TOPIC:

Coconut
(Cocos nucifera)

The Tree of Life





The scientific name for coconut is Cocos nucifera. Early Spanish explorers called it coco, which means "monkey face" because the three indentations (eyes) on the hairy nut resembles the head and face of a monkey. Nucifera means "nut-bearing."

The coconut provides a nutritious source of meat, juice, milk, and oil that has fed and nourished populations around the world for generations. On many islands coconut is a staple in the diet and provides the majority of the food eaten. Nearly one third of the world's population depends on coconut to some degree for their food and their economy. Among these cultures the coconut has a long and respected history.

Coconut is highly nutritious and rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It is classified as a "functional food" because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional content. Coconut oil is of special interest because it possesses healing properties far beyond that of any other dietary oil and is extensively used in traditional medicine among Asian and Pacific populations. Pacific Islanders consider coconut oil to be the cure for all illness. The coconut palm is so highly valued by them as both a source of food and medicine that it is called "The Tree of Life." Only recently has modern medical science unlocked the secrets to coconut's amazing healing powers.






Coconut In Traditional Medicine

People from many diverse cultures, languages, religions, and races scattered around the globe have revered the coconut as a valuable source of both food and medicine. Wherever the coconut palm grows the people have learned of its importance as a effective medicine. For thousands of years coconut products have held a respected and valuable place in local folk medicine.

In traditional medicine around the world coconut is used to treat a wide variety of health problems including the following: abscesses, asthma, baldness, bronchitis, bruises, burns, colds, constipation, cough, dropsy, dysentery, earache, fever, flu, gingivitis, gonorrhea, irregular or painful menstruation, jaundice, kidney stones, lice, malnutrition, nausea, rash, scabies, scurvy, skin infections, sore throat, swelling, syphilis, toothache, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, ulcers, upset stomach, weakness, and wounds.





Coconut In Modern Medicine

Modern medical science is now confirming the use of coconut in treating many of the above conditions. Published studies in medical journals show that coconut, in one form or another, may provide a wide range of health benefits. Some of these are summarized below:

* Kills viruses that cause influenza, herpes, measles, hepatitis C, SARS, AIDS, and other illnesses.
* Kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, gum disease and cavities, pneumonia, and gonorrhea, and other diseases.
* Kills fungi and yeasts that cause candidiasis, ringworm, athlete's foot, thrush, diaper rash, and other infections.
* Expels or kills tapeworms, lice, giardia, and other parasites.
* Provides a nutritional source of quick energy.
* Boosts energy and endurance, enhancing physical and athletic performance.
* Improves digestion and absorption of other nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
* Improves insulin secretion and utilization of blood glucose.
* Relieves stress on pancreas and enzyme systems of the body.
* Reduces symptoms associated with pancreatitis.
* Helps relieve symptoms and reduce health risks associated with diabetes.
* Reduces problems associated with malabsorption syndrome and cystic fibrosis.
* Improves calcium and magnesium absorption and supports the development of strong bones and teeth.
* Helps protect against osteoporosis.
* Helps relieve symptoms associated with gallbladder disease.
* Relieves symptoms associated with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and stomach ulcers.
* Improves digestion and bowel function.
* Relieves pain and irritation caused by hemorrhoids.
* Reduces inflammation.
* Supports tissue healing and repair.
* Supports and aids immune system function.
* Helps protect the body from breast, colon, and other cancers.
* Is heart healthy; improves cholesterol ratio reducing risk of heart disease.
* Protects arteries from injury that causes atherosclerosis and thus protects against heart disease.
* Helps prevent periodontal disease and tooth decay.
* Functions as a protective antioxidant.
* Helps to protect the body from harmful free radicals that promote premature aging and degenerative disease.
* Does not deplete the body's antioxidant reserves like other oils do.
* Improves utilization of essential fatty acids and protects them from oxidation.
* Helps relieve symptoms associated with chronic fatigue syndrome.
* Relieves symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia (prostate enlargement).
* Reduces epileptic seizures.
* Helps protect against kidney disease and bladder infections.
* Dissolves kidney stones.
* Helps prevent liver disease.
* Is lower in calories than all other fats.
* Supports thyroid function.
* Promotes loss of excess weight by increasing metabolic rate.
* Is utilized by the body to produce energy in preference to being stored as body fat like other dietary fats.
* Helps prevent obesity and overweight problems.
* Applied topically helps to form a chemical barrier on the skin to ward of infection.
* Reduces symptoms associated the psoriasis, eczema, and dermatitis.
* Supports the natural chemical balance of the skin.
* Softens skin and helps relieve dryness and flaking.
* Prevents wrinkles, sagging skin, and age spots.
* Promotes healthy looking hair and complexion.
* Provides protection form damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation form the sun.
* Helps control dandruff.
* Does not form harmful by-products when heated to normal cooking temperature like other vegetable oils do.
* Has no harmful or discomforting side effects.
* Is completely non-toxic to humans.

