The Truth About Coconut Oil:
Why it Got a Bad Rep When it's Actually Good

Coconut oil is truly the healthiest oil you can consume. It is rich in lauric acid, which is known for being antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal, contains no trans fat (even olive oil has some trans fat), and boosts the immune system. You can even use it on your skin to help prevent wrinkles.

This may be surprising to hear, but coconut oil, in addition to tasting and smelling great, can:

• Help you lose weight, or maintain your already healthy weight
• Reduce your risk of heart disease
• Lower your cholesterol
• Improve conditions in those with diabetes and chronic fatigue
• Improve Crohn's, IBS, and other digestive disorders
• Prevent other disease and routine illness with its powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal agents
• Increase metabolism and promote healthy thyroid function
• Boost your daily energy
• Rejuvenate your skin and prevent wrinkles

Unfortunately, there is a widespread misconception that coconut oil is bad for you because it contains saturated fat. To really understand the benefits of coconut oil, I suggest you read Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon's article "The Truth About Saturated Fat" to first dispel any lingering notions you may have that all saturated fats are dangerous.

Fats are categorized as either short-, medium-, or long-chain depending on how many carbon molecules they contain. Close to two-thirds of the saturated fat in coconut oil is made up of medium-chain fatty acids, which have antimicrobial properties, are easily digested by the body for quick energy, and are beneficial to the immune system. Far from being dangerous, the saturated fat in coconut oil is actually health promoting.

So how could an oil that is so good for you have gotten such a bad reputation? The answer comes down to simple economics and politics. Based on some flawed studies performed over four decades ago, some of which used primarily hydrogenated coconut oils, a powerful anti-saturated fat movement began. Remember--hydrogenated oils are oils with trans-fatty acids, which have been altered from their original chemical composition and have been shown to raise cholesterol levels and lead to heart disease and other health problems. You should not consume hydrogenated oils, whether it is coconut or another vegetable oil.

Around this time the edible oil industry began to denounce all saturated fats and heavily promote polyunsaturated fats such as canola, soybean, safflower, corn, and other seed and nut oils. However, these oils easily become rancid when exposed to oxygen and produce large amounts of damaging free radicals in the body. What is not commonly known is that these oils can actually cause aging, clotting, inflammation, cancer and weight gain. You can read the article " Secrets of the Edible Oil Industry" for more information.

Fortunately, coconut oil has begun to gain some positive media exposure as researchers realize its health-promoting qualities. However, coconut oil can vary widely in terms of the types of coconuts used, the manufacturing processes used to make the oil, and more, and all of these factors play a major role in the effectiveness of the oil.

Most commercial coconut oils are RBD (refined, bleached, and deodorized). RBD oils do contain the medium chain fatty acids, however they also contain chemicals used in processing. Because of these variations we have searched for quality coconut oil and found excellent quality product source. Compare this brand of virgin coconut oil with Tropical Traditions, the best quality products available. This virgin coconut oil met all requirements, including no GMO ingredients, bleaching, deodorizing, refining or hydrogenation. It is made from fresh coconuts (not "copra" or dried coconuts like most oils) in India. Try the virgin coconut oil and experience the health benefits for yourself.

You Want a Food Loaded with Real Health Benefits? You Want Coconut Oil

By Ray Peat

This is a slightly modified version of Ray Peat's article which can be found at http://www.efn.org/~raypeat/

I have already discussed the many toxic effects of the unsaturated oils, and I have frequently mentioned that coconut oil doesn't have those toxic effects, though it does contain a small amount of the unsaturated oils.

Many people have asked me to write something on coconut oil. I thought I might write a small book on it, but I realize that there are no suitable channels for distributing such a book -- if the seed-oil industry can eliminate major corporate food products that have used coconut oil for a hundred years, they certainly have the power to prevent dealers from selling a book that would affect their market more seriously. For the present, I will just outline some of the virtues of coconut oil.

The unsaturated oils in some cooked foods become rancid in just a few hours, even at refrigerator temperatures, and are responsible for the stale taste of leftover foods. (Eating slightly stale food isn't particularly harmful, since the same oils, even when eaten absolutely fresh, will oxidize at a much higher rate once they are in the body, where they are heated and thoroughly mixed with an abundance of oxygen.)

Coconut oil that has been kept at room temperature for a year has been tested for rancidity, and showed no evidence of it.

