Coconut Oil - Try it, You'll Like It

If you are old enough to remember Mikey, that cute little boy who did not want to eat his cereal (OK, I can't remember which cereal), you will remember his older brother saying "Try it, Mikey! You'll like it!"

I want to say the same thing to you about coconut oil.

I do not like coconuts. I avoid any food that contains coconut, so why would I try coconut oil? It is a very short story. I was having dinner with a friend who had sauteed some steak strips. She also served brown rice and fresh vegetables, and on the plate it looked inviting and healthy. At the time I did not know how she had prepared the steak, and at my first bite I exclaimed, "This is the best steak I ever had!" To my surprise, she told me her secret - she cooks almost exclusively with coconut oil instead of butter, olive oil or vegetable oil. If I had known that in advance I probably would have passed on the steak.

I am glad I did not. I have since had chicken, pork, vegetables and (confession time) even a hot dog sauteed in coconut oil.

Coconut oil is very light and adds a scrumptious flavor to everything I have used it on. And, the biggest surprise of all, like Mikey's mom knew about his cereal, it is one of the healthiest oils you can use.

For thousands of years, coconut oil has been a staple in the pacific and tropical islander populations. Although eating a relatively high fat diet, these populations have long been known to have very low rates of heart disease and cancer. Some thought a diet high in fish was the reason, and it may be contributory, but well-regarded lipid scientists have long known that coconut oil is a large factor, as well.

Why, then, did corn and soy oil become America's staple? Obviously, we grow more corn and soy than coconuts. And in the 1950's and 1960's, the farming industry lobbied very hard to win over the cooking oil market. Some people will say that their success was to the detriment of America's health, and a major contributor to today's obesity problem.

Cattle farmers long knew that corn and soy fatten up cattle faster than any other type of feed. Then it was discovered that the oils in these foods affect the thyroid gland and slow down metabolism, thus causing the weight gain. So what happens to people when they eat corn-fed meat, or cook with vegetable oil, or consume any number of food items that contain these types of vegetable or hydrogenated oils? It does not take a genius to make the connection.

Now here is the hardest thing to accept: Coconut oil contains a high amount of saturated fat. But isn't saturated fat bad for us? That is what we have heard for many years. But is it really true?

In the 1960's the American Soy Association started a media blitz against the tropical oil industries. You can't really blame them. Coconut oil was inexpensive and the soy farmers were protecting their turf from an interloper. Their message was: highly saturated oils such as coconut oil and palm oil are bad; soy oil is good. At the time, several highly regarded scientists - George Blackburn, Ph.D., from Harvard Medical School, Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., from University of Maryland, and US Surgeon General E. Everett Koop among others - tried to set the record straight. They knew that coconut oil was healthy, but the Soy industry won out.

Not all saturated fats are created equal, and I am not endorsing a diet high in saturated fat. However, my eyes have been opened to mis-information concerning fats. After all, has the low-fat diet solved America's obesity problem? I urge you to do your own research on coconut oil and decide for yourself whether something that makes food so delicious can be healthy, too.

Pamela Elwood is a Registered Nurse with a Masters degree in Public Health. She has spent her entire career in clinical cancer research, and firmly believes that the cause of most cancers and other debilitating diseases is a combination of unhealthy diets, toxins in our food and environmental pollution. Because being overweight is a symptom of unhealthy eating, she recommends one specific diet plan. It is based on healthy food choices rather than fads, diet pills, or extreme dieting; it is based on the most recent science available, and it works! Learn more at http://www.your-fat-solution.com.