Week 6: Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is my new favorite. Just to prove it, I took out my coconut staples and had a little photo shoot with them. The large one gallon tub is coconut oil, which I buy at Mountain Rose Herbs. There's coconut milk, shredded coconut, coconut chutney, and nut butter in the pic too. I use almost all of these on a regular basis. I take a tablespoon of the oil in my tea in the morning; I add it to my smoothies; I bake with it; I use it as a facial moisturizer; it's become my only hair product; I sprinkle flakes on my yogurt and in my applesauce; I make yummy dishes with the milk - and on, and on. Coconut is rich in lauric acid, which has anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-bacterial properties. Lauric acid, an immune booster, cannot be produced by the liver, but is only present in mother's milk, coconut oil, palm oil, and in small amounts, butterfat. READ: this stuff keeps you healthy! Coconut oil can also help you lose weight and speed up your metabolism. Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon wrote a book detailing everything you ever wanted to know and more, all about coconut oil and fats, called Eat Fat, Lose Fat. It's a must read!

There are endless reasons that you should incorporate coconut oil, and coconut products in general, into your diet. I could rewrite them all in this post, or I could stop here, and just give a few links to check out yourself. I think I'll do the latter. =)

Scientific research on the benefit of coconut oil

Losing weight with coconut oil

Scroll down right past the "Coming Soon!", and you'll see Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Coconut Carnival has a host of coconut inspired reader recipes

Concise benefits of coconut oil

And Gayle, I've been looking into the refined versus unrefined issue, and all that I've been able to uncover is that refined doesn't have the coconut scent/flavor, but nutritionally, they are very similar! Do make sure you buy from a reputable source though. =)