Since we would expect the small percentage of unsaturated oils naturally contained in coconut oil to become rancid, it seems that the other (saturated) oils have an antioxidative effect:

I suspect that the dilution keeps the unstable unsaturated fat molecules spatially separated from each other, so they can't interact in the destructive chain reactions that occur in other oils.

To interrupt chain-reactions of oxidation is one of the functions of antioxidants, and it is possible that a sufficient quantity of coconut oil in the body has this function. It is well established that dietary coconut oil reduces our need for vitamin E, but I think its antioxidant role is more general than that, and that it has both direct and indirect antioxidant activities.

Coconut oil is unusually rich in short and medium chain fatty acids. Shorter chain length allows fatty acids to be metabolized without use of the carnitine transport system. Mildronate protects cells against stress partly by opposing the action of carnitine, and comparative studies showed that added carnitine had the opposite effect, promoting the oxidation of unsaturated fats during stress, and increasing oxidative damage to cells.

I suspect that a degree of saturation of the oxidative apparatus by short-chain fatty acids has a similar effect -- that is, that these very soluble and mobile short-chain saturated fats have priority for oxidation, because they don't require carnitine transport into the mitochondrion, and that this will tend to inhibit oxidation of the unstable, peroxidizable unsaturated fatty acids.

When Albert Schweitzer operated his clinic in tropical Africa, he said it was many years before he saw any cases of cancer, and he believed that the appearance of cancer was caused by the change to the European type of diet. In the l920s, German researchers showed that mice on a fat-free diet were practically free of cancer.

Since then, many studies have demonstrated a very close association between consumption of unsaturated oils and the incidence of cancer.

Heart damage is easily produced in animals by feeding them linoleic acid; this "essential" fatty acid turned out to be the heart toxin in rapeseed oil.

The addition of saturated fat to the experimental heart-toxic oil-rich diet protects against the damage to heart cells.

Immuno-suppression was observed in patients who were being "nourished" by intravenous emulsions of "essential fatty acids," and as a result coconut oil is used as the basis for intravenous fat feeding, except in organ-transplant patients. For those patients, emulsions of unsaturated oils are used specifically for their immunosuppressive effects.

General aging, and especially aging of the brain, is increasingly seen as being closely associated with lipid peroxidation.

Several years ago I met an old couple, who were only a few years apart in age, but the wife looked many years younger than her doddering old husband. She was from the Philippines, and she remarked that she always had to cook two meals at the same time, because her husband couldn't adapt to her traditional food. Three times every day, she still prepared her food in coconut oil. Her apparent youth increased my interest in the effects of coconut oil.

In the l960s, Hartroft and Porta gave an elegant argument for decreasing the ratio of unsaturated oil to saturated oil in the diet (and thus in the tissues). They showed that the "age pigment" is produced in proportion to the ratio of oxidants to antioxidants, multiplied by the ratio of unsaturated oils to saturated oils. More recently, a variety of studies have demonstrated that ultraviolet light induces peroxidation in unsaturated fats, but not saturated fats, and that this occurs in the skin as well as in the lab.

Rabbit experiments, and studies of humans, showed that the amount of unsaturated oil in the diet strongly affects the rate at which aged, wrinkled skin develops. The unsaturated fat in the skin is a major target for the aging and carcinogenic effects of ultraviolet light, though not necessarily the only one.

In the l940s, farmers attempted to use cheap coconut oil for fattening their animals, but they found that it made them lean, active and hungry. For a few years, an antithyroid drug was found to make the livestock get fat while eating less food, but then it was found to be a strong carcinogen, and it also probably produced hypothyroidism in the people who ate the meat. By the late l940s, it was found that the same antithyroid effect, causing animals to get fat without eating much food, could be achieved by using soy beans and corn as feed.

Later, an animal experiment fed diets that were low or high in total fat, and in different groups the fat was provided by pure coconut oil, or a pure unsaturated oil, or by various mixtures of the two oils. At the end of their lives, the animals' obesity increased directly in proportion to the ratio of unsaturated oil to coconut oil in their diet, and was not related to the total amount of fat they had consumed. That is, animals which ate just a little pure unsaturated oil were fat, and animals which ate a lot of coconut oil were lean.

G. W. Crile and his wife found that the metabolic rate of people in Yucatan, where coconut is a staple food, averaged 25% higher than that of people in the United States.

