The Coconut Oil Miracle (15 page)

Now bigger than ever, you may build up the courage to try dieting again. You again limit your calorie/food consumption and experience good results at first. As your metabolism begins to slow down you hit a plateau and weight loss slows down or stops. You become discouraged and start eating again. You regain all the weight you lost and then some. With each new diet you end up gaining more and more weight.

Only those people who can carefully watch what they eat, stick to it, and exercise regularly keep the weight off permanently. Crash diets don’t work. Lifestyle changes do.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a pill that would shift your metabolic rate into a higher gear? In a sense, that is what happens every time we eat. Food affects our BMR, and when we eat, many of our body’s cells increase their activities to facilitate digestion and assimilation. This stimulation of cellular activity, known as diet-induced thermogenesis, uses about 10 percent of the total food energy taken in. Perhaps you have noticed, particularly on cool days, that you feel warmer after eating a meal. Your body’s engines are running at a slightly higher rate, so more heat is produced. Different types of
foods produce different thermogenic effects. Protein-rich foods such as meat increase thermogenesis and have a stimulatory or energizing effect on the body. But this is only true if you don’t overeat. Overeating puts tremendous strain on the digestive system, which can drain your energy and make you feel tired. This is why we often feel sleepy after a big meal.

Protein has a much greater thermogenic effect than carbohydrate. This is why when people suddenly cut down on meat consumption or become vegetarians they often complain of a lack of energy, and it is one of the reasons high-protein diets promote weight loss—the increase in metabolism burns off more calories.

One food that can rev up your metabolism even more than protein is coconut oil. The MCFAs shift the body’s metabolism into a higher gear, so to speak, so that you burn more calories. Because MCFAs increase the metabolic rate, coconut oil is a dietary fat that can actually promote weight loss! A dietary fat that takes off weight rather than putting it on is a strange concept indeed, but that is exactly what happens, so long as calories in excess of the body’s needs are not consumed. The MCFAs are easily absorbed and rapidly burned and used as energy for metabolism, thus increasing metabolic activity and even burning LCFAs. So not only are medium-chain fatty acids burned for energy production, but they encourage the burning of long-chain fatty acids as well.

Dr. Julian Whitaker, a well-known authority on nutrition and health, makes this analogy between long-chain triglycerides and medium-chain triglycerides: “LCTs are like heavy wet logs that you put on a small campfire. Keep adding the logs, and soon you have more logs than fire. MCTs are like rolled-up newspaper soaked in
gasoline. They not only burn brightly, but will burn up the wet logs as well” (Murray, 1996).

Research supports Dr. Whitaker’s view. In one study, the thermogenic (fat-burning) effect of a high-calorie diet containing 40 percent fat as MCFAs was compared to one containing 40 percent fat as LCFAs. The thermogenic effect of the MCFAs was almost twice as high as that of the LCFAs: 120 calories versus 66 calories. The researchers concluded that the excess energy provided by fats in the form of MCFAs would not be efficiently stored as fat but rather would be burned. A followup study demonstrated that MCFAs given over a six-day period can increase diet-induced thermogenesis by 50 percent.

In another study, researchers compared single meals of 400 calories composed of MCFAs or LCFAs. The thermogenic effect of MCFAs over six hours was three times greater than that of LCFAs. Researchers concluded that substituting MCFAs for LCFAs would produce weight loss as long as the calorie level remained the same.

Researchers can evaluate changes in metabolism by measuring energy expenditure (the amount of calories used by the body). As metabolism increases, the amount of energy, or number of calories, burned increases. In one study, energy expenditure was measured in volunteers before eating a meal containing MCTs and then afterward. It was found that in normal-weight individuals, energy expenditure increased by 48 percent. That means their metabolism had increased to the point that they were burning 48 percent more calories than normal. In obese subjects energy expenditure increased by an incredible 65 percent! So the more body fat a person has, the greater effect the oil has on metabolism.

This thermogenic or calorie-burning effect doesn’t last for just one or two hours after a meal. Studies show that after eating a single meal containing MCTs, metabolism remains elevated for at least 24 hours! So when you eat a meal that contains coconut oil, your metabolism will increase and remain elevated for at least 24 hours. During this entire time you will have a higher level of energy and you will be burning calories at an accelerated rate.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada have found that if you are overweight and replace all the oils in your diet that are made of long-chain triglycerides, such as soybean oil, canola oil, safflower oil, and the like, with an oil that contains MCTs, such as coconut oil, you can lose up to 36 pounds of excess fat a year. This is without changing your diet and without reducing the number of calories you eat. All you simply have to do to is get an oil change.

Adding coconut to your diet can be a great way to help you lose excess body fat. But keep in mind that even though coconut oil can speed up your metabolism, you will still gain weight if you overeat. The best way to lose weight with coconut oil is to combine it with a sensible diet.

Eating foods containing MCFAs is like putting high-octane fuel into your car. The car runs more smoothly and gets better gas mileage.
Likewise, with MCFAs, your body performs better because it has more energy and greater endurance. Because MCFAs are funneled directly to the liver and converted into energy, the body gets a boost of energy. And because MCFAs are easily absorbed by the energy-producing organelles of the cells, metabolism increases. This burst of energy has a stimulating effect on the entire body.

