71 Coconut Oil Benefits: My Experiments with Coconut Oil

There is so much hype about Coconut Oil benefits at the moment.  I remember reading a book about coconut oil when I was suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so I started taking it daily and did actually start to feel better.  However when I started my major healing through my raw food diet I kept my fat intake much lower so forgot all about coconut oil.

I’ve recently stumbled upon another book, The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife which was very convincing, so I decided it was high time to experiment with this ‘miracle’ food.

To give you a bit of background, coconuts have been used as a major food source  for thousands of years  by millions of people in Asia, PacificIslands, Africa and Central America. Before the introduction of modern foods, many of these people depended almost entirely on coconut to sustain life.  They didn’t suffer from heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes and many other degenerative diseases until they abandoned their traditional diets.

Coconut oil has a long and highly respected reputation in many cultures throughout the world, not only as a valuable food but also as an effective medicine. The healing miracles of the coconut have long been recognised in those cultures where it is grown.  Only recently have these benefits started to become known to the rest of the world.

There have been many reported claims of coconut oil such as:

1. Reduce Psoriasis
2. Eliminate Dandruff
3. Remove Pre cancerous skin lesion
4. Speed Flu recovery
5. Stop bladder infections
6. Overcome chronic fatigue
7. Relieve haemorrhoids
8. treat dental cavities
9. reduce peptic ulcers
10. Can help with benign prostaic hyperplasia
11. To treat Epilepsy
12. Clear up Genital herpes
13. To treat Hepatitis C
14. To treat HIV/AIDs
15. Prevent heart disease
16. Indirectly lowers bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol.
17. Reduces blood clotting
18. Reduces stroke risk
19. Prevents damage from free radicals
20. Improves dental health
21. Improves immune system
22. Treats Candida
23. Treats infections
24. Treats parasites
25. Improves IBS
26. Lose weight
27. Speed your metabolism
28. Gain energy
29. Reduce cravings for junk food

Apply to body to

30. Prevent liver spots
31. Remove dead skin cells
32. Limit damage from sun exposure
33. Eliminate dry skin
34. Protect skin from germs
35. Heal wounds
36. Condition hair
37. Quickly reduces blisters
38. Reduce warts
39. Eliminate athletes foot
40. Prevent wrinkles
41. Reduce inflammation

It also has been claimed that coconut oil:

42. Supports the development of strong bones
43. Protects against osteoporosis
44. Reduces symptoms associated with pancreatitis
45. Reduces severity of symptoms in malabsorption syndrome
46. Reduces severity of symptoms in cystic fibrosis
47. Relieves symptoms of gallbladder disease
48. Relieves symptoms associated with Crohn’s disease
49. Relieves symptoms associated with ulcerative colitis
50. Relieves symptoms associated with stomach ulcers
51. Protects the body from breast, colon and other cancers
52. Prevents premature aging and degenerative diseases
53. Prevents liver disease
54. Kills bacteria that causes pneumonia
55. Kills bacteria that causes earache
56. Kills bacteria that causes throat infection
57. Kills bacteria that causes food poisoning
58. Kills bacteria that causes urinary tract infections
59. Kills bacteria that causes meningitis
60. Kills bacteria that causes gonorrhoea
61. Kills fungi and yeast that causes ringworm
62. Kills fungi and yeast that causes nappy rash
63. Expels or kills tapeworm
64. Expels or kills lice
65. Expels or kills giardia
66. Reduces symptoms associated with eczema
67. Reduces symptoms associated with dermatitis
68. Prevents sagging skin
69. Treats burns
70. Treats kidney stones
71. Treats choleraic dysentery

Daily Recommended Dose

• 3 ½ Tablespoons Coconut Oil or
• Half a Coconut or
• 2 ¾ cups dried coconut or
• 10 ounces (295 ml) Coconut milk

How to use coconut oil

Coconut oil is hard at room temperature but will melt when you add it to your cooking.  Replace all your vegetable oils with coconut oils.  It is perfect to fry foods in.

If you want to melt it without cooking it (to drink it, add it to a drink, soup or yoghurt etc.) you could put the desired amount of coconut oil in a cup.  Place the cup in a bowl and fill the bowl with boiling water.  The oil will melt quickly.

