Amazing Energizing, Fat Burning Secrets of Coconut Oil

 

Coconuts once were considered bad for you.

It was thought that the saturated fat in coconut lead to high cholesterol, clogged arteries, heart disease, and weight gain.

Now, coconuts have taken center stage for their nutrition value.

So the question is: Are coconuts good for you or bad for you?

Coconut is now sold in stores as coconut oil, the coconut meat itself, coconut milk and coconut water.

While all parts of the coconut contain great health benefits it's the oil that makes it a real superfood!

Coconut oil, once avoided like the plague, is now known to be very beneficial to the body. Yes, hydrogenated coconut oil is bad–as are all hydrogenated fats.

But organic, unprocessed, virgin coconut oil is a whole different story. Coconut oil has been found to have some truly unique benefits for your body and is now considered a very healthy food.

Coconut oil has been described as "the healthiest oil on earth."

What makes coconut oil so good and so unique?

Ok, so fats come in different sizes. Well actually, fat molecules come in different sizes. Fats are made up of either Long Chain Fatty Acids (LCFA), Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA), or Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA).

The majority of fats and oils in our diets, whether they are saturated, unsaturated, or come from animals or plants, are composed of long-chain fatty acids (LCFA).

Some 98 to 100% of all the fatty acids you consume are LCFA.

The size of the fatty acid is extremely important.

Why? Because our bodies respond to and metabolize each fatty acid differently depending on its size. Coconut oil is composed predominately of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA)— also known as medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). Coconut oil contains the most concentrated natural source of MCFA available in our diet.

Because our bodies process MCFA’s differently, the effects of coconut oil are distinctly different from those of other oils.

Coconut oil is actually used to help treat health issues including weight loss, skin conditions, allergies, inflammation, Alzheimer’s and dementia, and strengthening the immune system.

Scientific studies have shown that coconut oil also has anti-microbial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties and is effective against candida, measles, giardia, listeria, (common food-poisoning pathogens), staph, and heliobacter pylori (bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers) and is even being used to help HIV/AIDS patients.

And forget all the stuff that was once said about coconut oil and cholesterol and heart attacks!

Virgin coconut oil actually has a beneficial effect in lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids and low-density lipoproteins (LDL-the bad cholesterol) and so is good for the blood vessels and the heart.

And, how about this: Substituting coconut oil for other vegetable oils in your diet will help you burn fat better, lose weight and have more energy.

How is this possible? Compared to carbohydrates, medium-chain triglycerides are a better and more efficient source of quick energy. Most oils, are broken down into fatty acids that circulate through your body after you eat them, and hungry fat cells in our bodies readily store these as fat.

When you eat MCFA’s, they go straight to the liver to get immediately metabolized and processed as energy.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a pill that would shift our metabolic rate into a higher gear? Well guess what? Coconut oil does that.

Eating foods containing medium chain fatty acids is like putting high-octane fuel into your car.  Because MCFA’s go directly to the liver and converted into energy, the body gets a boost of energy. And because MCFA’s are easily absorbed by the energy-producing parts of the cells, metabolism increases. 

This burst of energy has an energizing effect on the entire body.

The fact that MCFAs digest immediately to produce energy and stimulate metabolism has led athletes to use them as a means to enhance exercise performance. 

There are several studies showing this to be true:

In one study, investigators tested the physical endurance of mice who were given MCFA’s in their daily diet against those that weren't. The study extended over a six-week period.  The mice were subjected to a swimming endurance test every other day.  They were placed in a pool of water with a constant current flow like that found in a river.  The total swimming time until exhaustion was measured. 

While at first there was little difference between the groups of mice, those fed MCFA’s quickly began to out-perform the others and continued to improve throughout the testing period.

In another study, the thermogenic (fat-burning) effect of a high-calorie diet containing 40% fat as MCFA was compared to a diet containing 40% fat as LCFA (long chain fatty acids).

The thermogenic effect of the MCFA was almost twice as high as the LCFA: 120 calories versus 66 calories.

The researchers concluded that the excess energy provided by fats in the form of MCFA does not get stored as fat, but rather would be burned. MCFA’s are popular among body builders because they help reduce carbohydrate intake, and increase energy.

MCFA’s also have muscle-sparing effects. As a result, they help build muscles while reducing fats, and this means better fat-burning metabolism for you.

Since these super fats increase metabolism, and boost energy, virgin coconut oil gets ranked at the top of the list as a fat-burning food.

Researchers are now looking into the exciting possibility of using coconut oil as a treatment not only for Alzheimer’s disease but also for Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), drug resistant epilepsy, brittle type I diabetes, and diabetes type II (insulin resistance).

The most important change you can make in your diet is to replace all the refined vegetable oils (soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, etc.), margarine, shortening, or hydrogenated oils you may be currently using in your food preparation with coconut oil.

Coconut oil remains stable at higher heats for cooking and tastes great in most dishes. Try some in your next stir-fry! It also tastes great raw, straight from the jar.

I put coconut oil (its pretty thick at room temperature or below) on toast, in smoothies, or use in homemade mayo or salad dressing recipes.

