Coconut Oil 500 ml
Saturated Fats
In the 1950's and 1960's when saturated fat was first being associated with elevated cholesterol, researchers
began looking for other potentially adverse effects caused by saturated fat. They reasoned that if excessive
consumption of saturated fat increased the risk of developing heart disease, it might be associated with other
health problems as well. Researchers began studying the relationship between saturated fat and cancer. What
they found surprised them. When compared with other oils, it appeared that saturated fat had a protective effect
against cancer rather than a causative one. Processed polyunsaturated oils were identified as promoting cancer
and the higher the degree of unsaturation, the greater the risk.
Another problem with these polyunsaturated oils is their influence on the immune system. Our immune system
is what keeps us healthy. Polyunsaturated oils suppress the immune system, making us more vulnerable to
disease and premature aging. Unsaturated fats not only suppress the immune system but can even kill white
blood cells. The health of your immune system to a large part determines your ability to ward off disease and
remain healthy. Researchers believe that for the most part, free radicals are to blame for these conditions. When
you eat conventionally processed polyunsaturated oils, the type typically sold at grocery stores, you are just
shortening your life by providing a doorway for disease.
Polyunsaturated Oils
The thing that makes vegetable oils potentially harmful is the unsaturation. The double-carbon bonds in the molecule
of the polyunsaturated oils are highly vulnerable to oxidation and free radical formation.
In a fine book, called the McDougall Plan, it is stated that "…polyunsaturated vegetable oils can be a health hazard.
When consumed, they act like a cholesterol-lowering drug. They drive large amounts of stored cholesterol from the
body tissues through the liver to the gall bladder and into the colon. In the bowel, the excreted cholesterol may be
involved in the cause of cancer in the colon."
Polyunsaturated oils become toxic when they are oxidized. This is what causes rancidity. Rancidity occurs when the
oils are exposed to oxygen, heat, or light (sunlight or artificial). Oxidation causes the formation of harmful free radicals.
The longer the bottle of oil sits, the more opportunity for oxidative damage. Oil stored in clear plastic bottles is exposed
to damaging radiation from light. Any polyunsaturated oil which is heated, becomes oxidized. The higher the
temperature, the greater the degree of oxidation. Cooking foods at high temperatures accelerates oxidation. Numerous
studies, some published as early as the 1930's, have reported the toxic effects of consuming heated oils.
Trans Fatty Acids
Trans fatty acids are artificial fatty acids created by tedchnology and are foreign to the human body. Because these fats
are unlike the natural fatty acids needed for good health, our bodies are incapable of utilizing them in a productive manner.
Charles T McGee, M.D., in his book Heart Frauds, relates the following experience:
"My first introduction to fatty acids came during a medical meeting in 1976. Dr Alsoph Corwin, Professor Emeritus of
Chemistry at John Hopkins University, presented what he called a cooking demonstration. This was highly unusal for a
medcal meeting. there he stood wearing his apron, looking like a chef on a television cooking program."
"Dr. Corwin held up a glass beaker full of vegetable oil which had been collected by the age-old technique of crushing
vegetable seeds in a press. (cold pressed) With the room lights off he exposed the oil to an ultraviolet light in front of a white screen.
The screen stayed white."
"Then he held the beaker of oil over the flame of a bunsen burner, brought it to a boil, and again exposed it to the UV light.
A pink light colour was projected on the screen. It was obvious something in the oil had changed. Dr. Corwin explained
that molecules of fatty acids in the oils had been polymerized by the heat. Polymerization involves changes in chemical bonds."
Dr. McGee goes on to explain that the change that occurred in this demonstration was the creation of trans fatty acids. Heat
converts normal unsaturated fatty acids into toxic trans fatty acids. This process occurs whenever vegetable oil is heated.
In the extraction, refining and deoderising process vegetable oils are heated to temperatures up to 400 degrees Farhenheight
or 200 degrees celsius for extended periods of time. Between 15-19 percent of the fatty acids in conventionally processed
liquid vegetable oils are trans fatty acids. Cold pressed oils don't contain trans fatty acids unless they are heated to high
temperatures during food preparation. It's ironic that people will buy cold pressed oil at the health food store and then turn it
into a health hazard by cooking with it.
Vegetable oils are often hydrogenated to turn them into solid fats. In the process of hydrogenation, higher temperatures and
longer exposure times create a far greater number of trans fatty acids. Shortening and margarine are hydrogenated oils. On
average they contain about 35% trans fatty acids, but some brands may run as high as 48%.
"These are probably the most toxic fats ever known," says Walter Willett, M.D., professor of epidemiology and nutrition at
Harvard School of Public Health. r. Willett disagrees with those who say that the hydrogenated fats found in margarine or
shortening are less likely to raise cholesterol than the saturated fats found in butter: "It looks like trans fatty acids are two to
three times as bad as saturated fats in terms of what they do to blood lipids."
Hydrogenated oil is a product of technology and may be the most destructive food additive currently in common use. If you
eat margarine, shortening, hydrogenated or artfically hydrogenated oils (common food additives), the you are consuming
trans fatty acids.
Whenever monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils are used in cooking, especially at high temperatures, trans fatty acids
are formed. So even if you use cold pressed oil from the health food store, if you use it in your cooking, you are creating
unhealthy trans fatty acids. The purpose of buying "healthy" oil is defeated if you cook it.
You might ask: does the amount of trans fatty acids that are produced when you heat oils at home pose any real danger?
Studies show diets containing heat-treated liquid corn oil were found to produce more atherosclerosis than those containing
unheated corn oil. So, yes any polyunsaturated vegetable oil becomes toxic when heated. And even a small amount,
especially if eaten frequently over time, will affect your health.
Saturated fats from any source are much more tolerant to temperatures used in cooking and do not form trans fatty acids;
therefore, they make much better cooking oils. Saturated fats are the only fats that are safe to heat and cook with. Many
people, however, are hesitant to use saturated fat because of the concern about heart disease. But what if there was a
saturated fat that was heart healthy? You could use that in your cooking without fear. Coconut oil is such a fat. It is not only
resistant to heat but is an excellent oil for improving overall health.
Platelets - Blood Clots
A common criticism of saturated fat is that it increases platelet adhesiveness (blood stickiness), thus promoting the
development of blood clots. Some of the long-chain saturated fats do increase platelet stickiness, but so do most
polyunsaturated fats found in vegetable oils. All dietary oils both saturated and unsaturated, with the exception of two,
increase platelet stickiness. Even olive oil increases blood clot risk. The two exceptions are the omega-3 fatty acids
(e.g. flaxseed oil, fish oil) and the medium-chain fatty acids (e.g. tropical oils, like coconut). So, when you eat corn, safflower,
soybean, cottonseed, canola, and peanut oils you are increasing your risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
Eating omega-3 and medium-chain fatty acids reduces that risk.
Saturated Fats and Cholesterol
The important thing to remember from all this is that neither saturated fat nor cholesterol cause heart disease.
Furthermore, saturated fat is not the only substance that your liver converts into cholesterol. Other fats, as well as
carbohydrate, also end up as cholesterol in our bodies. Carbohydrate is the main nutritional component of all fruits,
vegetables, and grains. To infer that only saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is grossly inaccurate and misleading.
Some foods raise blood cholesterol more than others. Some have little or no effect depending on many metabolic
factors. Medium -chain saturated fatty acids, like those found in coconut oil, are burned up immediately to create
energy and, therefore, have a neutral effect on blood cholesterol.
From the book: The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil by Bruce Fife, N.D. To be added to our book list.
