally when they tried using inexpensive coconut oil to fatten their livestock. It didn't work! Instead, coconut oil made the animals lean, active and hungry.

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. Coconut oil has actually been shown to help optimize body weight, which can dramatically reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Besides weight loss, boosting your metabolic rate will improve your energy, accelerate healing and improve your overall immune function.

So I say its time to give coconut oil a try! I've started using it in all of my cooking instead of butter and other oils. And you can also use it as a moisturizer. And the best part? The large jar pictured below is for sale at Costco right now for $16!



Stay Healthy!
Andrea :)

References:

Benefits:
http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

The Science:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/coconut-oil-benefits_b_821453.html

Dr. Oz Says:
http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/charles-mattocks/benefits-coconut-oil