I have never been one to just jump feet first into any kinds of dietary fads since most of them turn out to be complete bullshit. There is a low down snake oil salesman out there every day who is making a lavish living by taking hard earned money from gullible folks. Selling magic potions which can turn even the homeliest among us into super models. Pushing their pills, powders and drinks onto the desperate who are all too eager to believe this shady character has actually bottled unicorn farts and magic glitter which will convert us all into the pretty people free of worries and thereby create world peace. I really need to get in on this market too. But for the fact I am far too honest to take advantage of the desperate who only need to lose that one last pound that stubbornly refuses to go away, I will have to accept my lot in life. I will never become fabulously wealthy off the naivete of others.

However, after hearing and reading enough about the health benefits of coconut oil, I have decided to give it a go and see what kind of results I can achieve with it. My plan is to have two tablespoons a day until the end of the summer while monitoring my results on the scale, by tape measurements, and lastly through blood labs at the end of the summer for the real story of how much it has helped me. I already have had blood labs done regular so my baseline of HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, liver and kidney functions are known. As of today, my blood pressure is 110/68, heart rate is 61 beats per minute. My weight is 172 pounds and my body fat is only nine percent.

In full transparency I have compiled notes from multiple sources regarding the health benefits of coconut oil which I am going to share. Of course there were some wild claims which seems a step too far in the miraculous cures attributed to the oil, but I concentrated mostly on what seemed most feasible to me. As with hemp CBD) oils being sold as a cure all, I am not going to skip chemo treatments for cancer for a tablespoon of oil. That would be pretty fucking stupid if you believe that shit as some do in regards to CBD. I have no illusions that coconut or CBD would ever cure my chronic sciatic pain which I suffer daily as a result of a damaged sciatic nerve following a spinal injury at L5 S1 back in 2009.

Coconut oil is a saturated fat which we have been told is horrible for our health for several years now. Much as we have been told that dietary cholesterol was the casue of cholesterol in our bodies. Never mind the sugar industry has actually been largely behind this fear mongering which coincides with our nations obesity epidemic. Back in the day when folks were not afraid to eat fats, which our bodies need for health and wellness, we were not a population of fatties. The more low fat and fat free products hit the shelves in our stores, the fatter Americans became. Look around, you are surrounded by portly people everywhere now days. Hell, you can not even drive your car a few blocks without encountering someone feeding their face while behind the wheel too.

With the amounts of fats being reduced or eliminated, more sugars have been used in order to make foods taste better. Hell, pick up a fat free salad dressing and see where sugar is placed in the ingredient list. You will likely find it somewhere towards the top as the list goes from the greatest quantity to the least on every nutrition label of every product in the nation. Fats became taboo because they are calorie dense with nine calories per gram over four calories per gram in carbs and protein. This misguided notion to only reduce calories by getting rid of fat began a scourge of sugar addiction where folks eat more now than we ever did back in the day when a good fatty meal was more satiating and kept you satisfied for much longer periods of time.

Coconut oil is comprised of sixty one percent medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) which are Caprylic Acid, Lauric Acid and Capric Acid which are easy to digest and only require three steps in the body to be converted to energy while most fats take upwards of twenty six steps. MCFA’s are not readily stored as fat and have been shown to have anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-fungal benefits in the body. They are processed quickly by the live into ketones for energy instead of being converted to fat.

Coconut oil is said to be beneficial for heart disease and high blood pressure by increasing HDL Cholesterol while reducing LDL Cholesterol by converting the LDL to HDL. Claims have been made that the antibiotic affect of the Caprylic acid helps to clear up urinary tract and kidney infections. I’m not so sure I would skip the doctor and prescription meds for coconut oil, but if it helps to keep these infections from happening in the first place it is beneficial to us.

It is also said to help reduce inflammation which is also a huge reason I am experimenting with it as I know that inflammation is a driver of many preventable ailments we suffer in America largely because of the Standard American Diet (SAD). I have read several sources that make the claim that your total cholesterol is really not an issue when high if your body is not full of inflammation Of course, there is a correlation of high cholesterol and folks being fat and out of shape, which you can bet, their bodies are going to have issues with inflammation as well. Here is something to ponder; when you lose weight the first few pounds come pretty rapidly at first. Those first ten to fifteen pounds are largely a loss of water weight. Why is your body retaining water so badly? Simple, it is retaining it because of inflammation which begins to subside once you get your diet in order.

The Caprylic Acid in coconut oil is said to assist in fat loss which is another reason I am giving this a go. The claim is that it is a super fuel for your cells and will boost fat burning. There also a ton of other claims in regards to it being the most beneficial component of coconut oil which I will get into further in another post.

There are some concerns with adding this saturated fat to your diet. But, I am pretty confident that the biggest concern would be if you are the type who does not track their calories. We all have a Base Metabolic Rate which requires a certain amount of calories in a day to fuel our bodies. If you just randomly add coconut oil to your diet while not watching your calories, I firmly believe that you will experience any or all ,of the ill effects the naysayers say you will. But that would be kind of like a “Here’s your sign” moment where the end result is fucking obvious to even Joey Bagofdonuts who barely passed junior high biology even after the third year of ninth grade.

I consume 2300 to 2500 calories of whole foods a day, depending on my weight training. I track my calories and macro-nutrients closely and by adding coconut oil to my diet, I am adding 240 for two table spoons worth. This will either help to increase my caloric needs when I am already full, or it will cause me to not eat as much as I might wish for the day. It could go either way. But regardless, I will keep all posted with my results.