Hello everyone. First post woo hoo! I wanted to let you know about coconut oil.

Coconut oil has got to be the most versatile natural product out there! It has gotten a bad rap in the past and despite what you may have heard, it is actually one of the most stable oils available! Coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils you can consume, the safest beauty product on the market, and the only topical "medicine" you really need in your medicine cabinet!

Coconut oil has been used in foods and medicine in the tropics for centuries. These people have virtually no degenerative disease in their cultures; no cancer, no heart disease or clogged arteries, and no arthritic conditions. Coconut oil is quickly metabolized and does not turn to fat in the body. How awesome is that? It actually metabolizes so efficiently that it raises your metabolism enabling the body to burn more fat while giving you loads of energy!

Coconut oil is about 50% lauric acid; that's the good stuff in mother's milk which is in fact, the only other known good source of lauric acid. This is the stuff responsible for coconut oil's amazing antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties and it is just as effective for your inner parts as it is for your outer parts. Just a few tablespoonfuls a day can help stave off colds, flus, and many other viruses and bacteria. I enjoy adding a tablespoonful to teas and warm cacao-almond milk. This not only provides me with amazing health benefits, but it creates a frothy latte kind of experience. Truth be told, daily I eat a few tablespoons right out of the jar. When a sweet craving strikes, I add a bit of coconut nectar and cinnamon to a scoop of coconut oil and enjoy the cool rich sweet flavor.

For the full article check out my site!

[cheftinajo.com]

Why not eat the coconut, you get the oil and many other nutrients, and one of the best fiber in the meat.
I keep coconut in my fridge and add a piece to my smoothies to get oil and fiber

I use extra virgin coconut oil, in small amounts, as a food, and also cosmetically. That is has been so badly maligned all these years is a tragedy. Thanks for posting this

We eat it and wear it too .

ChefTinaJo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Coconut oil has been used in foods and medicine in
> the tropics for centuries. These people have
> virtually no degenerative disease in their
> cultures; no cancer, no heart disease or clogged
> arteries, and no arthritic conditions. Coconut oil
> is quickly metabolized and does not turn to fat in
> the body. How awesome is that? It actually
> metabolizes so efficiently that it raises your
> metabolism enabling the body to burn more fat
> while giving you loads of energy!
>
The reason may not just be coconut oil

There are many other foods these cultures do not eat. And there many processed foods that civilized culture eat.

madinah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why not eat the coconut, you get the oil and many
> other nutrients, and one of the best fiber in the
> meat.
> I keep coconut in my fridge and add a piece to my
> smoothies to get oil and fiber


Can't we do both?

coconut oil, not exactly a panacea.


12-15-2010, 01:39 PM #1
Rohr
Nutritarian
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Posts: 93 Coconut oil as cure for Alzheimer's?

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What do you think about the recent health claims for coconut oil being a cure for Alzheimer's disease? My dad is very excited about this and has sent me several links from Dr. Mercola and others including these:

[www.anh-usa.org]
[coconutoil.com]
[www.coconutoil.com]

I am very skeptical and know that you have advised against coconut oil in the past. Is there any recent credible research that you are aware of to support the health claims of the above websites?

Thank you,
Peter
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12-16-2010, 08:58 AM #2
Dr. Fuhrman
Medical Team
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 25,782

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Utterly ridiculous. Did they produce a study? Coconut oil is a processed food, that when studied is pro-inflammatory. It has never been shown to promote weight loss either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2012 07:15PM by pborst.

Will not that be TOO MUCH OIL

I like Dr. Fuhrman, but he is not without his flaws.

All tropical oils (palm and coconut) are highly saturated fats. Like butter, cheese, and meat, tropical oils raise LDL cholesterol and clog arteries with plaque, increasing your risk of a heart attack. We use coconut oil (because it is so highly saturated) in animal experiments to create atherosclerotic plaque for studying heart disease in animals. -Dr. Joel Fuhrman
[www.diseaseproof.com]

In contrast, most commercial coconut oils are made from copra, the dried up meat from coconuts. Using cheap copra-grade coconut means that the oil extracted is not sanitary, and certainly not suitable for human consumption.
[www.mercola.com]

Peace and Love..........John

John,

I actually happen to agree with you about Joel's flaws. He's told me several. But your post seems to support the position that coconut oil isn't something we should be taken in at least in large amounts. I don't think that is in conflict.

Just trying reconcile your Fuhrman quote and Mercola quote, not that I would trust Mercola as far as I could throw him. [www.quackwatch.org].

