Archive for the ‘Coconut Oil’ Category

I found this article quite interesting. You can read the whole article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/health/17well.html?_r=2&ref=science
New York Times, February 17, 2009
Vitamin Pills: A False Hope? By TARA PARKER-POPE

“Ever since the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Linus Pauling first promoted “megadoses” of essential nutrients 40 years ago, Americans have been devoted to their vitamins. Today about half of all adults use some form of dietary supplement, at a cost of $23 billion a year.

But are vitamins worth it? In the past few years, several high-quality studies have failed to show that extra vitamins, at least in pill form, help prevent chronic disease or prolong life.”

They did a number of studies of over 200,000 men and women. In the article it said that a well-balanced diet “typically provides an adequate level of these nutrients, and today many popular foods are fortified with extra vitamins and minerals.” What they didn’t tell you was that farm raised salmon typically doesn’t have much omega-3 because they are fed corn and soy. Wild salmon eat smaller fish which have fed on algae and are rich in omega-3.

Another question is: How many men and women in these studies are following the popular low fat-high carb food regimen that has been popular the last 50 years?

How many are on statin drugs which not only lowers cholesterol but also weakens muscles, including the heart? Statin drugs also lowers CoQ10 which ever cell in the body needs because CoQ10 supplies the energy to the body.

How many people are taking omega-3 which does a better job than statin drugs in lowering cholesterol? That $23 billion mentioned above on vitamins is less than the pharmaceutical companies are making on the statin drugs. And the vitamins are not doing the harm that statin drugs do.

How many people are loading up with foods saturated with hydrogenated oils? It’s hard for me to find any processed food that isn’t loaded with hydrogenated oils. And I’m looking. How many people just pull some food off the shelf and don’t look at the label?

How many people are using butter and lard instead of Crisco (a hydrogenated oil)?
When you’re taking poison into your system by way of hydrogenated oils vitamin pills are at a loss for doing their job.

How many people are using pure coconut oil that is not contaminated? Much of the coconut oil we find has been dried in the sun and then chemically processed to take out the impurities. Pure coconut oil doesn’t need this contamination process.

In these studies of over 200,000 men and women how many were eating healthy? Other studies tell us that most people do not eat healthy, they fill up on hydrogenated oils in their food, like margarine, vegetable oils processed by hydrogenation, and French fries (loaded with 40% hydrogenated oil – the high heat also contaminates food)?

My take on this: If you want a true test of vitamins, ignore what the government says about the daily recommended amount of vitamins. This was basically set in World War II to keep young soldiers alive. Go back to butter, lard, and eat plenty of green vegetables. Most of what the average American eats lead to obesity, type-2 diabetes, inflammation of the arteries, and poor health. Just look around you.

For more on this just peruse my blog on eating.

To Your Health and Wellness.

“Tropical oils were very popular in the US food industry prior to World War II. The US is the largest exporter of soybeans. The well oiled marketing machinery funded by the soy bean and corn industry and supported by the American Heart Association was committed to change the American Diet, calling among others, for the substitution of saturated fats for polyunsaturates. The Prudent Diet, as it was called, left a legacy which still haunts us today. 40 years on, this conceptual change in the eating habits of Americans has negatively influenced and changed the dietary regimes of societies all around the world that were initially not even affected by America’s particular meat, potato and milk diet. So determined was the pursuit of the American industries in converting their claims into magnificent billboards of health and wealth that even small island nations in the South Pacific were converted by this powerful marketing machine to change centuries of dietary traditions of tropical oils to importing polyunsaturated fats. Today heart disease is still on the increase and obesity, linked to the “new” American diet, is a major social problem worldwide that has governments worried about the health care cost of future generations. The U.K. and Australia unfortunately, are racing to catch up to their allies with a large percentage of the population being defined as overweight.

“Studies were done to show that coconut oil, and all saturated fats, were bad for one’s health because they raised serum cholesterol levels. However, these studies were done on hydrogenated coconut oil, and all hydrogenated oils produce higher serum cholesterol levels, whether they are saturated or not. Recent research shows that it is the presence of trans fatty acids that causes health problems, as they are fatty acid chains that have been altered from their original form in nature by the oil refining process.

“Although many studies at the time had also shown research to the contrary, the mud stuck and by the mid 60’s the reputation of all saturated oils in America had been destroyed. This reputation later extended to the rest of the western world.”

1. www.coconut-connections.com/healthiest_oil.htm