You don’t need to store coconut oil in the fridge.  It will keep for 2 years out of the fridge.

Other ways to eat coconut oil

• Spread it on your toast
• Use it on your baked potato
• Add it to smoothies
• Add it to your hot drinks
• Add it to baking to replace butter
• Add it to your pancake mixture
• Add it to soups and stews

My Personal Experiments with Coconut Oil 

I have been taking about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil daily and using it in my cooking for the last 3 months for this experiment.

In addition to eating it straight, I have been using coconut oil for:

• Nappy Cream for my baby
• Hand moisturiser
• Lip moisturiser
• Hair conditioner
• Face cleaning
• Face moisturiser
• Deodorant
• Replaced all oils for cooking with coconut oil
• Added it to smoothies, pancakes and hot drinks
• Oil pulling (I’ll talk more about this in another post)

Benefits of Coconut Oil that I’ve noticed myself

• Baby’s chronic nappy rash cleared up completely
• Clearing up a rash on my body that’s been there for over 2 years by applying coconut oil to it.
• To immediately eliminate a very itchy foot (had been there for 4 days and went straight away as soon as I put coconut oil on it and didn’t return)
• Reduced cravings for junk food
• Filled me up and stopped me getting so hungry and low blood sugar while pregnant as no foods seemed to keep me going for very long until I added coconut to them.
• Hair has become softer and less frizzy
• Skin is much softer from just ingesting it
• Skin became even softer when I used it as a moisturiser.
• Have completely eliminated any acne (3 months of pregnancy, got lots at the start which disappeared when I started moisturising face with coconut oil)
• So far none of the problems that I had during my previous pregnancy at this stage (severe cravings for sugar, toothache, crippling backache, heartburn, agonising stomach aches, extreme insomnia, spots, severe reaction to central heating, headaches, daily feverishness) which could of course just be a coincidence.
• Toothache and tooth sensitivity to foods completely went away. (I’m still awaiting a dentist appointment so I’ve yet to see if I do indeed have a cavity as I suspected at the start of my pregnancy)

Where to buy Coconut Oil

I had been using so much coconut oil for this experiment that I have been buying it in bulk which reduces the price by half. 

Buy Coconut Oil in bulk by clicking here.

Coconut Oil has a subtle coconut scent which you don’t notice when you use it to cook with.  I’ve been using an extra virgin organic coconut oil which is the best quality of coconut oil.  

You can buy good quality Coconut Oil by clicking here.

What I like about Coconut Oil

I love the way my cooked food tastes when I’ve used coconut oil to stir fry my food in.  I like that I can keep it out of the fridge and it lasts a long time.  I love the fact it comes from a fruit as that makes it feel much more natural to me as I am consuming coconut oil every time I eat coconut.

What I don’t like about Coconut Oil

I really went off the taste of coconut oil eaten straight from the spoon and afterwards I would often feel sickly.  This never happened if I cooked with coconut oil or if it was added to my food.  I sometimes think why don’t we just eat the whole coconut rather than extracting the oil as I prefer to base my diet around whole foods.  However if I am to use any oil then coconut oil would definitely be my preferred oil.

When coconut oil is applied directly to the skin it can feel a bit greasy if you use too much and seems to easily rub off.  But I have developed some homemade cosmetics that include coconut oil alongside other ingredients and they work perfectly.  I’ll be sharing these in the future.

My Conclusion about coconut Oil Benefits

I did see noticeable benefits from using coconut oil that couldn’t be attributed to other things, especially my 2 year rash clearing up after applying coconut oil to it.  There is no denying my skin is a lot softer too.  But the other benefits are hard to pinpoint directly to coconut oil.  However I do believe it’s a great food and I am going to continue to use it.  I’m still undecided as to how much fat I should be having in my diet but anytime I would be using another oil I’m going to try and use coconut oil instead and not go overboard with the use of it as I also consume a lot of coconut in other forms as I make my own coconut milk and add coconut to my smoothies, so I do think coconut oil is extremely beneficial but so is the entire coconut! 

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