The Truth About Coconut

I’ve been absent from here because I think you know why! I’ve been uber busy with my raw food classes and the days I have free (not many) I’m chilling with my boy and enjoying the downtime. Bliss.

Ok, there’s no child labour laws here in Saudi clearly

Anyway here’s an article I’ve been wanting to share with you for some time from my friend Jenni Maddions from Coconut Magic about the truth about one of my favourite foods, coconut. If I was stuck on a tropical deserted island I would be in heaven. Really.

I hope you enjoy the guest post!

Coconut Oil, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease.

Back in the 1930’s tropical oils were being widely used around the world. People were happy and healthy using coconut oil for its many health benefits. For almost 4000 years the news about coconut oil had been all good.

Coconut oil was then one of the leading and most consumed plant based vegetable oils. The American Soy Bean Association decided to scuttle and destroy its reputation. For economic and political reasons they set out to take over the market with their own hydrogenated and heavily processed vegetable oils and margarine. Sadly, at the great expense of our health, they succeeded.

In a very clever single swoop approach that tarnished the reputation of the good oils along with the bad – all saturated fats were labeled as bad.

The tests published at this time were done using hydrogenated coconut oils. These studies have no relevance to the non-hydrogenated coconut milk or virgin coconut oil that you eat today.

It is now known that the process of hydrogenation creates trans fatty acids (TFAs). TFAs are toxic in the body and known to impede cell functionality and cause a rise in blood cholesterol. These substances are not present in organic virgin coconut oil.

This scuttle is what has created the widespread misconception that coconut oil is bad for you, raises cholesterol levels and causes heart disease. Coconut oil was clumped in the ‘saturated fat is bad’ category, along side saturated animal fats.

Saturated fats in the form of animal fat do carry foreign cholesterol that tends to ‘clump’ together in the arteries, leading to raised cholesterol levels and heart disease. Coconut oil is a plant based, medium chain saturated fat that does not carry any foreign cholesterol. In fact it is the medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) of coconut oil that makes it so incredibly healthy.

Virgin coconut oil is now being rediscovered as the healthiest and most versatile oil on earth.

Jenni Madison

http://www.coconutmagic.com/