In a hot climate, the adaptive tendency is to have a lower metabolic rate, so it is clear that some factor is more than offsetting this expected effect of high environmental temperatures. The people there are lean, and recently it has been observed that the women there have none of the symptoms we commonly associate with the menopause. By 1950, then, it was established that unsaturated fats suppress the metabolic rate, apparently creating hypothyroidism.

Over the next few decades, the exact mechanisms of that metabolic damage were studied. Unsaturated fats damage the mitochondria, partly by suppressing the reparatory enzyme, and partly by causing generalized oxidative damage. The more unsaturated the oils are, the more specifically they suppress tissue response to thyroid hormone, and transport of the hormone on the thyroid transport protein.

Plants evolved a variety of toxins designed to protect themselves from "predators," such as grazing animals. Seeds contain a variety of toxins, that seem to be specific for mammalian enzymes, and the seed oils themselves function to block protein digestive enzymes in the stomach. The thyroid hormone is formed in the gland by the action of a protein digestive enzyme, and the unsaturated oils also inhibit that enzyme. Similar protein digestive enzymes involved in clot removal and immune function appear to be similarly inhibited by these oils. Just as metabolism is "activated" by consumption of coconut oil, which prevents the inhibiting effect of unsaturated oils, other inhibited processes, such as clot removal and immune function, will probably tend to be restored by continuing use of coconut oil.

Brain tissue is very rich in complex forms of fats.

The experiment (around 1978) in which pregnant mice were given diets containing either coconut oil or unsaturated oil showed that brain development was superior in the young mice whose mothers ate coconut oil. Because coconut oil supports thyroid function, and thyroid governs brain development, including myelination, the result might simply reflect the difference between normal and hypothyroid individuals.

However, in 1980, experimenters demonstrated that young rats fed milk containing soy oil incorporated the oil directly into their brain cells, and had structurally abnormal brain cells as a result. Lipid oxidation occurs during seizures, and antioxidants such as vitamin E have some anti-seizure activity. Currently, lipid oxidation is being found to be involved in the nerve cell degeneration of Alzheimer's disease. Various fractions of coconut oil are coming into use as "drugs," meaning that they are advertised as treatments for diseases. Butyric acid is used to treat cancer, lauric and myristic acids to treat virus infections, and mixtures of medium-chain fats are sold for weight loss.

Purification undoubtedly increases certain effects, and results in profitable products, but in the absence of more precise knowledge, I think the whole natural product, used as a regular food, is the best way to protect health. The shorter-chain fatty acids have strong, unpleasant odors; for a couple of days after I ate a small amount of a medium-chain triglyceride mixture, my skin oil emitted a rank, goaty smell. Some people don't seem to have that reaction, and the benefits might outweigh the stink, but these things just haven't been in use long enough to know whether they are safe.

Treating any complex natural product as the drug industry does, as a raw material to be fractionated in the search for "drug" products, is risky, because the relevant knowledge isn't sought in the search for an association between a single chemical and a single disease. While the toxic unsaturated paint-stock oils, especially safflower, soy, corn and linseed (flaxseed) oils, have been sold to the public precisely for their drug effects, all of their claimed benefits were false.

When people become interested in coconut oil as a "health food," the huge seed-oil industry -- operating through their shills -- are going to attack it as an "unproved drug." While components of coconut oil have been found to have remarkable physiological effects (as antihistamines, antiinfectives/antiseptics, promoters of immunity, glucocorticoid antagonist, nontoxic anticancer agents, for example).

The cholesterol-lowering fiasco for a long time centered on the ability of unsaturated oils to slightly lower serum cholesterol. For years, the mechanism of that action wasn't known, which should have suggested caution. Now, it seems that the effect is just one more toxic action, in which the liver defensively retains its cholesterol, rather than releasing it into the blood.

Large scale human studies have provided overwhelming evidence that whenever drugs, including the unsaturated oils, were used to lower serum cholesterol, mortality increased, from a variety of causes including accidents, but mainly from cancer. Since the 1930s, it has been clearly established that suppression of the thyroid raises serum cholesterol (while increasing mortality from infections, cancer, and heart disease), while restoring the thyroid hormone brings cholesterol down to normal. In this situation, however, thyroid isn't suppressing the synthesis of cholesterol, but rather is promoting its use to form hormones and bile salts. When the thyroid is functioning properly, the amount of cholesterol in the blood entering the ovary governs the amount of progesterone being produced by the ovary, and the same situation exists in all steroid-forming tissues, such as the adrenal glands and the brain.