One of my favorite healthy oil mixes is to use a combination of Udo’s Choice, grass fed butter and coconut oil when cooking. There are hundreds of ways to eat coconut oil, just give it a try!

 

 

 

 

Sources: Dr. Mary Enig, PhD, F.A.C.N., “Coconut: In support of good health in the 21st Century, http://www.coconutoil.com/coconut_oil_21st_century.htm, 2004-2007 Coconut Research Center, http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/, 2004 Ivy, John, and Robert Portman, “The Performance Zone: Your Nutrition Action Plan for Greater Endurance and Sports Performance” (Teen Health Series), North Bergen, NJ: Basic Health Publications, Inc., 2004. Ryan, Monique, “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes”, Boulder, CO: Velo Press, 2002. Dr. Joseph Mercola, “Here's the Smarter Oil Alternative I Recommend to Replace Those Other Oils in Your Kitchen", Mercola.com, 2010.

Best Wrinkle Fighters are Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Saturated Fats

When I was a teenager, my summer’s goal was to get as tan as possible, so needless to say, my friends and I spent a good portion of our summertime sun bathing as much as we could.

And to make matters worse, no sunscreen for us, no sir, we used baby oil to bake our skin.

Sunscreen was for sissies.

I still remember the lectures (that went unheeded) from my dad about too much sun exposure.

That I would get wrinkly, leathery-looking skin when I was older, that I could get skin cancer if I didn’t stay out of the sun, and that I needed to be slathering myself with chemical-laden sunscreens.

Well, eventually the super summer bronze glow became a thing of the past, as free time was replaced with college, full-time jobs, and families.

As a fair-skinned blonde, I worried about my skin.

Would I become wrinkly and leathery-looking by the time I was 30?

I watched and waited, and it never happened.

Never a fan of expensive creams, lotions, potions and cosmetic medical procedures, I just used soap and water and hoped for the best.

What I did not realize at the time was that the diet I was eating was helping my skin tremendously.

I actually reversed the sun damage with my healthy diet.

Today at 51, my skin is smooth, soft and relatively wrinkle-free—far from the leathery, wrinkly face my father predicted.

I’m now experiencing another phenomenon—as a competitive cyclist, I spend long hours out in the sun riding my bike. Since most conventional sunscreens are full of chemicals that are far worse than the sun exposure and cause more damage with their poisonous chemicals than the sun itself, I am not a big fan of sunscreens.

But, surprisingly enough, I rarely get burned out in the sun, just lightly tanned most of the time.

What is going on?

Turns out, my diet has come to the rescue, again.

A recent study shows omega 3 fatty acids actually protect the skin from the inflammatory response (sunburn) after too much sun exposure and that these super nutrients also reduce the risk of some skin cancers.

The study’s findings also show that omega 3 fatty acids play an important role in preventing and reducing the damaging effects of sun. In humans, omega 3 fatty acids also increase the time it takes to become sunburned, the review concluded, very similar to what sunscreens do.

In experimental animal studies, the reviewers noted, there is direct evidence that dietary omega 3 fatty acids inhibited the cancerous changes that occur after ultraviolet radiation, including decreasing tumor growth and reducing the cancer cell’s ability to multiply.

However, equivalent levels of omega 6 fatty acids actually increase the cancerous changes that occur after exposure to ultraviolet radiation. In mice and in human skin exposed to ultraviolet B radiation, dietary omega 3 fatty acids dramatically reduce levels of prostaglandin E synthase type 2 (PGE(2)), an inflammatory messenger chemical that suppresses immune response to pre-cancerous cell changes. Dietary omega 6 fatty acids increase levels of PGE(2).

So the “Standard American Diet” that most Americans consume containing the skewed higher ratio of omega 6 fatty acids to omega 3’s not only contributes to a worse sunburn, but it also contributes to the aging effect of sun on the skin.

It is a known fact that people who regularly eat a diet higher in saturated fats and omega 3 fats have much smoother, softer skin.

In contrast, a diet high in trans fats and omega 6 fats ages skin and those that consume that type of diet have older-looking skin and wrinkles.

So obviously, the best way to avoid damaging your skin and minimizing the effects of sun damage start on the inside, not the outside.

Lets look at ways to best protect our skin from the inside out:

One of the best ways to prevent sun damage, while absorbing healthy vitamin D, and protect your skin, is with diet. Your body can actually create its own natural sunscreen with the right dietary components:

  • Omega 3 fatty acids–Research studies show that eicosapentaenoic acid (also called EPA), a kind of omega 3 fatty acid, helps prolong the time that it takes skin to get burnt during sun exposure, and also helps reduce the risk of skin cancer. The best omega 3 fatty acids containing EPA and DHA, are found in animal products such as grass-fed meat, cold-water, wild caught, fish like salmon, sardines, and mackerel, and free range chickens/eggs.
  • An optimal balance of omega 3’s to omega 6’s (3:1, or better) is critical for many, many health factors, including heart health and skin health. According to another study published in the American Health Foundation Journal:

“Epidemiological, experimental, and mechanistic data implicate omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as stimulator’s and long-chain omega 3 PUFAs as inhibitors of development and progression of a range of human cancers, including melanoma”.