See Research to read some of the published studies regarding the above mentioned uses of coconut products.





Coconut Oil

While coconut possesses many health benefits due to its fiber and nutritional content, it's the oil that makes it a truly remarkable food and medicine.

Once mistakenly believed to be unhealthy because of its high saturated fat content, it is now known that the fat in coconut oil is a unique and different from most all other fats and possesses many health giving properties. It is now gaining long overdue recognition as a nutritious health food.

Coconut oil has been described as "the healthiest oil on earth." That's quite a remarkable statement. What makes coconut oil so good? What makes it different from all other oils, especially other saturated fats?

The difference is in the fat molecule. All fats and oils are composed of molecules called fatty acids. There are two methods of classifying fatty acids. The first you are probably familiar with, is based on saturation. You have saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats. Another system of classification is based on molecular size or length of the carbon chain within each fatty acid. Fatty acids consist of long chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached. In this system you have short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA), and long-chain fatty acids (LCFA). Coconut oil is composed predominately of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA), also known as medium-chain triglycerides (MCT).

The vast majority of fats and oils in our diets, whether they are saturated or unsaturated or come from animals or plants, are composed of long-chain fatty acids (LCFA). Some 98 to 100% of all the fatty acids you consume are LCFA.

The size of the fatty acid is extremely important. Why? Because our bodies respond to and metabolize each fatty acid differently depending on its size. So the physiological effects of MCFA in coconut oil are distinctly different from those of LCFA more commonly found in our foods. The saturated fatty acids in coconut oil are predominately medium-chain fatty acids. Both the saturated and unsaturated fat found in meat, milk, eggs, and plants (including most all vegetable oils) are composed of LCFA.

MCFA are very different from LCFA. They do not have a negative effect on cholesterol and help to protect against heart disease. MCFA help to lower the risk of both atherosclerosis and heart disease. It is primarily due to the MCFA in coconut oil that makes it so special and so beneficial.

There are only a very few good dietary sources of MCFA. By far the best sources are from coconut and palm kernel oils.

Source: www.coconutresearchcenter.org/





Medicinal uses

Coconuts may help benign prostatic hyperplasia.[42] In rats, virgin coconut oil reduced total cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids, LDL, and VLDL cholesterol levels and increased HDL cholesterol in serum and tissues.[43] The hexane fraction of coconut peel may contain novel anticancer compounds.[44] Young coconut juice has estrogen-like characteristics.[45] Inside a coconut is a cavity filled with coconut water, which is sterile until opened. It mixes easily with blood, and was used during World War II in emergency transfusions.[46] It can also serve as an emergency short-term intravenous hydration fluid.[47] This is possible because the coconut water has a high level of sugar and other salts that makes it possible to be used in the bloodstream, much like the modern lactated ringer solution or a dextrose/water solution as an IV. Coconut is also commonly used as a traditional remedy in Pakistan to treat bites from rats.[citation needed] In Brazil coconut is known as coco-da-Bahia or coqueiro-da-India. The tea from the husk fiber is widely used to treat several inflammatory disorders.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut

Coconut Oil
Coconut oil, like mother’s milk, is rich in lauric acid, which the body converts to the antiviral fatty acid monolaurin. Dr Robert Atkins writes:

"This may help in disarming a number of infectious viruses, including those that cause measles, herpes, Cytomegalovirus, vesicular stomatitis, and possibly AIDS."

www.bibliotecapleyades.net/salud/esp_salud04b.htm

More links:

www.coconut-oil-central.com/index.html


www.thevirgincoconutoil.com/index.php

Love coconut oil. I am actually feeding a small amount to my cats - mixing it in with their wet food - kittie's fur has lost its sheen, so thinking they're missing some oil. I do have to be a bit cautious with me - used to add a tablespoon to my protein drink, but that was too much to start, and ended up with diarrhea - but then I have an altered digestive system, so part of it could have been that. I do think the whole coconut meat might have been a better way to go. Or starting with a teaspoon and working up.