Progesterone and its precursor, pregnenolone, have a generalized protective function: antioxidant, anti-seizure, antitoxin, anti-spasm, anti-clot, anticancer, pro-memory, pro-myelination, pro-attention, etc. Any interference with the formation of cholesterol will interfere with all of these exceedingly important protective functions.

As far as the evidence goes, it suggests that coconut oil, added regularly to a balanced diet, lowers cholesterol to normal by promoting its conversion into pregnenolone.

Coconut-eating cultures in the tropics have consistently lower cholesterol than people in the US Everyone that I know who uses coconut oil regularly happens to have cholesterol levels of about 160, while eating mainly cholesterol rich foods (eggs, milk, cheese, meat, shellfish). I encourage people to eat sweet fruits, rather than starches, if they want to increase their production of cholesterol, since fructose has that effect.

Many people see coconut oil in its hard, white state, and -- as a result of their training watching television or going to medical school -- associate it with the cholesterol-rich plaques in blood vessels. Those lesions in blood vessels are caused mostly by lipid oxidation of unsaturated fats, and relate to stress, because adrenaline liberates fats from storage, and the lining of blood vessels is exposed to high concentrations of the blood-borne material.

In the body, incidentally, the oil can't exist as a solid, since it liquefies at 76 degrees. (Incidentally, the viscosity of complex materials isn't a simple matter of averaging the viscosity of its component materials; cholesterol and saturated fats sometimes lower the viscosity of cell components.)

Most of the images and metaphors relating to coconut oil and cholesterol that circulate in our culture are false and misleading. I offer a counter-image, which is metaphorical, but it is true in that it relates to lipid oxidation, which is profoundly important in our bodies. After a bottle of safflower oil has been opened a few times, a few drops that get smeared onto the outside of the bottle begin to get very sticky, and hard to wash off.

This property is why it is a valued base for paints and varnishes, but this varnish is chemically closely related to the age pigment that forms "liver spots" on the skin, and similar lesions in the brain, heart, blood vessels, lenses of the eyes, etc. The image of "hard, white saturated coconut oil" isn't relevant to the oil's biological action, but the image of "sticky varnish-like easily oxidized unsaturated seed oils" is highly relevant to their toxicity.

The ability of some of the medium chain saturated fatty acids in coconut oil to inhibit the liver's formation of fat very likely synergizes with the pro-thyroid effect, in allowing energy to be used, rather than stored.

When fat isn't formed from carbohydrate, the sugar is available for use, or for
storage as glycogen. Therefore, shifting from unsaturated fats in foods to coconut oil involves several anti-stress processes, reducing our need for the adrenal hormones. Decreased blood sugar is a basic signal for the release of adrenal hormones.

Unsaturated oil tends to lower the blood sugar in at least three basic ways.

It damages mitochondria, causing respiration to be uncoupled from energy production, meaning that fuel is burned without useful effect. It suppresses the activity of the respiratory enzyme (directly, and through its anti-thyroid actions), decreasing the respiratory production of energy.

And it tends to direct carbohydrate into fat production, making both stress and obesity more probable. For those of us who use coconut oil consistently, one of the most noticeable changes is the ability to go for several hours without eating, and to feel hungry without having symptoms of hypoglycemia.

One of the stylish ways to promote the use of unsaturated oils is to refer to their presence in "cell membranes," and to claim that they are essential for maintaining "membrane fluidity." As I have mentioned above, it is the ability of the unsaturated fats, and their breakdown products, to interfere with enzymes and transport proteins, which accounts for many of their toxic effects, so they definitely don't just harmlessly form "membranes."

They probably bind to all proteins, and disrupt some of them, but for some reason their affinity for proteolytic and respiration-related enzymes is particularly obvious. (I think the chemistry of this association is going to give us some important insights into the nature of organisms).

Unsaturated fats are slightly more water-soluble than fully saturated fats, and so they do have a greater tendency to concentrate at interfaces between water and fats or proteins, but there are relatively few places where these interfaces can be usefully and harmlessly occupied by unsaturated fats, and at a certain point, an excess becomes harmful.

We don't want "membranes" forming where there shouldn't be membranes. The fluidity or viscosity of cell surfaces is an extremely complex subject, and the degree of viscosity has to be appropriate for the function of the cell. Interestingly, in some cells, such as the cells that line the air sacs of the lungs, cholesterol and one of the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil can increase the fluidity of the cell surface.

