Benefits of Coconut Oil

Since I started my blog, I’ve also been actively following and exploring different health and food blogs as well. Most of the blogs I follow are focused on healthy eating, some of which are vegan and gluten free. I am neither one of those but I think it’s good to introduce all kinds of different meals into your life. I consider myself a pescaterian – mainly vegetarian with some fish in there, however I also enjoy some turkey, beef, and veal in there as well on occasion. No chicken though. I’ll talk about that another time though.

Today I wanted to focus on discussing and exploring coconut oil. I have found that many of the recipes these healthy blogs post require coconut oil in them. And I’ve briefly heard some positive things about coconut oil as well. A few days ago, I bought my first jar of coconut oil from Trader Joe’s and I even used it in my Peanut Butter Cups. I thought it’s a good idea to actually research and find out as much as I can about this product.

Well this chart may look extremely frightening to anyone afraid of using fats in their diet. Especially because of the saturated fats? Oh golly, no. However, not all saturated fats are bad. The type of saturated fat coconut oil contains are actually healthy. It’s all about the type of saturated fats, not the mere presence of saturated fat that causes health problems as people have grown to believe. When talking about the health benefits of coconut oil, however, it must be important to stress that we should stick to unprocessed extra virgin coconut oil as any other processed or partically hydrogynated coconut oil can be just as bad for you as any other fat. The key is to keep it natural and to replace unhealthy fats with this healthier alternative. It’s not about adding, it’s about replacing. It doesn’t mean you should eat it by the spoonful, but to still keep saturated fat daily intake to less than 10%.

Here are the various benefits of using coconut oil:

• Hair care – my roommate already uses coconut oil to hold control over her kinky hair. She has type 3c hair which is very difficult to manage and she says coconut oil helps. It helps with healthy hair growth and provides it with a nice shine.
• Skin care – great moisturizer for all skin types. It helps with preventing dryness and flakiness of the skin as well as has anti-aging properties. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections.
• Heart Disease – the saturated fat in coconut oil, lauric acid, actually helps prevent heart diseases, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
• Weight Loss – coconut oil is easy to digest and takes the stress off the pancreas. It also boosts metabolism which helps with weight loss and providing a healthy energy source.
• Digestion – coconut oil promotes a healthy digestion and can help prevent various stomach and digestive diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome.
• Immunity – coconut oil strengthens the immune system and it contains anti bacterial properties which can help fight off diseases. Diseases that it can help fight are: AIDS, HIV, herpes, measles, influenza virus, protozoa, various pathogenic bacteria, diabetes, and more. It can also be used as a good healing proponent and reduce the possibility of infections on wounds.

This just a quick overview of the vast amount of benefits coconut oil brings.

I’m sold. Definitely using coconut oil a lot more starting today! 🙂

Sources: Organic Facts, Men’s Health, Mercola