Paul

Hi Paul,

The point is that almost all of the coconut oil that was available when Fuhrman witnessed the ill effects was because it was an inferior product. That has changed considerably as most of the coconut oils sold nowadays are not refined, bleached and deodorized. Perhaps I should have added the 2 paragraphs after the one I used from Mercola’s article, so here they are…

It must not be refined or purified. In fact, this type of inferior coconut oil is called RBD -- refined, bleached and deodorized.

Mass-producing coconut oil in this manner typically uses nutrient-removing heat, chemical solvents, bleaching agents and sometimes even hydrogenating processes, which can create trans fats.

As for your reference to quackwatch, here is an older post of mine that addresses that website…

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]
Give me a break bryan...quackwatch!!!...how can you believe anything from that website...this bozo pooh poohs everything that is anti-organized medicine...here's a good example for you...

"Like other cults, Natural Hygiene offers simple solutions to life's complex health problems."

barrett goes on to attack Dr. Lorraine Day, Rev. George M. Malkmus, T.C. Fry, Herbert Shelton, Dr. Max Gerson, Dr. Gary Null, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, Dr. James Balch, Dr. Joel Robbins, Dr. Humbart Santillo, Dr. Paavo Airola, Dr. Weston Price, Dr. John Tilden, the list goes on and on...indeed, barrett is the consummate quack!!!

Peace and Love……….John

Quackwatch?! Paul, surely you jest?!

Agree that today's health foodie coconut oil is not what Doc Fuhrman was referring to in his appraisal; the bad kind of coconut oil is virtually unavailable outside of industrial food manufacturing, thank goodness!

John,

Thanks for clarifying. I was not aware that there were different grades of coconut oil. It may well be that just like EVOO has more phytochemicals, the same is true for CO. I know it is supposed to have MCT. I would still like to see what the data say for the higher grade CO. I know that it does not have the same effect on cholesterol as other saturated fat. Beyond that, I don't know.

On Quackwatch, agree to disagree. I do not always agree with Barrett. But many of the people you mention e.g. Weston Price, I have serious issues with. And I look more at what Barrett has exposed rather than him as an individual. So, I consider the source. But if the FDA is punishing Mercola they are punishing Mercola.

It is probable that sometimes Barrett casts too wide a net. But that's where individual judgement is involved. I recently changed my position on fluoride in drinking water even though Barrett says there is no risk after talking to Coco, Tamara and doing a little reading on PubMed.

Paul

I see a lot of benefits in the whole coconut, not the oil.

Walter Willett's take on coconut oil

[www.health.harvard.edu]

Home » Newsletters » Harvard Health Letter » May 2011 » Ask the Doctor: Coconut Oil
Ask the doctor: Coconut oil

Q. I have started noticing more coconut oil at the grocery store and have heard it is better for you than a lot of other oils. Is that true?

A. I've also noticed that coconut oil seems to be catching on these days. Coconut oil is about 90% saturated fat, which is a higher percentage than butter (about 64% saturated fat), beef fat (40%), or even lard (also 40%). Too much saturated fat in the diet is unhealthy because it raises "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, which increases the risk of heart disease. So it would seem that coconut oil would be bad news for our hearts.

But what's interesting about coconut oil is that it also gives "good" HDL cholesterol a boost. Fat in the diet, whether it's saturated or unsaturated, tends to nudge HDL levels up, but coconut oil seems to be especially potent at doing so.

Saturated fat is divided into various types, based on the number of carbon atoms in the molecule, and about half of the saturated fat in coconut oil is the 12-carbon variety, called lauric acid. That is a higher percentage than in most other oils, and is probably responsible for the unusual HDL effects of coconut oil. But plant-based oils are more than just fats. They contain many antioxidants and other substances, so their overall effects on health can't be predicted just by the changes in LDL and HDL.

Coconut is a wonderful flavor and there's no problem using coconut oil occasionally. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so cooks are experimenting with using it instead of butter or vegetable shortening to make pie crust and other baked goods that require a solid source of fat. And if you're preparing a Thai dish, cooking with coconut oil may be essential.

But, for now, I'd use coconut oil sparingly. Most of the research so far has consisted of short-term studies to examine its effect on cholesterol levels. We don't really know how coconut oil affects heart disease. And I don't think coconut oil is as healthful as vegetable oils like olive oil and soybean oil, which are mainly unsaturated fat and therefore both lower LDL and increase HDL. Coconut oil's special HDL-boosting effect may make it "less bad" than the high saturated fat content would indicate, but it's still probably not the best choice among the many available oils to reduce the risk of heart disease.

— Walter C. Willett, M.D.
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Nutrition
Harvard Health Letter Editorial Board



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2012 03:48PM by pborst.