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Coconut oil is naturally saturated and is an excellent frying and baking medium for foods. Based on the following article by Jane Heimlich (1991)*, coconut oil has many health benefits of which you may not have been aware. Read on!
The largely held belief that coconut oil raises blood cholesterol is a "myth" (to quote George Blackburn, M.D., a Harvard Medical School researcher) dating back to early flawed experiments in which animals were fed coconut oil exclusively. The small amount of essential fatty acids which coconut oil lacks was not provided and, consequently, the animals' cholesterol went up. In more recent experiments, where coconut oil was given as part of a normal mixed fat diet, animals' cholesterol levels did not increase.
"Coconut oil has a neutral effect on blood cholesterol, even in situations where coconut oil is the sole source of fat," says Dr. Blackburn, who testified such at a congressional hearing about tropical oils held on June 21, 1988.
Populations, such as the Polynesian Puka Puka and Tokelau islanders, that get most of their fat calories from coconut oil have an exceedingly low rate of heart disease.
"These [tropical] oils have been consumed as a substantial part of the diets of many groups for thousands of years with absolutely no evidence of any harmful effects to the populations consuming them," says Dr. Mary Enig, Ph.D., an expert on fats and oils who blew the whistle on margarine and other hydrogenated oils.
Coconut oil's saturated fats are made up mostly (65%) of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). (Triglycerides are the chemical forms in which fatty acids occur in vegetable oils.)
MCTs (also found in palm kernel oil) are easily digested, as Dr. Whitaker discussed with you in the July 1993 issue of Health and Healing. In fact, patients with malabsorption problems who cannot digest conventional fats are fed Mead Johnson's Portage, a formula containing MCTs - a fractionated coconut oil. A formula containing MCTs is also a lifesaver for premature babies.
That's because the body easily converts coconut oil into energy rather than depositing calories as body fat. You won't get a spare tire around your mid-section just from eating foods containing coconut oil.
Coconut oil kills germs. Like mother's milk, coconut oil contains a component that is anti-microbial. Coconut oil users who dwell primarily in the tropics, an ideal environment for parasites, are protected from infections. In a recent medical article, Dr. Enig proposed giving coconut and palm kernel oils to AIDS patients.
So how did coconut oil become the despised artery-clogging nemesis?
Credit the American Soybean Association (ASA) and its friends. In 1986, the ASA sent a "Fat Fighter Kit" to soybean farmers enjoining them to write government officials, food companies, etc., protesting the encroachment of "highly saturated tropical fats like palm and coconut oils...not only stealing U.S. soybean oil markets, but...a threat to consumer health." CSPI joined the anti-tropical oil campaign that same year, issuing news releases referring to palm, coconut, and palm kernel oils as "rich in artery-clogging fat."
In October 1988, Nebraska millionaire Phil Sokolof, a recovered heart attack patient and president of the National Heart Savers Association, began running full-page newspaper advertisements accusing food companies of "poisoning America" by using tropical oils with high levels of saturated fat.
Major food companies, sensitive to consumer fear, reformulated hundreds of products, replacing tropical oils with partially hydrogenated oils. Today, coconut oil accounts for only 1.0 to 1.3% of the U.S. food supply.
For more detailed information and research on Coconut Oil, refer to the article, Coconut: In Support of Good Health in the 21st Century by Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., F.A.C.N.
Source: Health and Healing, October 1991, Phillips Publishing
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