In red blood cells, which have sometimes been wrongly described as "hemoglobin enclosed in a cell membrane," it has been known for a long time that lipid oxidation of unsaturated fats weakens the cellular structure, causing the cells to be destroyed prematurely.

Lipid oxidation products lower the rigidity of regions of cells considered to be membranes. But the red blood cell is actually more like a sponge in structure, consisting of a "skeleton" of proteins, which (if not damaged by oxidation) can hold its shape, even when the hemoglobin has been removed. Oxidants damage the protein structure, and it is this structural damage which in turn increases the "fluidity" of the associated fats.

So, it is probably true that in many cases the liquid unsaturated oils do increase "membrane fluidity," but it is now clear that in at least some of those cases the "fluidity" corresponds to the chaos of a damaged cell protein structure. (N. V. Gorbunov, "Effect of structural modification of membrane proteins on lipid-protein interactions in the human erythrocyte membrane," Bull. Exp. Biol. & Med. 116(11), 1364-67. 1993.

Although I had stopped using the unsaturated seed oils years ago, and supposed that I wasn't heavily saturated with toxic unsaturated fat, when I first used coconut oil I saw an immediate response, that convinced me my metabolism was chronically inhibited by something that was easily alleviated by "dilution" or molecular competition.

I had put a tablespoonful of coconut oil on some rice I had for supper, and half an hour later while I was reading, I noticed I was breathing more deeply than normal. I saw that my skin was pink, and I found that my pulse was faster than normal -- about 98, I think. After an hour or two, my pulse and breathing returned to normal.

Every day for a couple of weeks I noticed the same response while I was digesting a small amount of coconut oil, but gradually it didn't happen any more, and I increased my daily consumption of the oil to about an ounce. I kept eating the same foods as before, except that I added about 200 or 250 calories per day as coconut oil.

Apparently the metabolic surges that happened at first were an indication that my body was compensating for an anti-thyroid substance by producing more thyroid hormone; when the coconut oil relieved the inhibition, I experienced a moment of slight hyperthyroidism, but after a time the inhibitor became less effective, and my body adjusted by producing slightly less thyroid hormone.

But over the next few months, I saw that my weight was slowly and consistently decreasing. It had been steady at 185 pounds for 25 years, but over a period of six months it dropped to about 175 pounds. I found that eating more coconut oil lowered my weight another few pounds, and eating less caused it to increase.

The anti-obesity effect of coconut oil is clear in all of the animal studies, and in my friends who eat it regularly.

It is now hard to get it in health food stores, since Hain stopped selling it. The Spectrum product looks and feels a little different to me, and I suppose the particular type of tree, region, and method of preparation can account for variations in the consistency and composition of the product.

The unmodified natural oil is called "76 degree melt," since that is its natural melting temperature. One bottle from a health food store was labeled "natural coconut oil, 92% unsaturated oil," and it had the greasy consistency of old lard. I suspect that someone had confused palm oil (or something worse) with coconut oil, because it should be about 96% saturated fatty acids.

Raymond Peat, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 5764
Eugene, OR 97405

You feature an extensive list of frequently asked questions in the beginning of your book about the advantages of using virgin coconut oil. What makes virgin coconut oil more effective and advantageous than other oils on the market?

Virgin coconut oil's many health benefits come from the medium-chain length of its fatty acids, or triglycerides (MCTs). Most of the other edible oils on the market today are comprised of long-chain fatty acids. MCTs have many health benefits, including raising the body's metabolism, and fighting off pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, funguses and others.

Coconut oil is nature's richest source of MCTs outside of human breast milk. Virgin coconut oil is very stable oil that does not oxidize and break down quickly like other oils. It also has a shelf life of more than two years.

Typically, when one thinks about cooking oils, weight loss rarely comes to mind. Yet your book includes a number of stories about people who have done just that. What's the connection between virgin coconut oil and losing weight?

Well, the word is finally getting out that low-fat diets don't work. Our bodies need fat and depriving ourselves of it can actually lead to an increase in cravings for other foods, such as refined carbohydrates, that do lead to weight gain. Coconut oil is nature's richest source of MCTs that increase metabolic rates and lead to weight loss. MCTs promote what is called thermogenesis.

