The Coconut Oil Miracle (26 page)

Coconut oil can have a very strong detoxifying effect on some people when they first start using it. It stimulates the immune system, causing the body to clean out stored toxins and germs. As a consequence, when some people begin to use the oil either topically or internally they experience cleansing reactions. This is sometimes called a healing crisis because while the body is going through this healing process some unpleasant symptoms may arise. Symptoms may include skin rash, nausea, vomiting, sinus congestion, diarrhea, and fatigue, to mention just a few. A person usually doesn’t experience all these symptoms, only a few. No two people are alike so symptoms will vary from person to person. The reason for the symptoms is that the body has gained enough strength to clean house and is trying to eliminate poisons from the system. This process should be allowed to continue until it stops. Symptoms may last a day, a week, or even several weeks depending on the amount of toxins in the person’s body. Coconut oil should be taken every day to encourage the detoxification. If you stop taking the oil or take drugs to ease
the symptoms the cleansing process will stop and your body will be left holding the toxins. This healing crisis is a good thing. It signifies that you are in the process of healing. After the symptoms are gone you will have a healthier, cleaner body and feel much better. At first you might think you are coming down with the flu or might be allergic to coconut oil. Chances are, you’re not. Coconut oil will help protect you from the flu and other illnesses. Coconut oil is hypoallergenic, which means it is very rare for someone to be allergic to it. Coconut is actually recommended for people with multiple allergies because it is so safe. Most people do not experience a dramatic cleansing reaction when they start using coconut oil, but in case you do, you will know what is happening.

My recommendation is for an adult to consume 2 to 4 tablespoons of coconut oil daily. This dose could be achieved through cooking, taking it by the spoonful like a supplement, or by applying it directly to the skin. Incorporating coconut oil into your cooking is the most palatable way to get the daily dose.

Replacing the cooking oils you currently use with coconut oil is the easy first step to adding MCFAs to your diet without increasing your total fat intake. Eliminate all margarine, shortening, and processed vegetable oils from your diet. Olive oil and butter are okay, but use coconut oil whenever possible. I have provided many recipes in
chapter 9
to get you started. Because coconut oil is primarily a saturated fat, the heat of cooking does not create a free-radical soup as it does with other vegetable oils. You can feel safe knowing that you aren’t
damaging your health when you eat it. From all the research that has been done to this point, it appears that coconut oil is the healthiest all-purpose oil you can use.

Coconut oil melts at about 76 degrees F, becoming a clear liquid that looks like almost any other vegetable oil. Below this temperature, it solidifies and takes on a creamy white appearance. At moderate room temperatures it has a soft buttery texture and is sometimes called coconut butter. Coconut oil can be spread on bread as a replacement for butter or margarine. Some brands have a mild, pleasant coconut flavor that makes them excellent spreads. If you like the taste of real butter, you can make a more flavorful spread using half butter and half coconut oil whipped together. Because it has a buttery consistency at normal room temperature, it isn’t generally used as a salad dressing. Olive oil, which is a healthy oil when used cold or at room temperature, is better for cold salads. I like to use a mixture of olive and coconut oils for my salads. When coconut oil is mixed with olive oil it remains liquid when poured on a salad.

Coconut oil has a moderate smoking point, so you need to keep the temperature below about 360 degrees F when cooking foods on the stove. This is a moderately high cooking temperature and you can cook anything at this heat, even stir-fry vegetables. If you don’t have a temperature gauge on your stovetop, you can tell when it goes over this point because the oil will begin to smoke. When baking breads, muffins, and casseroles using coconut oil, you can set the oven at temperatures above 360 degrees F because the moisture in the food keeps the inside temperature below 212 degrees F.

You don’t need any special instructions or recipes to use coconut oil. Simply use it in place of other oils in recipes that call for butter,
shortening, margarine, or vegetable oil. Most good brands of coconut oil have a very mild flavor and can be used to cook any type of food. Try it in cookies, cakes, muffins, pie crusts, and pancake batter. It is great for stir-frying or any skillet or stovetop use. Use a melted coconut-butter mixture with seasonings poured over rice, pasta, or vegetables instead of butter or cream sauce.

