The Coconut Oil Miracle
Read The Coconut Oil Miracle Online
Authors: Bruce Fife
Published by the Penguin Group
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A Penguin Random House Company
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2013 by Bruce Fife
Previously published as
The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil
by Piccadilly Books
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fife, Bruce, date.
The coconut oil miracle / Bruce Fife, C.N., N.D. — 5th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-101-66274-8
1. Coconut oil—Therapeutic use. 2. Coconut oil—Health aspects.
3. Essential fatty acids in human nutrition. I. Title.
QP144.O44F542 2013 2013025488
615’.3245—dc23
Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.
FOREWORD
by Jon J. Kabara, Ph.D.
3 A New Weapon Against Heart Disease
4 Nature’s Marvelous Germ Fighter
7 Coconut Oil as Food and as Medicine
8 Eat Your Way to Better Health
9 Recipes for Nutrition and Beauty
Up until now only a small group of lipid (fat) researchers were familiar
with the incredible health benefits of a unique group of saturated fats found in coconut oil. Most of those in the health care industry have been generally ignorant of these benefits, shunning coconut oil because of common misconceptions regarding dietary fat. But this situation is beginning to change as the amazing nutritional and therapeutic benefits of tropical oils become better known.
In this book the reader will learn that not all saturated fats are unhealthy. In fact, there is a subgroup of saturated fats that actually have a positive effect on your health. This book provides a brief summary of the remarkable health benefits lipid researchers have slowly been uncovering regarding a unique group of saturated fats found in mother’s milk and coconut oil known as “medium-chain fatty acids.” The story is fascinating and can have a pronounced effect on your health.
Those who take the time to pick up this book may be surprised to
learn that these saturated fats promote good health. Contrary to what is generally believed by both the lay public and medical professionals, the saturated fats found in coconut oil are actually good for you. This should not be surprising, because if coconut oil were unhealthy it would have been evidenced in populations who have used it for generations. In fact, just the opposite is the case. Those populations who use coconut oil demonstrate a remarkable level of good health.
Historically, coconut oil is one of the earliest oils to be used as a food and as a pharmaceutical. Ayurvedic literature has long promoted the health and cosmetic benefits of coconut oil. Even today the Asian Pacific community, which may represent as much as half the world’s population, uses coconut oil in one form or another. Many of these people enjoy remarkably good health and longevity. Studies on people who live in tropical climates and who have a diet high in coconut oil show that they are healthier and have fewer incidences of heart disease, cancer, digestive complaints, and prostate problems. In North America and Europe popular cookbooks from the late nineteenth century often included coconut oil in many recipes, yet heart disease and cancer were almost unheard of at the time. Common sense would suggest that the saturated fats in coconut oil are not the poisons they are often made out to be.
Why, then, all the negative publicity regarding coconut oil? Since it is thought that “saturated fats” are involved in heart disease, coconut oil has been considered a health risk. Much of the information linking coconut oil and increased heart disease is, however, circumstantial at best and flawed at worst. Studies showing that dietary coconut oil raises blood cholesterol and increases the possible risk of heart disease were poorly conceived because the essential fats were not included in
the diet. Populations with high levels of coconut oil consumption always include other oils from vegetables and fish for a more balanced diet.
Both “scientific” and political propaganda by the American Soybean Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (or is it their own?) have joined forces in a campaign to replace tropical oils with polyunsaturated soybean oil from American farmers. Because of this campaign, food processors and restaurant and theater chains have switched from coconut oil to polyunsaturated oils. Even dietetic and medical spokespersons, blinded by negative publicity, have supported the switch to polyunsaturated oils, deeming it “heart healthy.” This campaign has condemned all saturated fats as generically “poison.” Both the lay and scientific press fail to mention the fact that certain subgroups of saturated fats have positive health benefits.
The abundance of documented scientific facts reviewed for this book will tell, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.” As the story unfolds, the reader can better appreciate the fact that “saturated fats” are classified into two primary categories: (1) long-chain fats and (2) short- and medium-chain fats. Each subgroup has markedly different biological effects. It will be shown that the overconsumption of polyunsaturated fats in our diet is more detrimental to our health than the consumption of saturated fats found in tropical oils.
Not only is coconut oil not a “dietary poison,” but it contains a remarkable fat called monolaurin. A medium-chain fat, first discovered in my laboratory, monolaurin represents one of the most exceptional and inspiring groups of fats found in nature. This unique fat, available naturally from mother’s milk and coconut oil, is now commercially available as Lauricidin®. Monolaurin (Lauricidin®) is
currently being tested in clinical trials as a treatment for genital herpes, hepatitis C, and HIV. Early clinical results have been very promising and show exciting possibilities for an important new weapon in alternative medicine.
Dr. Bruce Fife should be commended for bringing together in this very readable book the positive health benefits of coconut oil and especially monolaurin. The inquiring reader will have a new and more balanced view of the role of fat, and especially saturated fats, in our diet.
Jon J. Kabara, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Chemistry and Pharmacology
Michigan State University
Some years ago when I was in a meeting with a group of nutritionists,
one of the members of the group made the statement “Coconut oil is good for you.” We all gasped in disbelief.
Coconut oil, healthy? Preposterous,
we thought. Everywhere we go we’re told how bad coconut oil is because it is a source of “artery-clogging” saturated fat. How could coconut oil be good for you?
She knew we would doubt her statement and explained, “Coconut oil has been unjustly criticized and is really one of the good fats.” She cited several studies proving to us that it wasn’t the evil villain it was made out to be and that it actually provided many valuable health benefits. I learned that for several decades it has been used in hospital IV solutions to feed critically ill patients and that it is a major component of baby formula because it provides many of the same nutrients as human breast milk. I learned that coconut oil could be used to treat a number of common illnesses and is considered by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to be a safe, natural food. (It’s on the FDA’s exclusive GRAS list, which means it is “generally regarded as safe.”)
After the meeting I was intrigued. I had learned a lot, but it brought up many questions that troubled me. For instance, if coconut oil was good, why is it so often portrayed as being unhealthy? If the health benefits are real, why haven’t we heard of them before? Why don’t we hear about the use of coconut oil in hospitals, baby formula, and elsewhere? If it’s good for the sick and the very young, why wouldn’t it be good for us as well? Why would the government include it on its list of safe foods if it were dangerous or unhealthy? Why aren’t the studies on coconut oil better publicized? Why have we been misled . . . or have we? Perhaps coconut oil
is
bad, and hospital patients and parents of formula-fed babies are being deceived. These and many more questions filled my mind. I had to find the answers.