Coconut Oil Health Benefits – Many Health Experts Agree And Vouch It Is A Healthy Fat

Just like Moringa Oleifera, the coconut tree has many uses from being a healthy food, medicine, and even shelter. The coconut oil health benefits deserve it as a superfood, too.

Mercola.com’s video describes it well briefly and precisely. I’ve been using coconut products since my childhood and back as far as my great, great grandparents. In fact, my entire family line and people in the entire community have been using it.

This article does not aim to provide comprehensive details about the coconut tree. Instead, it focuses on one product extracted from the coconut, the coconut oil. Let us together explore coconut oil health benefits and its many uses.

The Coconut Oil

Dr. Bruce Fife, author of many health books, certified nutritionist and naturopathic physician says that coconut oil is one of the most misunderstood fats.

It has been portrayed by some as an artery-clogging saturated fat that causes heart disease. The good news, there are lots of experts in the field of health have been advocating its use because it’s healthy.

As a matter of fact, coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils in the planet. I myself and many regular users of coconut oil can confirm it.

Here’s Dr. Bruce Fife explaining the many health benefits and uses of coconut oil;

Coconut Oil vs Olive Oil

When it comes to healthy oils, Olive oil stands out because it is a monounsaturated fat, which is a heart-friendly fat or oil. Experts have no argument on that except vegans.

For years, coconut oil had been left out and rejected by many health experts because it is a saturated fat, a fat vilified by healthy experts earlier to cause heart disease by raising cholesterol level.

Recent research disproved the earlier findings that an increase in cholesterol causes heart disease, and this increase is due to saturated fat, and so, saturated fats should be avoided.

Now, it’s more a myth as previously covered. Thanks to health experts who are brave enough to come forward and dispel the cholesterol myth.

Again below is a video with Dr. Bruce Fife comparing coconut oil health benefits and olive oil. However, this is no way to discredit the health benefits of olive oil.

Many people including myself are using both oils. Olive oil tastes great on salads. Hence, this is not by means of telling people to choose one over the other.

If you can have both why not as each oil has its particular uses. For instance, olive oil can’t be use for cooking at high temperature as it will oxidize and make it unhealthy.

Coconut oil, however, can be used for cooking at high temperature because it’s saturated and more stable. It’s not as delicious when used on salads as olive oil does.

Coconut Oil Confusion Cleared

One of the world’s leading health experts in natural medicine is Dr. Mercola and here in the video below he explains and clears up some confusion about coconut oil especially it contains mostly of saturated fat and how saturated fat became a bad fat.

Even though health experts earlier considered coconut oil a bad fat or oil, people in tropical cultures mostly in Asia continue to use it as part of a nutritional diet, which as been a staple for centuries. For centuries, these cultures are enjoying coconut oil health benefits.

Learn a quick history lesson with Dr. Mercola about coconut oil. He also recommends coconut oil as replacement for unhealthy oils specially those vegetable oils.

What’s In The Coconut Oil?

One of the components in coconut oil is MCT or medium chain triglycerides. Dr. Alexander J. Rinehart of Arizona Nutrition Center explains more about the potent benefits of MCT in coconut oil.

One study finds that MCT oil¹ is a potential agent for preventing obesity.

Coconut Oil Health Benefits

The coconut as a whole has been used for both and medicine by diverse people in various cultures, religions, and races all over the globe.

Whenever you see a coconut tree grows in that, be assure the people have already learned how to use it and benefit from its benefits whether as food or medicine. Each culture has each own unique way of using it.

In mainstream medicine, coconut may not be as popular as the medicines produced by pharmaceuticals.

However, traditional medicine or known today as alternative medicine has been using coconut to treat a wide array of health issues.

People from different cultures around the globe has been using it for centuries to treat the following based on coconut research center website;

Dr. Bruce Fife and His Wife Leslie Discuss Coconut Oil

As you might have noticed already, I keep mentioning Dr. Bruce Fife, and that’s because if there’s a person you should ask about coconut oil benefits, it’s him. He is the founder of the CoconutResearchCenter.org and has been studying coconut oil for a long time.

The great about him also is there is no conflict of interest because he does not own a franchise or a company that sells specific coconut oil product.

I believed he is a pure educator and along with other people around the world who are advocates of coconut oil like the late Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit^{(1) (2) (3)} from the Philippines, and his son Fabian M. Dayrit^{(1) (2) (34) (5)} who published the 2013 Edition of the book “Coconut Oil – From Diet To Therapy”.

The video above you’ve just watched(I hope you’ve watched it already) is just one of the many interviews of Bruce Fife.

If you’re interested on learning more about what Bruce says on coconut oil, checkout more videos here, or watch them at iHealthTube.

Bruce Fife also wrote the book “The Coconut Ketogenic Diet“, which is available at Amazon.com. I’ve been on a ketogenic diet for weight loss and weight maintenance purposes.

When I first get into ketogenic dieting, my main purpose was to lose weight, but eventually, my outlook shifted and I now actually using and incorporating it into a healthy eating routine.

Shifting into a ketogenic diet is amazing for maintaining an ideal weight. Sticking to a ketogenic diet makes it easy to maintain the weight with minimal exercise.

Of course, I still do my workout routines because I believed physical activity is just as important as nutrition. In fact, both goes hand in hand to achieving overall wellness.

Research On Coconut Oil

If you’re someone who likes to read study findings before accepting the truth about coconut oil, you will not be disappointed. There are hundreds(I think) of research conducted on coconut oil.

However, I’m not going to list them all one by one here. Instead, I’m going to refer you to Coconut Research Center’s comprehensive coconut studies.

Bruce Fife carefully laid out the research and categorized them properly so if you’re looking for specific research on coconut oil for cardiovascular health, you can simply go directly to that section.

There are a lot of things to talk about coconut particular its oil. So, if you’re going to be an expert on it…better prepare yourself because there’s a lot to learn. I think the best place to start learning about coconut oil from here is at Coconut Research Center with Bruce Fife.

List Of Research On Coconut includes coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water, coconut meat or kernels, and a look at various people or cultures who are eating coconut as part of their diet.

If you’re interested in knowing the nutritional facts of coconut, check this list.

Here’s another recommended reading for coconut oil from Organic Facts.

It covers the different varieties of coconut oil from pure coconut oil to extra virgin coconut oil as well as the brief overview of the processing of oil extraction from the coconut.

My Personal Uses Of Coconut Oil

Once you get to know and starting to use coconut oil, its uses are limitless from food to medicine. Allow me to share a few of my favorite uses of coconut oil.