For frying, nothing beats coconut oil. It isn’t absorbed into foods as much as other vegetable oils, doesn’t splatter as much, and can be used over again. I don’t ordinarily recommend eating fried foods because most vegetable oils become toxic when fried, but if you use coconut oil, fried foods could be good for you, as long as you don’t overheat the oil. Remember to keep the temperature below the point where it starts to smoke. Any oil, including coconut oil, will produce toxic byproducts if overheated.

You can also add coconut oil to most any type of hot beverage such as tea, coffee, hot chocolate, hot cider, eggnog, and even warmed vegetable juice. It tastes good in warm milk and is delicious with V8 juice. Prepare the beverage as you normally would and simply stir in a tablespoon or so of coconut oil. The beverage needs to be warm enough to keep the coconut oil in a liquid state (76 degrees or more). Since oil is less dense than water it doesn’t mix well with most beverages and tends to rise to the surface. That’s okay. Just stir it up and drink. It won’t taste oily. This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to add coconut oil to your diet.

Coconut oil is very stable and does not need to be refrigerated. It will stay fresh for at least two or three years unrefrigerated. If kept in a cool place it will last even longer, so it makes a good storage oil. I’ve heard of coconut oil being analyzed after sitting on the shelf
for 15 years and still being unoxidized and safe to use. Where I live it is always cool enough that my coconut oil is hard most of the time. I actually prefer it that way. To me it’s easier to scoop a little out of the jar with a knife or spoon than it is to pour it out. When pouring, it’s too easy to spill and drip. If I need liquid oil, all I do is heat up a little in a hot pan, or I will pull the entire jar out of the refrigerator an hour or so before it’s needed. It melts quickly.

Besides pure coconut oil, another source of the oil comes directly from eating the fruit or flesh of the seed or from drinking the milk. Fresh coconut meat is about 33 percent oil; 7 ounces of fresh coconut provides about 3
¹
⁄
₂
tablespoons of oil. Ten ounces of coconut milk also provides 3
¹
⁄
₂
tablespoons of oil. The more coconut oil you can add to your diet this way, the better. Adding coconut to your recipes can provide a significant amount of this life-giving oil.

DRIED AND FRESH COCONUT

Coconut, both dried and fresh, is a good source of fiber, which is known to be valuable in proper digestive function. One cup of dried, shredded coconut supplies 9 grams of fiber. This is three to four times as much as most fruits and vegetables. For example, broccoli contains only 3 grams of fiber per cup, and raw cabbage has only 2 grams per cup. A slice of white bread has a mere 1 gram. Coconut also contains as much protein as an equal amount of green beans, carrots, and most other vegetables. It contains vitamins B
₁
, B
₂
, B
₃
, B
₆
, C, and E, folic
acid, and the minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and zinc, among others.

Most of the coconut available to us in stores has been dried and shredded. When dried, the moisture content is reduced from 52 percent (in fresh coconut) to about 2.5 percent. The fat content and nutritional content is pretty much the same in dried and fresh coconut. With its low moisture content shredded coconut will last for many months, whereas fresh coconut can spoil in a matter of days.

Fresh coconut is a delight to eat as a snack or to include in your cooking. Most good grocery stores sell it. You should buy whole coconuts that are as fresh as you can find, but, unfortunately, when you buy a coconut at the store you have no way of telling how old it is. A fresh coconut will stay fresh for many weeks, but an older coconut may be rotten the day you buy it. Shake the shell to detect whether it still contains the water inside. If not, put it back. All three eyes should be intact, and it should not be cracked, leaking, or moldy.

Before opening, you must first drain the liquid. To do this, puncture at least two of the three eyes with an ice pick. The thin membrane over one of the eyes is relatively soft and easy to pierce. You will easily find that one. The other two eyes require a little more effort to penetrate, and you may need to use a hammer and nail. Once the holes are made, drain the liquid into a glass. After the liquid is removed, you are ready to crack the shell.