Your aunt's menu items sound delicious. I tend to be a one-pot cook, myself, and love onions and garlic.

Another coconut oil success, and the newest thing, is with alzheimers - Dr. Mary Newport's work is available at

coconutketones.com/

There appears to also be some help for ALS, and thus maybe other neurological degenerative diseases.

My daughter has very oily skin and I have very dry skin. The claims are that coconut oil is an aid to skincare and anti-aging and that everybody that uses it topically ends up with like a newborn's baby bottom. We both used it on our faces and after 2 applications(both of us), our skin was dried out and rough. It took her many months to get her skin back to the original condition, and after the same amount of months, mine is better, but not as orignally. We have done research on the net about this, but have found nothing. Please respond.

Not sure what has gone wrong there, for thousands of years, coconut oil has been used to make the skin soft and smooth and give hair a rich, shiny luster.

As a skin lotion and hair conditioner, no other oil can compare.

Were you using pure coconut oil? Food grade coconut oil is preferred.

Perhaps 2 days of using coconut oil on your skin was not enough, as the surface of the skin consists of a layer of dead cells. As these cells fall off, new cells take there place, as we age, this process slows down, and dead cells tend to accumulate, giving the skin a rough., flaky texture, coconut oil aids in removing dead cells on the outer surface of the skin, making the skin smoother.

The removal of excessive dead skin and the strengthening of underlying tissues are 2 of the key advantages to using coconut oil as a skin lotion.

3 months of use is more like it to see real benefits, 2 days is nothing..... For chronic conditions you may or may not see immediate results, the oil aids the body in healing the skin, this usually takes time, apply it daily, even 2 or 3 times a day if necessary, in a matter of weeks you should see the improvement, for best results consume the oil as well as apply it to the skin.

When using coconut oil as a lotion, it is best to apply a small amount and reapply it as often as necessary. When first applied it may seem like you're spreading a very oily substance on your skin, but because it is quickly absorbed, it doesn't leave a layer of greasy film the way many commercial lotions and oils do.

If you apply too much the skin becomes saturated and will not absorb it all. This will leave a greasy film.

People with extremely dry skin need to reapply the oil often when they first start using it. Some people with this problem desire the greasiness common with many lotions to soften extremely dry or hardened skin. At first they don't think the coconut oil does enough because it is absorbed quickly. With coconut oil you will need to reapply the oil more often when the skin is very dry.

The real benefit of coconut oil will come with repeated use over time.

When coconut oil, which is made of triglycerides, is put on the skin, it doesn't have any immediate antimicrobial action, however, the bacteria that are always present on the skin turn these triglycerides into free fatty acids, just as they do with sebum, the result is an increase in the number of antimicrobial fatty acids on the skin and the protection from infection.

Would also recommend you consume coconut oil orally.....

My experience is that coconut oil works like MAGIC...

Thanks.......

Do you know a good supplier of raw coconut oil?

tropicaltraditions.com

This is the place to get coconut oil from the Philippines .
Organic and fair trade .
They have sales periodically .
I use coconut oil now , instead of olive oil .
Very good for hiv viral load .

Just to set the record straight on this subject. The name for medicinal coconut oil is "Virgin" Coconut Oil (VCO). This is very different than just coconut oil. The later likely being cooking oil which is highly processed. Virgin Coconut Oil is, as the name implies, unprocessed. That is where all the incredible goodness is that has been written so much recently by Dr Bruce Fife.

Although most brands claim to be cold pressed, they are almost without exception, made from desicated coconut which has been subjected to high heat to preserve it in storage and transportation. Despite that fact, it still seems to retain most, if not all it potency. This is debated. But the rule of thumb is the less processing the better. The Virgin Coconut Oil down through the ages was made from fresh coconut milk and not processed at all. Since the coconut milk from which the oil is made, is self fermenting. Naturally separating out the oil.

My family and I have used VCO in many ways for many years and I can attest to its goodness.

Bon appetite.
S4T

Interesting video about Coconut Oil and Dementia here: