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Many people are using virgin coconut oil today in their diets on a regular basis because they have found it helps them to lose weight, increase their energy and their metabolism. However, coconut oil has many other reported benefits, including helping to boost thyroid function and killing microbes, like bacteria, candida and viruses.
Coconut Oil in Your Diet Can Help Boost Thyroid Function
Many people report that eating foods with coconut oil in them helps to promote a healthy thyroid function, which may be the way that coconut oil consumption seems to increase metabolism. But having a healthy thyroid does a lot more than keep your metabolism normal. In fact, thyroid hormones influence all the cells in your body. That's why they can have an impact on many things including reproduction, growth, nerve & muscle function, blood sugar and insulin and more. Some symptoms of low or hypothyroid are fatigue, cold hands and feet, depression, anxiety, constipation, easy bruising, insomnia, dry skin, unhealthy and brittle nails, allergies and asthma, migraines, acne, hair loss and low sex drive.
Lauric Acid in Coconut Oil Can Help Kill Microbes
In addition to helping with thyroid function and boosting your metabolism, the lauric acid in coconut oil is proven to be anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal, so it helps to boost your immune system and to keep you from getting sick. The lauric acid helps your body to fight bacterial infections, including strep, viral infections, including HIV and herpes, parasites like giardia and candida fungal infections.
Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit, M.D., after a 1999-2000 study of HIV patients, concluded that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and that it "can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients."
So according to Dr. Dayrit, MD, if you are HIV positive, eating coconut-oil containing foods in your diet may be beneficial. Even if you are not HIV positive, eating a food in your diet that can help you get rid of viruses may be helpful for you as well.
Some brands of coconut oil claim to be high in lauric acid, but in reality, all virgin coconut oil tends to contain around 50 percent of its fats in the form of lauric acid, and levels actually vary somewhat from batch to batch. So the most important thing to look for in a coconut oil is that it is virgin, organic and pure.
Coconut Oil Is Easier To Digest Than Other Oils
Another good thing about consuming coconut oil as a major source of oil in your diet, especially for the many of us who have spent years consuming harmful fats like the trans-fats in vegetable oils, is that coconut oil is easier to digest than other fats. It doesn't need bile in order to be broken down and used by the body. This is important since many of us now have a hard time digesting fats because we produce less bile after years of eating bad diets. Even if you don't have a problem with fat digestion, coconut oil is still great for losing weight because of the way the body is able to turn it directly into energy.
So next time you reach for a cooking oil, don't forget about virgin coconut oil!
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