Coconut shells are very hard and can be difficult to open. However, there is a relatively simple way of opening them. In the tropics they will hold the coconut in one hand and strike it with the dull edge of a machete. With just one or two blows the coconut will split into two somewhat equal halves. Holding a coconut in one hand
while hitting it with a machete can be a bit dangerous. I suggest setting the coconut on a hard surface, hold it steady, and strike it with a hammer. The secret to opening the coconut easily is to hit it on the equator. This is the weakest spot on the coconut and will cause it to crack nearly in two. You should be able to crack it open with just a few blows with the hammer.

After the shell is opened, pull the white meat off. A brown, fibrous membrane will be on the side that was in contact with the shell. Peel this off with a vegetable peeler. Your coconut is now ready to eat and enjoy. If you don’t want to bother peeling off the brown skin, that’s okay. You can eat it with the skin on.

Because of its high moisture content, once a coconut has been opened, the coconut and the liquid extracted should be refrigerated and used within a few days to avoid spoiling. The remarkable antimicrobial properties of coconut oil become effective only after it has entered our bodies. Therefore, the oil in the fresh nut will not prevent mold or bacteria growth.

COCONUT MILK

Another common coconut product is coconut milk. Technically speaking coconut milk is
not
the liquid that develops naturally inside the coconut. This liquid is called “coconut water,” although the two terms are commonly interchanged. True coconut milk is a manufactured product made from the flesh of the coconut. It is prepared by mixing water with grated coconut, squeezing and extracting the pulp, leaving only the liquid. Coconut milk contains between 17 and 24 percent fat. Coconut milk with a fat content of 20 percent or more
is often called coconut cream. If it has less than 17 percent fat it is called lite or low-fat coconut milk. This is really just coconut milk that has been watered down.

The water that fills the cavity inside the coconut is colorless but slightly cloudy and sweet-tasting. Coconut milk, on the other hand, is pure white, resembling cow’s milk, and is not sweet unless sugar is added. Canned coconut milk is available in many grocery and health food stores and can be used as a replacement for regular cow’s milk and in a wide variety of dishes (see the recipes in
chapter 9
). You can drink it by the glass, use it in hot and cold cereal, and pour it over fresh fruit. Coconut milk can also be added to many cold beverages. You can combine coconut milk with fruit juice, milk, chocolate milk, and many other cold beverages. Of course, you can mix coconut milk with hot beverages too. One of my favorite drinks is a mixture of coconut milk and orange juice. The coconut milk gives the juice a delicious creamy taste and texture. Mix 2 to 4 tablespoons of coconut milk into 1 cup of orange juice.

You can also use coconut milk to make fruit smoothies, coconut pancakes, clam chowder, and creamy chicken gravy, to mention just a few dishes (see the recipes in
chapter 9
).

In the store coconut milk is usually sold in 14-ounce cans. You may also find frozen coconut milk, but it is less common. Several companies have now started selling coconut milk beverages in milk cartons. These products are not real coconut milk; they are coconut milk
beverages
. They consist basically of water combined with some coconut milk along with sweeteners, stabilizers, flavorings, and other substances. Do not use these beverages as replacements for coconut milk in recipes.

Coconut oil works like magic on the skin. Whenever I meet someone who is hesitant about eating coconut oil, I suggest trying it topically first and seeing what it does for the skin. Once people begin to use it and see the improvement, they become believers and are more willing to add it to their diets. When used as a skin lotion, food-grade coconut oil is preferred. Oil is readily absorbed through the skin and into the body. It’s almost the same as eating it. So if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin.

Because oils are readily absorbed by the skin, another way to get your daily dose of coconut oil is by applying it to the skin. The only problem with skin application is that you can’t really tell how much oil is actually absorbed, since absorption varies depending on skin texture and thickness. In addition, too much oil applied to any one area tends to sit on the surface of the skin, where it is easily rubbed off. Therefore, using coconut oil as a lotion or hair conditioner should not be the only way you incorporate it into your lifestyle. Cooking with coconut oil and eating coconut products will also add luster to your skin and hair. But in order to achieve specific beauty benefits, skin and hair application is recommended.