Coconut Oil: A Potential Diabetes Fighter

Despite the prevailing vilification of saturated fats by profiteering “health oil” companies today, Pacific Island populations have been shown in studies to get 30 to 60 percent of their total caloric intake from fully saturated coconut oil and have nearly non-existent rates of cardiovascular disease and outstanding overall health. Did you know that the coconut oil you trust for cooking or skin care also exhibits anti-diabetes activity?

Dr. Joseph Mercola explains that coconut oil is about two-thirds medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), also called medium-chain triglycerides or MCTs. In fact, it is nature’s richest source of these healthy MCFAs.

Among the benefits of MCFAs:

• MCFAs are smaller. They permeate cell membranes easily, and do not require special enzymes to be utilized effectively by your body.
• MCFAs are easily digested, thus putting less strain on your digestive system.
• MCFAs are sent directly to your liver where they are immediately converted into energy rather than being stored as fat.
• MCFAs assist in weight loss by actually helping stimulate your body’s metabolism.

Like simple carbohydrates, coconut oil is a powerful source of instant energy for your body, since your body sends medium-chain fatty acids directly to your liver to use as energy. But here lies the difference: coconut oil does not produce an insulin spike in your bloodstream.

“Coconut oil acts on your body like a carbohydrate, without any of the debilitating insulin-related effects associated with long-term high carbohydrate consumption,” says Dr. Mercola.

Diabetes is an “exploding health epidemic in America,” so this heralds some good news for diabetics and those with pre-diabetes conditions. As proof, coconut oil added to the diet of diabetics and pre-diabetics has been found to help stabilize weight gain, which can dramatically decrease your likelihood getting adult onset Type-2 diabetes. (Link)

Dr. Mercola adds that coconut oil is among the two oils he uses in his kitchen (the other being extra virgin olive oil). He considers coconut oil a far greater option than omega-6 vegetable oils, given these three reasons:

1. Most people believe that frying creates trans-fat. Although this is true, Dr. Mercola believes there’s a far bigger threat than trans-fat. “Frying destroys the antioxidants in oil and as a result oxidizes the oil. This causes cross-linking, cyclization, double-bond shifts, fragmentation, and polymerization of oils that cause far more damage than trans-fat,” Dr. Mercola says.
2. Most of the vegetable oils are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Believe it or not, this includes a staggering 90 percent of the soy, corn, and canola oils available today.
3. Vegetable oils contribute to the overabundance of damaged omega-6 fats in your diet. This creates an imbalance in the omega-6 and omega-3 ratio in your body that controls many delicate biochemical pathways. As a consequence, many chronic degenerative diseases are accelerated.

So what would be a smarter choice than an extra virgin coconut oil that offers you nothing less than quality and all the health benefits?

See Dr. Mercola’s products to discover more!

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Tags: coconut oil, diabetes, dr. joseph mercola, dr. mercola, saturated fats, trans fat, virgin coconut oil