Cooking With Coconut Oil

The Benefits Of Cooking With Coconut Oil

Although coconut oil has a new wave of popularity in the west, island communities and other tropical areas where coconut trees grow have been using it as far back as records can be traced. Many of these populations have been highlighted in studies that look at cultures with optimal health and wellness (such as  the Pukapuka and Tokelau Island studies).

Nutritional fads boom and bust, but coconut is an old-timer that is not going anywhere. Coconut oil’s rise in the west is more of a re-discovery, mainly driven by the dissatisfaction with the grade of other available oils and their soybean / trans fat content. Although a growing knowledge of coconut oil and its potential is decidedly positive, a wide scale consumer-want quickly opened the door for manufacturers – allowing cheap, synthetic and over-processed coconut oils to flood the market and woo consumers with empty promises.

A backlash promptly followed, targeting coconut oil in general, rather than industry standards. If the fats from a coconut were unhealthy, it would be very likely that we would see health problems emerging from the cultures that consume it the most, but we see the opposite. Indiginous island populations are notoriously healthier than western populations, with no trace of heart disease despite their extremely high coconut oil intake. When it comes to cooking with coconut oil, quality reflects results – premium grade, raw, organic coconut oil is known to: 

• • Contain healthy fatty acids that your body metabolizes differently than other fats – encouraging your body to burn fat more quickly, provide a burst of natural energy, feed brain function and raise HDL (the good cholesterol) in your blood to decrease your risk of heart disease. 

• • Have antimicrobial properties due to its lauric acid content and monolaurin production – naturally killing harmful pathogens like bacteria and fungi. 

• • Encourage skin, hair and whole-body benefits from the inside out.

• • Have a high MCT content which helps to produce sustainable energy and ketones. Ketones have shown to have positive effects on brain health and are being studied in relation to alzeimers and epilepsy. 

• • Increase HDL (good cholesterol) and turn LDN (bad cholesterol) into a less harmful formation, boosting heart health and metabolic health.

• • Assist weight loss by increasing the number of calories your body burns compared with longer chain fatty acids in other oils.

• • Reduce appetite with its naturally rich source of MCTs – producing ketones which can decrease hunger.

• • Target stubborn abdominal fat which lodges in the abdominal cavity and around your organs, linked with many chronic diseases. Studies show that coconut oils MCTs can reduce body mass index and waist circumference in both men and women. 

• • Reduce the symptoms of Alzeimers disease – early studies have suggested that MCTs can  provide an alternative energy source for dysfunctional brain cells by increasing blood levels of ketones.

• • Decrease the risk of seizures in children by increasing blood density in ketone bodies due to a naturally high MCT structure. 

• • Decrease the risk of strokes and heart disease alongside a healthier lifestyle.

• • Improve the function of other superfood ingredients that are oil soluble and can’t be absorbed efficiently by the body without a molecular structure like coconut oil’s to bond with.