Originally published January 27 2009
Three Reasons to Love Coconut Oil
by Matt Monarch
(NaturalNews) If you can manage to buy truly raw, unheated, unprocessed coconut oil, you will love it as if it were your own child. Granted, yes, that may be a slight exaggeration, but for a raw foodist, or somebody that likes to eat and live as naturally and healthily as possible, coconut oil is a must-have. Here are four ways in which you can successfully use coconut oil.
On your skin: Coconut oil is easily absorbed into the skin and is 100% natural. Even if you wash your face solely with water, the natural oils can still be lost from the skin, due to the various pollutants that are in the air and to extreme weather conditions. Coconut oil puts the protective oil back into the skin, and although it's not your own oil which your skin produces, the coconut oil has its own protective qualities. Our skin needs oil to remain elastic, and normal clinical moisturizers have mainly water and only a small amount of highly refined oil, which will not have any natural protective qualities. Also, coconut oil has antiseptic qualities, warding off bacterial and fungal infections.
In your raw desserts: coconut oil is the perfect addition to many raw desserts. Because raw foodists don't cook anything in order to bind them, they must find other ways to bind the ingredients in a raw dessert. Coconut oil is liquid at room temperature and solid below 76 degrees F (24.5 degrees C), so you can let it sit out for a few hours before making your dessert and then mix it up with whatever the other ingredients are (e.g. hazelnut meal, cacao powder and dates). Then, just pop the mixture in the fridge. The end result will be a fudgey type consistency with a faint taste of fresh coconut.
For weight-loss: most people who are aware and up to date with their nutritional facts do know that there are fats which the body needs in order to function correctly, and also that fat consumed does not necessarily lead to an increase in body fat. Saying that, fat does have more calories than protein and carbohydrates, so you have to go a little bit easy. However, it is thought that the fat in coconut oil actually behaves differently to most other plant fats and can actually lead to weight-loss. Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids, as opposed to long chain fatty acids, which is said to be burned up by the body for energy, instead of being stored as fat. Furthermore, study conclusions are also telling us that the fat in coconut oil may lead to an increase in metabolism.
One jar of coconut oil can have multiple uses, but make sure that it's raw and extra-virgin coconut oil, so that it retains all of its health giving properties.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_oil
http://www.therawfoodworld.com/product_info....
About the author
Matt Monarch has been on a 100% Raw Vegan Diet since 1999; he eats only raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and seaweeds. He is currently the owner of three different health-promoting websites.
In partnership with Raw Food Pioneer and Nutritionist Dr. Fred Bisci, Matt has co-created www.TheRawFoodWorld.com, which sells support tools to help people live free of degenerative disease. Matt's other websites are www.RawSpirit.org and www.LivingNutritionals.com.
After eight years eating a 100% Raw Food Diet, Matt has written two books on the subject � Raw Spirit, and Raw Success. In recent years he has spent much of his time touring the United States, presenting well over 200 Raw Food Lectures. He is widely sought out as a speaker and gives talks worldwide on how to live a healthier lifestyle.
Matt has appeared as a key speaker at events including The Raw Spirit Festival and many other festivals and expos. He was featured in a Raw Food TV Spot that aired over 15 times on Al Gore's TV Network, Current TV. This TV spot can be viewed at www.RawSpirit.org. As 6-year owner of The Raw Food World and Living Nutritionals, he is well versed in people's needs and concerns about health.
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