Most of us have well understood that the success in weight loss depends on developing a clear understanding about the myths and secrets of food that we take. Once when we are able to differentiate between the food, that help us to lose weight, from the food which are responsible for gain weight, then we would constantly and consciously avoid food products that cause trouble and replace them with healthy foods so that we need not resort to any crash diets to lose weight fast.

Let us for example take coconut oil in weight loss which has been misunderstood to increase body weight and also cause heart attack, just for the fact that it contains saturated fatty acids, but the ground breaking secret is that coconut oil is safe as it lowers the blood cholesterol level. It is true that coconut contains saturated fats and it is also quite true that saturated fats are known to increase the body weight due to fat storage. But what makes coconut oil different is that it contains medium chain triglycerides in contrast to long chain triglycerides present in other saturated fats.

Now let us see how the medium chain triglycerides present in coconut oil makes it the most ideal cooking oil. The molecules of medium chain triglycerides are comparatively smaller in size than their long chain counter part and hence can be easily digested, without the digestive enzymes from the pancreases. Hence coconut oil is even recommended in patients with impaired digestion.

The medium chain triglycerides of coconut oil are broken down into individual fatty acids very easily on digestion and transported to liver through the portal vein. The liver converts the breakdown products of the coconut oil into an energy releasing substance. This energy releasing substance enters the blood stream of the body, only to release energy and cannot be significantly stored in the body. Thus coconut can boost up the energy level, resulting in a faster metabolism which can in turn help burn other dietary fats. This aspect of coconut oil to produce a faster metabolism has led the athletes to use it for enhancing their performance.

The farmers who fed their animals with coconut oil found that they got lean and active while consumed more food. This condition was not found when animals were feed with soybeans and corn oil. This fact proves that coconut oil can reduce cholesterol and the associated body weight.

Coconut oil can reduce cholesterol as reported by many researchers (Blackburn et al 1988 and Ahrens et al 1957). The weight loss effect of coconut oil is also directly attributed to its ability to stimulate thyroid function. If sufficient thyroid hormone is present, the bad cholesterol (LDL) is converted into important anti aging steroids such as pregnenolone, progesterone and DHEA. These steroids can not only prevent obesity and heart disease, but also senility, cancer and other degenerative disease associated with age.

Coconut oil is very stable as it doesn’t get oxidized so it has a self life of nearly two years even when stored at room temperature; whereas unsaturated cooking oil gets rancid and the food cooked gets stale with unpleasant taste even a few hours after cooking. In spite of the fact that coconut oil contains about 9% of unsaturated oil called linoleic oil, it does not get rancid. Consuming rancid food depletes the vitamin E in the body, thus coconut oil reduces our need for vitamin E.

It is recommended to incorporate three table spoons full of coconut oil per day in cooking to get at least ten to twenty grams of lauric acid which is important to boost your immune system, increase the metabolic function of the body apart from enhancing weight loss. Start initially by one spoon and gradually step up to the required extent.