Health Benefits Of Using Coconut Oil

coconut oil benefits

Coconut oil is considered a saturated fat. Fatty acids from food are broken down into 3 groups: Saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated.

Saturated fats harden at room temperature and usually come from animal sources such as beef and butter fat. Milk, cream, ice cream, and other products made from milk or cream all contain butter fat.

Coconut is a saturated fat and will harden like butter at room temperature.

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are usually in liquid form at room temperature and come from vegetable, nut, and seed sources. Polyunsaturated fats are found in corn oil, flaxseed oil, pumpkin oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil.

Polyunsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature, and remain in liquid form even when refrigerated or frozen.

Monounsaturated fats are found in almond oil, avacado oil, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, and certain cold water fish species such salmon, halibut, mackeral, and rainbow trout. Monounsaturated fats are typically liquid at room temperature, but solidify when refrigerated.

There is a difference in the kinds of fats that you eat and not all fats are created equally. Just take a look at the different oils in the grocery store the next time you shop and you'll see a wide variety of peanut oils, vegetable oils, olive oils, sesame oils and a bunch of others. Each of these oils are fats that are made up of differnet kinds of fats.

Fat is not the bad guy when it comes to weight gain, it's the imbalance in fats that is partly responsible for weight gain. Especially, hydrogenated oils.

Let's take a look at some of the benefits to using coconut oil:

1) Coconut contains high levels of medium chain fatty acids:

If you have trouble digesting fats or you are beginning to re-introduce more fat into your diet, you may want to consider using coconut oil. The benefit here is that it doesn't need to be digested by bile salts which explains why some people have a hard time digesting fats.

Because coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids, you don't need bile salts to digest. The great health benefit of coconut oil is that the body turns these fatty acids directly into energy, making it terrrific for losing weight.

2) Losing weight:

Coconut oil has a thermogenic effect on the body which means that it slightly raises your bodies internal temperature. The health benefit of coconut here is that it boosts your energy levels as well as your metabolism.

3) Coconut oil contains high levels of lauric acid:

The benefit here is that lauric acid is an antiviral and antibacterial agent that converts to monolaurin. Monolaurin helps you defend against viruses, bacteria, and other harmful agents and helps to strengthen your overall immune system.

You can say that coconut oil is an immune booster. Lauric acid and monolaurin helps boost your immunity since they have antimmicrobial properties that helps you fight off sickness and diseases.

4) Coconut interacts with other essential fatty acids:

Coconut oil is considered a saturated fat and your body needs these types of fats to effectively retain and use essential fatty acids. A very important function and a key health benefit.

5) Coconut oil helps enhance the kidney function:

The benefit here is that it provides a saturated fatty acid called myristic acid, which plays a vital role in the biochemistry of the kidneys.

Can coconut oil really help you loose weight and help you feel better? I mean, how can a fat help you loose fat?

Well, over the years, weight loss gurus and different health associations have pushed a low fat mentality on people who want to loose weight. I'm sure you all heard the warnings to stay away from fat at all costs.

It's very confusing and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure who to beleive but I do know this, we need a certain amount of fat in our diet to stay alive, let alone stay healthy.

This includes all levels of fatty acids including staturated fat. However, we've become brainwashed into thinking that fat, especially saturated fat is going to kill us. Remember, it's a balance of fat that is important in order to stay healthy.

All the best,



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