Thermogenesis increases the body's metabolism, producing energy. This phenomenon has been shown in many scientific studies. We have also found many people have underlying physical conditions that prevent them from losing weight. One of the most common is a low functioning thyroid. Also, many Americans today suffer from poor digestive health. Coconut oil really shines in these areas, improving thyroid function and digestive health.

Your book does a good job balancing the documented scientific research with lively testimonies that illustrate the benefits of virgin coconut oil. That approach makes for an easier read too. Some writers would've stayed away from using consumer testimonies, but you didn't. Why?

These testimonies are the main reason we wrote the book! It is the story of virgin coconut oil and how it has changed people's lives.

The world needs to hear these people's stories, which we receive on almost a daily basis. It is one thing to quote scientific studies, but quite another to hear the stories of people whose lives have actually been changed by a pure, unrefined coconut oil. This book is as much their story, as it is Marianita's and my story.

According to your book, virgin coconut oil has had its biggest impact on thyroid problems. How can thyroid problems be helped with coconut oil?

Hypothyroidism is truly one of the biggest epidemics of our time, and we have met so many people who have been told that their blood tests are normal, and yet find themselves with symptoms of hypothyroidism. There are very few options today offering any kind of hope of dealing with the underlying cause of this condition.

Probably the most dramatic results we have had reported to us are from those who have thyroid problems and have eliminated polyunsaturated oils from their diet, and started incorporating virgin coconut oil in its place. People's body temperatures increase, they have more energy and some, for the first time, are actually able to start losing weight.

Which skin problems can be helped the best by using virgin coconut oil?

We have had probably more testimonies in the area of skin health than any other one area. This is one benefit of coconut oil that has been well known even in the United States for quite some time.

When we first brought virgin coconut oil to the market to the United States in 2002, there were very few other quality coconut oils available, and the few that did exist were almost exclusively marketed for cosmetic purposes. As we began to publish the research on coconut oil as an edible oil -- that is considered a "functional food" by some like Dr. Mary Enig -- many people began to not only apply it to their skin but also consume it.

The result has been fantastic. We have seen reports of success for almost any kind of skin problem for those who both consume the oil and apply it to their skin. Skin problems related to fungal infections seem to be the most positively affected by the healing properties of Virgin Coconut Oil.

One of the more interesting parts of your book was the extended section on recipes. How did you find all those recipes?

All of the recipes were developed by a professional chef in California. Many of them were prepared in our own kitchen where the chef would come on a regular basis to cook for us. Marianita is a certified nutritionist in the Philippines and, of course, knows how to cook traditional Filipino foods with coconut oil. But we had to learn how to incorporate it into a more eclectic American-type menu once we moved back to the United States.

So we worked with the chef for many months developing the recipes. Unlike other coconut recipes that might simply take traditional recipes and just substitute coconut oil as an ingredient, our recipes were actually developed in the kitchen by our chef.

For those trying to get a certain amount of coconut oil into their diet each day, each recipe lists the amount of coconut oil per serving. So it is perfect for those on the coconut diet.

So many people have enjoyed great success adding coconut oil to the diets of their various pets, but no studies have been done to date. Is coconut oil beneficial to pets in different ways than ones enjoyed by their human caretakers?

We first noticed that many animals enjoyed eating coconut when we lived in the Philippines. Our dogs and cats on the farm would try to get the little bits of coconut out of the shell after they had been grated.

The people who made virgin coconut oil for us would take the coconut pulp after the oil had been extracted and feed it to their livestock. From the reports we have received from people here in the United States, the benefits to pets and animals are much the same as for humans. It increases metabolism, fights off infections and leads to a healthier coat of hair.

We have people giving it to racetrack horses and one guy running a study right now is giving it to one of his sled-dog teams. The reports we are getting have been phenomenal!

In what way has virgin coconut oil changed your life the most?

Well, we are certainly grateful to the Lord in that it has kept our family healthy. But probably seeing how virgin coconut oil has changed so many other people's lives has affected me more than anything else. It humbles me to see how a completely natural product like this can give such incredible health to people, without being created in a laboratory or by years of labor and expense.

It is a God-given simple crop given to the people of the tropics and known as the "tree of life."

Part of your book is devoted to a memoir of living in the Philippines. You learned a great deal about living healthfully there. What do you miss most about those times?

