Much maligned for years as a saturated fat, we’ll bring you truth regarding the incredible health properties of coconut oil.

Coconut Oil Cooking Spray: Healthy or Toxic?

One of the most popular products available to the general consumer to combat the issue of baked and cooked food sticking to cooking surfaces is non-stick spray. A good reason to avoid these sprays is the fact that many of them are made with unhealthy oils and lecithins, generally derived from GMO crops such as soy or corn. But what about if they are made from a healthy oil, such as coconut oil? Unfortunately, these cooking sprays also contain heavily processed ingredients, including propellants. Propellant is what pushes the spray out of the can, and is usually made from such things as nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, or propane.

Baking Gluten Free Cookies with Coconut Flour

Coconut flour is one of the trickiest, if not the trickiest, most finicky, temperamental, fickle gluten free flour to work with. However, when you get it right, coconut flour baked goods will be some of the best you’ve ever had, gluten free or otherwise. One of the hardest baked goods to transfer over to gluten free with coconut flour would be cookies. How do you do it? It’s either not the right texture, too crumbly, too dense, requires too many eggs or simply bakes up into sawdust. Here are some proven tips to making successful coconut flour cookies based on three textures: crispy cookies, cakey cookies, chewy cookies. I include 10 kitchen-proven recipes to get you started.

Virgin Coconut Oil Beats Drugs in Treating Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer's Disease is a modern plague on the seniors in our society. More evidence continues to be published that Alzheimer's is primarily a prescription drug induced disease. Coconut oil is an alternative to toxic drugs that has shown tremendous results in helping or even reversing Alzheimer's disease. But your doctor will not likely know about either the causes of Alzheimer's disease, or how coconut oil can help. Here is what you need to know.

Baking Soda & Coconut Oil Cleanser for Problem Skin

Using a facial cleanser as a part of your daily skin care ritual is one of the essential outward practices to maintaining clean, healthy skin. Many acne–fighting and exfoliating facial cleansers and masks contain little beads to help “polish” the skin by taking dead layers off, while a creamy and cleaning base should help moisturize and condition. Instead of shelling out money and being wasteful in the process of trial and error in trying to find a product that works for your skin, try making it at home with only two ingredients you probably already have: coconut oil and baking soda. Not only are these two ingredients readily available, they are also highly effective in treating problematic skin. Unlike all the fillers and toxic ingredients in normal store-bought cosmetics, these two ingredients are not only safe for your skin, but safe to be eaten as well.

Study: Virgin Coconut Oil Reduces Symptoms of Chemo – Improves Quality of Life for Breast Cancer Patients

Once again, research into the health benefits of coconut oil is mainly being done outside of the U.S., primarily in coconut-producing countries. Here in the U.S., only pharmaceutical drugs can make health claims, by law. The FDA regulates all health claims, and only allows pharmaceutical companies that have gone through the lengthy and costly drug approval process to make such claims. No company in the U.S. would spend that kind of money on research for a product found in nature that cannot be patented. A study just published in the journal Lipids in Health and Disease looked at Malaysian women suffering from breast cancer. The study discovered that stage 3 and 4 breast cancer women who supplemented their diet with virgin coconut oil during breast cancer treatment improved fatigue, dyspnea, sleep difficulties, and loss of appetite compared to the control group. Virgin coconut oil consumption during chemotherapy also helped improve the functional status and global Quality Of Life of these breast cancer patients. In addition, it reduced the symptoms related to side effects of chemotherapy.

Using Coconut Oil in Cold Drinks

Cold drinks are a popular summer staple that coffeehouses and restaurants make a killing off of every year with their ridiculous prices. However, there is little need to buy them. Making most of these drinks at home is easy, not to mention with far more healthy potential when you control what goes into them. Adding coconut oil to your blended cold drinks is one way to get your daily dose of coconut oil without it being bothersome or boring. Not only that, but the addition of coconut oil will also give your endurance and energy a boost, keeping you going throughout the day or acting as a quick pick me up along with some natural fruit as the day drags on.

Making Coconut Oil Tasteless in Cooking

With the saturated fat myth slowly dying out, coconut oil has quickly risen to be a popular and ideal cooking oil. Coconut oil has a bounty of health benefits and is easily customizable. This versatile nature makes it ideal for many different styles of cooking and dishes. However, not everyone is a fan of the flavor. Here are some tips on making coconut oil tasteless in cooking.

Users Testify to Coconut Oil “Miracles” on WebMD

WebMD is the world's most visited "health" website. They derive their advertising from the pharmaceutical industry, so they have a pro-Pharma slant, as one can expect. It is not typically the place you would go to find information regarding alternative treatments to FDA approved pharmaceutical drugs. If you are contemplating using prescription drugs, it is a great place to get information about the medical industry's products. If however you are looking for information on products that are not approved as drugs by the FDA, their information will be highly biased. Due to the increasing popularity of coconut oil and its healing properties, WebMD now has a listing for coconut oil. It is listed in their vitamin and supplement section, since it is not approved as a drug, and since they generally do not provide any health information about foods. They give the standard pro-Pharma view of coconut oil, which is that, in their view, there are no approved claims for coconut oil. They also warn people that coconut oil could raise cholesterol levels and could be harmful, even while acknowledging that research actually shows the opposite, since coconut oil traditionally lowers LDL cholesterol while raising HDL cholesterol (a positive thing.) They also warn that if people eat too much coconut oil, since it is fat, that it could lead to weight gain. Interestingly, WebMD allows users to comment on these entries, presumably in a format where patients can comment on their own experiences with the vast array of drugs listed on their website. Read what users said about the "miraculous" properties of coconut oil in relation to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, weight control, memory, mood swings, energy, dry skin, dental health, stopping seizures and more.

Adding Coconut Oil into Your Fitness Routine

Fitness junkies, take note: you need coconut oil. Coconut oil straight up, in your protein-rich meals, protein shakes, snacks, pre-workout, post-workout fuel - whatever you choose. Coconut oil can be adapted into your style of eating and seriously enhance the results of the style of fitness you’re into, be it body building, toning, endurance, or general weight and muscle management. So why add coconut oil into your fitness routine? Coconut oil is a rich source of MCTs (medium chain triglycerides), a high-energy fuel that the body uses to prevent muscle loss, but take off body fat. Coconut oil has a lot of these MCTs. Eat it.

Easy Homemade Coconut Oil Chocolate Recipes

Coconut oil makes fantastic homemade chocolate. With just a few extra ingredients, coconut oil will morph into an impressively smooth, rich dark chocolate that won’t require a chocolate-making class to learn. The easiest coconut oil chocolates require no cooking and generally all the ingredients are blended together in one easy step.