Healing Dry Sensitive Skin

You can lose weight with coconut oil. It is not hard to do, and it is easy to keep off the weight that you lose.

What if there was a simple change you could make in your diet that would generate sustained weight loss – a change that didn’t involve any extra expense, or any extra time, and that had a whole raft of extra health benefits to go with it? Wouldn’t that be worth doing?

The fact is, the types of oils and fats we consume can make all the difference to both how we feel, and how fat we become. Different types of oils behave very differently in our bodies, and if we want to look and feel our best, we’d do well to pay attention to the kinds of oils we are consuming.

Just switching from one type of oil to another can be enough for us to enjoy sustained weight loss and better health – and that’s how you can lose weight with coconut oil.

When we eat vegetable oils, they are broken down into their component fatty acids and deposited as fat into our tissues. When we need more energy, we burn it for fuel. If we don’t need more energy, the fat accumulates in our bodies and we gain weight.

But there are some oils that are not digested like this. Instead, they are routed directly to the liver, where they are converted immediately into energy, in much the same way as carbohydrates are, but without causing a spike in blood sugar.

This difference in how oils are metabolized can open the door to sustained weight loss. Coconut oil is metabolized differently than vegetable oils and that is why it can help you to lose weight easily and for the long-term.

In the past, you may have tried diets to lose weight. They work while you are on them, but mostly, they don’t last, and many experts believe that the disruption of our metabolic processes caused by diets can actually result in us gaining weight, instead of losing it. Generally, diets don’t work.

But the way our bodies metabolize different types of fat is a constant. It provides an opportunity for us to lose weight, without reducing our calorie consumption.

All we have to do is switch from one type of fat to another. If we keep everything else the same, we will set ourselves on a course to lose weight. Even, if you are currently gaining weight, what this means is that you will gain weight more slowly. Ideally, of course, your weight in now more or less stable, so this change will cause you to lose weight gradually, and over the long haul, without any significant change other than changing the kind of oil that you use.

So what is the change that’s needed? It’s simple. All you need do is stop cooking with vegetable oils, and start cooking with coconut oil. That’s how you lose weight with coconut oil. It’s that simple. Here’s why…

The chemical structure of coconut oil (it is composed of medium-chain fatty acids) causes it to be metabolized in a completely different way than vegetable oils (they are composed of long-chain fatty acids).

Medium-chain fatty acids promote weight loss because:

• they increase our metabolic rate. Studies have shown that metabolic rate remains elevated even 24 hours after a single meal that contains them. This means that even while we are sleeping, we burn more calories. And that is a truly effective, healthy, and sustainable way to lose weight.

•  they support sugar metabolism and reduce hypoglycemic symptoms. Many people find they help to control their sugar cravings so they can make other changes they want, without even trying.

• they contain fewer calories per gram than long chain fatty acids

•  they support thyroid activity. Long chain fatty acids suppress thyroid activity.

The health benefits of coconut oil extend way beyond weight loss. It is one of the healthiest things you can put into your body. It’s the only oil I cook with, and I use it in my skin care products. I recommend to all my clients that they take full advantage of this wonderful beauty food.

Coconut oil is especially helpful in caring for extra dry skin, both topically in an organic moisturizer, and internally as a beauty food. I would not be without it.

We’ve come to believe that fats are bad. Fat is packed with calories that can easily turn to fat that we store in our bodies, in places where we don’t want it. On top of that, saturated fat is portrayed as hazardous for our hearts. And considering that heart disease is our number one killer, this is not to be taken lightly. But fats are essential to our well being. We need the essential fatty acids that they contain. The fact is, all fats are not created equal; not even the much-maligned “saturated” fats. Could we have gotten it wrong about them?

Coconut and palm oils are saturated fats, yet people who eat lots of them have far less heart disease than we do. They have been studied extensively and the scientific findings have been consistent and conclusive. People who eat lots of tropical oils have less heart disease than people who eat so-called hearty-friendly, polyunsaturated vegetable oils. So why don’t we hear more about these good saturated fats?

The soybean lobby was behind the fiction that saturated fats are bad for us. They targeted the tropical oils that were used extensively in food processing, looking to create a market for their product. Unfortunately, they succeeded. Vegetable oils came to replace tropical oils in our processed food. Trans-fats, used extensively in margarine and shortening, were born. But instead of improved health and wellness, we have seen an increase in heart disease and obesity.

Not all of our health problems are a result of the switch into vegetable oils, of course. But we have not been well served by the shift out of healthy tropical oils, into unstable vegetable oils and franken-fats. And 30 years later, saturated fats continue to be castigated as bad for us.

The evidence says otherwise. Extensive studies of those cultures where coconut and palm oils are consumed in large quantities show that there is no link whatsoever between consumption of those fats and heart disease. In fact, the people who eat the most of them have the least heart disease. Nothing hard to figure out there, really.

These fats are highly stable, meaning they do not go rancid and become fodder for free radicals in our bodies, causing aging and degenerative disease.

They are not digested in the same way as other fats. They go straight to the liver, by-passing the digestive processes that cause fat molecules to circulate though blood vessels and potentially clog them. And they are converted immediately into energy, in much the same way as carbohydrates.
People who switch from vegetable oils to coconut oil, and keep their total calorie intake constant, find that they lose weight as a result of the switch.

Different fats behave differently in our bodies, depending on their composition. There are unhealthy saturated fats, and there are healthy ones. Coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats we can consume, and it is time to change the misleading message that continues to be put forth that “saturated fats are bad.”

I use coconut oil in my cooking, and in my organic moisturizer. I recommend it for internal and external use. I find it especially helpful in caring for extra dry skin.