  • Eliminate vegetable oils in favor of grass fed butter, lard or tallow, and healthy fats like virgin olive oil and coconut oil. Plastic surgeons even note that those people who eat a diet purely made up of vegetable oils tend to have much more wrinkly, aged looking skin than people of the same age who eat a diet rich in saturated fats. And unfortunately, vegans tend to age more quickly than omnivores, since they are missing out on collagen, protein, and saturated fats that all contribute to more skin elasticity, better skin cell membranes, and more collagen to add structure under the skin.
  • Eat Carotenoids. Carotenoids are nutrients that protect plants and animals from excess sunshine. When we ingest carotenoids, they are deposited into the skin to prevent sunburn and oxidative stress, which can lead to wrinkles and skin cancer. Best sources of carotenoids are free-range organic eggs, dark-green leafy vegetables (kale, collards, baby greens and organic spinach), and yellow-orange fruits and vegetables (mangoes, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash).

  • The most potent carotenoid is the red pigment found in salmon, trout, shrimp, and lobsters. It is known as astaxanthin. Once ingested, astaxanthin is 1,000 times more effective at protecting skin from UV damage than other carotenoids. A research study by Köpcke & Krutmann concluded that beta-carotene is effective in protecting against sunburn and that time is important: the longer the duration of supplementation, the stronger the effect. A minimum of 10 weeks was needed to see results, and the protective effect increased with each additional month of supplementation.
  • Include lycopene in your diet. It’s pretty easy to get lycopene in the summer, since it is found in red fruits such as tomatoes, red bell pepper and watermelon. Lycopene’s potency is actually increased with cooking, so tomato sauce and tomato paste have more concentrated amounts of lycopene than fresh tomatoes.

In studies with lycopene, it was shown that people who consumed 55 grams (5 tablespoons) a day of lycopene in tomato paste had 33% more protection against sunburn compared to a control group after 12 weeks. It also boosted the level of procollagen in the skin, which suggests potential reversal of the skin aging process.

  • Drink 3-4 cups of green tea a day for its antioxidant and skin-protecting benefits. (It’s delicious iced and sweetened with stevia.) Green tea contains antioxidants called polyphenols that boost the ability of skin to protect itself from the sun. The polyphenols in green tea actually reduce the damage caused by ultraviolet rays and protect it from photo aging, both when applied externally as a topical cream or a lotion, and when consumed internally as food.
  • Snack on vitamin and flavanol-rich fruit this summer instead starchy carbohydrates and sugary snacks. Summer months bring us delicious, antioxidant-heavy berries and other fruit such as mangoes, kiwis, peaches and plums. These fruits are also rich in vitamin C, known for its role in building collagen, and preventing wrinkles and photo damage through its anti-inflammatory action. Toss some berries into your yogurt, make a smoothie out of different summer fruits, add some fruit to a lunch salad; the possibilities are endless.

Bottom line–if you must spend a long amount of time out in the summer sun, you will probably need to protect your skin with a sunscreen too.

Most sunscreens contain inherent dangers as well, so choose carefully. While there is still some risk in spending long periods of time in the summer sun without sunscreen (even with a skin-healthy diet), the sunscreen itself can pose a bigger health risk.

The chemicals in sunscreen are very harsh and are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, and have been proven to cause several types of cancers. “Octyl-methacinnamate”, “phenylbenzimidazole sulfonic acid”, “octyl-dimethyl-PABA”, and “oxybenzone”, are all standard sunscreen ingredients. Numerous studies have raised concerns about these chemicals safety:

  • Octyl-methacinnamate has been shown to damage skin cells, and many people are highly sensitive or allergic to this ingredient.
  • Bensopenone-3 (BP3), homosalate (HMS), 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC), octyl-methoxycinnamate (OMC), and octyl-dimethyl-PABA (OD-PABA) were all found to have estrogenic effects in the body, which can lead to certain cancers, including breast cancer.
  • Oxybenzone has been shown to decrease sperm count and lengthen the estrous cycle in mice; again a possible carcinogen in humans.

The best and most natural sunscreens are sunscreen products with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide as their active ingredients. Both block UVA and UVB rays, are natural, safe products for your skin and have raised no health concerns.

So this summer, protect your skin inside and outside with a healthy diet and natural sunscreen when needed. You will not only soak up the vitamin D with all its health benefits, but have soft smooth skin as well.Sources: Mercola, “If You Use Sunscreen, This is Urgent Information You Must Have”, May 13, 2010, Mercola.com. Shane Ellison, “Chemist Forces Children to Eat Sunscreen” www.thepeopleschemist.com 2008. Arathi, “How to Eat For Internal Sun Protection”, eHow.com, accessed May 7, 2010. Jennifer Barrett, “On the Bright Side”, Experience Life Magazine, July/August 2009, Lifetime Fitness. Black HS, Rhodes LE. The potential of omega-3 fatty acids in the prevention of non-melanoma skin cancer. Cancer Detect Prev. 2006;30(3):224-32.