I miss the simplicity of the agrarian lifestyle in the rural Philippines, where most people can live off the food they grow themselves. People there are so much more connected to their communities where the food is grown, and the traditional knowledge of the plants and herbs are still commonplace.

I also miss growing our own upland rice, pineapples and other foods free of pesticides or other chemicals, or of picking wild berries and fruit that grew everywhere. We had guava and tiny little hot peppers that were literally weeds and would just pop up everywhere without being planted. The Philippines is seen as a poor country, but they actually have incredible wealth in the land where about 50 percent of the population are still family farmers.

Experience the Incredible Health & Weight Loss Benefits of the Premier Coconut Oil

Why should you be using coconut oil versus any other type of oil? Because it can:

• Help you lose weight, or maintain your already good weight
• Reduce the risk of heart disease
• Lower your cholesterol
• Improve conditions in those with diabetes and chronic fatigue
• Improve Crohn's, IBS, and other digestive disorders
• Prevent other disease and routine illness with its powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal agents
• Increase metabolism and promotes healthy thyroid function
• Boost your daily energy
• Rejuvenate your skin and prevent wrinkles

In short, after unjustly getting lumped in the "no-fat" craze of past decades, coconut oil is now starting to get the respect it deserves as not only the healthiest oil you can consume, even superior to olive oil which contains trans-fat, but as one of the most nutritious of all foods.

Coconut oil's benefits are finally reaching the mainstream. For example, the May 20, 2003 edition of Women's World, a very popular and wide-reaching magazine, called coconut oil a "miracle food" and particularly touted its ability help the body burn unwanted fat, triple your energy, and greatly help those with thyroid problems.

You should be absolutely certain, however, of the quality and effectiveness of whatever coconut oil brand you choose. There is a very wide variance in terms of the types of coconuts, the manufacturing processes used to make the oil, and more, which will have a major impact on the healthiness and effectiveness your coconut oil.

Because there is so much uncertainty, my team and I here researched coconut oil extensively until we found the ideal source. I now highly recommend and offer you what is clearly the premier brand of virgin coconut oil in the US, Tropical Traditions.

What Makes Our Coconut Oil Superior to Other Brands?

Our oil meets all of the requirements in the chart below. Meeting such high standards is no small feat, but you should not settle for anything less if you want to experience all of the health benefits of coconut oil without exposing yourself to unnecessary health risks. (If you are considering another brand, I urge you to make sure it meets the requirements below.)

The fresh coconuts used to make the oil (not "copra" or dried coconuts like most oils) come from a rural region of the Philippines untainted by urban pollution. Philippine coconuts are considered the best in the world, in large part due to the fact that the Philippine Islands are made up of volcanoes that brought nutrient-rich soil beneath the sea up to form the islands.

Tropical Traditions closely inspects the groves and coconuts to ensure the highest quality, and oversees the entire process, from growing to final packaging. Unlike other coconut oils, in other words, there are no middlemen with potentially lower standards involved in the process.

What's more, small families, not corporate conglomerates, grow the coconuts. Tropical Traditions works through local churches in the rural areas to organize communities for the production of the coconuts and oil, therefore providing a livelihood for these farmers.

What this means for you is a virgin coconut oil of unsurpassed quality, not mass processed like most others but created using traditional methods. And because this coconut oil is made from fresh coconuts within 24 hours of harvesting, there are no dangers of mycotoxins or afflatoxins that can form in coconut oils made from "copra" coconuts. Overall, this superior quality makes a huge difference, not only in terms of health and safety, but also in terms of taste, cooking quality, and other tangible results.

A Delicious Way to Prevent Disease, Lose Weight, & Increase Energy

During the "no-fat" craze of the past decades, all saturated fats were marked as bad, as something to be avoided. Knowledge was already in place to the contrary, but as often happens, perceptions -- pushed by industries like the corn oil companies who profited immensely from doing so -- overshadowed science. And coconut oil, far more nutritious and beneficial than corn, peanut, soy, safflower and the other oils out there, nonetheless got tossed into the "no saturated fat" overgeneralizations and lunacy.

What you didn't hear is that some saturated fats A) are necessary to human health; B) are not the primary perpetrator of weight gain (grains and sugars are, as you'll read in my New York Times bestseller, The No-Grain Diet; and C) come in three classes, of which the medium-chain can actually help you lose weight and increase metabolism.

