Coconut oil seems to be one of those miracle foods these days. A fix all for a multitude of health problems. Is it true? Is coconut oil really that great?
Well, in a word – yes. Coconut oil has a multitude of benefits. Here are some of my favorites:
Weight Loss
Coconut oil is helpful in boosting and regulating your metabolism. An increased metabolism can help you to burn more calories and lose weight.
Keep in mind that this isn’t a miracle where all you have to do is eat coconut oil and keep doing everything else the same to lose weight. However, coconut oil has medium chain fatty acids which aren’t as readily stored as fat in the body. So, using coconut oil as part of a balanced diet rich in whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables as well as lean protein can help promote weight loss.
Chronic Disease
Coconut oil promotes heart health by lowering blood pressure and improving the ratio of cholesterol by raising your good cholesterol. Both of these factors can help you to prevent the onset of heart disease. It also helps to reduce injury and damage to your arteries.
Coconut oil can help to stimulate your thyroid function. This can improve your energy levels and help you to lose weight.
Coconut oil has proved to be beneficial in regulating blood sugar. Keeping blood sugar levels stable helps in controlling hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) as well as diabetes.
Coconut oil also helps to prevent the cell damage done by free radicals. Free radicals are compounds in the body that damage cells and end up promoting disease (including cancer). Preventing free radical damage can help to prevent chronic diseases.
Candida is an overgrowth of yeast that can occur in the intestine and genital area. Coconut oil can help to relieve the inflammation and discomfort from candida infection. It also provides gentle relief, there are no detoxing symptoms from the yeast overgrowth dying in your body.
Skin, Hair & Nails
Coconut oil helps to promote healthy and shiny hair as well as helping to regrowth damaged hair. Use it as a conditioner and massage it into your hair.
It can also help with dry and itchy scalp, dandruff, eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis. Just use it like a lotion and smooth it on.
Coconut oil helps with the healing of canker sores by speeding the healing process.
Cell Health & Infections
Coconut oil has anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties due to the high amount of lauric acid found in it. This is one of the reasons why it helps with the yeast infection Candida. You’ll see the benefits both topically (from using it like a lotion on infections and sores) as well as internally as you switch to using coconut oil in place of your butters and oils in cooking.
Other Benefits & Uses
Coconut oil and baking soda mixed together make a great toothpaste. It even can help to whiten your pearly whites!
It works as an insect repellent, just use a little as a lotion and you’ll be repelling bugs for hours.
You can also use coconut oil to polish furniture or shoes, if you have some extra lying around. It not only provides a beautiful finish, but you’ll get the added benefit of a delicious and tropical coconut scent.