The fact that MCFAs digest immediately to produce energy and stimulate metabolism has led athletes to use them as a means to enhance exercise performance. Studies indicate this may be true. In one study, for example, investigators tested the physical endurance of mice that were given MCFAs in their daily diet and compared them to mice that had not been given MCFAs. The study extended over a six-week period. The mice were subjected to a swimming endurance test every other day. They were placed in a pool of water with a constant current. The total swimming time until exhaustion was measured. On the first day there was little difference between the two groups of mice. As the study progressed, the mice that had been fed MCFAs quickly began to outperform the others and continued to improve throughout the testing period. Tests such as this demonstrate that MCFAs have the ability to enhance endurance and exercise performance, at least in mice. Another study using human subjects supports the animal studies. In this study, conditioned cyclists were used. The cyclists pedaled at 70 percent of maximum for two hours, then immediately embarked on a 40-kilometer time trial ride (lasting about an additional hour) while drinking one of three beverages: an MCFA solution, a sports drink, or a sports drink/MCFA combination. The cyclists who drank the sports drink/MCFA mixture performed the best during the time trial.

The authors of the study theorized that the MCFAs gave the cyclists an additional source of energy, thus sparing glycogen stores. Glycogen, the energy stored in muscle tissue, would have been used up during the three-hour ride. The more glycogen in the muscles, the greater an athlete’s endurance. So any substance that can conserve glycogen while providing energy would be useful to endurance athletes. In a followup study to test the glycogen-sparing theory, participants cycled at 60 percent of their maximum for three hours while drinking one of three beverages, as was done in the earlier study. Following the exercise, muscle glycogen levels were measured and found to be the same for all three groups. The conclusion was that MCFAs did not spare glycogen stores yet did improve performance. The improvement in performance was not due to glycogen sparing and must be attributed to some other mechanism.

Because of these and similar studies, many of the powdered sports drinks and energy bars sold at health food stores contain MCTs to provide a quick source of energy. The MCFAs most often used in sports drinks and energy bars are in the form of MCT oil. This ingredient is usually listed as “MCT” on food, supplement, and infant formula labels. Athletes and other active people looking for nutritional, nondrug methods to enhance exercise performance have begun using them.

Although many studies have shown that MCFAs boost energy and endurance, other studies have shown little or no effect, at least when MCFA mixtures are taken in a single oral dose. Studies generally show that a single oral dose has little measurable effect. In studies where animals were fed MCFAs as a part of their daily diet,
however, the results were more significant. From this evidence it appears that the best way to increase energy and endurance is to consume MCFAs on a daily basis and not a single time just before or during competition.

It’s easy to see why athletes would be interested in gaining greater endurance and energy, but what about nonathletes? What about people who diet and feel low in energy because of food restriction? The MCFAs can do the same for them. If eaten regularly, MCFAs can provide a boost in energy and performance of daily activities. Would you like to increase your energy level throughout the day? If you get tired in the middle of the day or feel you lack energy, adding coconut oil to your daily diet may provide you with a much-needed boost to help carry you through.

The boost in energy you get from coconut oil is not like the kick you get from caffeine; it’s more subtle but longer lasting. As mentioned earlier, metabolism is elevated and remains so for at least 24 hours. During this time you will enjoy a slightly higher level of energy and vitality.

Besides increasing your energy level, there are other very important benefits of boosting your metabolic rate: it helps protect you from illness and speeds healing. When metabolism is increased, cells function at a higher rate of efficiency. They heal injuries quicker; old and diseased cells are replaced faster; and young, new cells are generated at an increased rate to replace worn-out ones. Even the immune system functions better.

Several health problems such as obesity, heart disease, and osteoporosis are more prevalent in those people who have slow
metabolism. Any health condition is made worse if the metabolic rate is slower than normal, because cells can’t heal and repair themselves as quickly. Increasing metabolic rate, therefore, provides an increased degree of protection from both degenerative and infectious illnesses.

Coconut oil contains the most concentrated natural source of MCFAs available. Substituting coconut oil for other vegetable oils in your diet will help promote weight loss. The use of refined vegetable oil actually promotes weight gain, not just from its calorie content but because of its harmful effects on the thyroid—the gland that controls metabolism. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils depress thyroid activity, thus lowering metabolic rate—just the opposite of coconut oil. Eating polyunsaturated oils, like soybean oil, will contribute more to weight gain than other fats, even more than beef tallow and lard. According to Ray Peat, Ph.D., an endocrinologist who specializes in the study of hormones, unsaturated oils block thyroid hormone secretion, its movement in the circulation, and the response of tissues to the hormone. When thyroid hormones are deficient, metabolism becomes depressed. Polyunsaturated oils are, in essence, high-calorie fats that encourage weight gain more than any other fats. If you wanted to lose weight, you would be better off eating lard, because lard doesn’t interfere with thyroid function.

Farmers are always looking for ways to fatten their livestock because bigger animals bring bigger profits. Fats and oils are used as an additive in animal feed to quickly pack on weight in preparing them
for market. Saturated fat seems like a good choice to fatten up livestock, so pig farmers tried to feed coconut products to their animals for this purpose, but when it was added to the animal feed, the pigs lost weight! Farmers found that the high polyunsaturated oil content of corn and soybeans quickly did what the coconut oil couldn’t. Animals fed corn and soybeans packed on pounds quickly and easily. The reason these oils worked so well is that they suppressed thyroid function, decreasing the animals’ metabolic rate. (Soybeans are particularly bad because of the goitrogens [antithyroid chemicals] they contain.) They could eat less food and gain more weight! Many people are in a similar situation. Every time we eat polyunsaturated oils, our thyroid gland is assaulted and loses its ability to function normally. Weight gain is one of the consequences.