Coconut oil's saturated fat is of the medium-chain fatty acid variety. These MCFAs are digested more easily and utilized differently by the body than other fats. In short, whereas other fats are stored in the body's cells, the MCFAs in coconut oil are sent directly to the liver where they are immediately converted into energy. So when you eat coconut oil, the body uses it immediately to make energy rather than store it as body fat. Because this quick and easy absorption puts less strain on the pancreas, liver and digestive system, coconut oil "heats up" the metabolic system and is outstanding for those with thyroid problems.

Since coconut oil will actually speed up metabolism, your body will burn more calories in a day -- this will contribute to weight loss, and you'll have more energy. Meanwhile, studies have shown the opposite for unsaturated fats: they cause hypothyroidism and lower metabolic rate.

Perhaps even more important, virgin coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, a proven antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal agent that is very beneficial in attacking viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, and that builds the body's immune system.

The lauric acid in coconut oil is used by the body to make the same disease-fighting fatty acid derivative monolaurin that babies make from the lauric acid they get from their mothers milk. Mary Enig, an internationally respected expert on fats and lipid biochemistry, and author of the "fat information bible" Know Your Fats, provides excellent detail on the ability of coconut oil to prevent illness and disease in her article, "A New Look at Coconut Oil."

Finally, coconut oil contains no dangerous transfats, which are found in vegetable oils (including olive oil), margarine, shortening and more. Transfats can raise LDLs or "bad" cholesterol levels and lead to clogged arteries, heart disease, type-II diabetes and more, and should be avoided.

Why Diabetics and those with Crohn's and IBS Should Seriously Consider Coconut Oil

For those with diabetes, it's almost a sin that coconut oil has been kept hidden from them. Not only does it not contribute to diabetes, but it also helps regulate blood sugar, thus lessening the effects of the disease.

Coconut oil also raises metabolic rate causing the body to burn up more calories and thus promoting weight loss. A faster metabolic rate stimulates increased production of needed insulin and increases absorption of glucose into cells, thus helping both Type I and Type II diabetics.

For those with Crohn's and IBS, the anti-inflammatory and healing effects of coconut oil have been shown to play a role in soothing inflammation and healing injury in the digestive tract. Interestingly, researchers have demonstrated the benefits of coconut oil on patients with digestive problems, including, Crohn's disease, at least since the 1980s. Its antimicrobial properties also promote intestinal health by killing troublesome microorganisms that may cause chronic inflammation.

Finally, for those with chronic fatigue syndrome, coconut oil may provide a vital solution. The fatty acids in coconut oil can kill herpes and Epstein-Barr viruses which are believed to be major causes. They kill Candida and giardia. They kill a variety of other infectious organisms, any of which could cause chronic fatigue. The key to overcoming CFS is strengthening the immune system. Coconut oil supports the immune system by ridding the body of harmful microorganisms, thus relieving stress on the body. With fewer harmful organisms taxing the body's energy, the immune system can function better.

The Many Uses of Coconut Oil -- Cooking & Eating, Skincare, Massage and More

To capture all of the benefits of coconut oil while avoiding the risks, I strongly advise you to consider the Tropical Traditions brand I offer here or another brand that meets all of the requirements defined in the chart above. Uses for this virgin coconut oil with both a pleasant scent and taste include:

• In place of other oils, margarine, butter, shortening, etc. for all cooking needs, as it is a stable cooking oil
• As an ingredient when juicing or making smoothies
• It smells and tastes so pleasant and has such excellent nutritional properties that some also consume it straight, by the tablespoon, and use it in place of other oils on their salads
• An excellent massage oil
• As a skin lotion for healthier, younger skin, as explained below

For skincare, using the Virgin Coconut Oil as you would any lotion is ideal. It prevents destructive free-radical formation and provides protection against them. It can help to keep the skin from developing liver spots, and other blemishes caused by aging and over exposure to sunlight. It helps to prevent sagging and wrinkling by keeping connective tissues strong and supple. In some cases it might even restore damaged or diseased skin. The oil is absorbed into the skin and into the cell structure of the connective tissues, limiting the damage excessive sun exposure can cause.

Coconut oil will not only bring temporary relief to the skin, but it will aid in healing and repairing. It will have lasting benefits, unlike most lotions. It can help bring back a youthful appearance. The coconut oil will aid in removing the outer layer of dead skin cells, making the skin smoother. The skin will become more evenly textured with a healthy "shine". And the coconut oil will penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin and strengthen the underlying tissues.