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Osteoporosis is a disease where bones become fragile and more likely to break. It is important to understand that …

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Years ago, researchers placed rats on a diet that was high in coconut oil. Soon the researchers noticed that the cholesterol levels were becoming elevated and by the study’s end, the rats had developed plaques in the arteries consistent with heart disease.

Soon, the media was reporting that saturated fat, found in coconut oil, was the cause of our heart disease epidemic. There was one problem, however; the study wasn’t about coconut oil…

What Happens to Rats Who Are Deficient in Essential Fatty Acids?

When the researchers set out to study the rats, their intention was to study what happens to rats that become deficient in essential fatty acids such as, omega-6 and omega-3 fats. To do this, the researchers had to use a fat that was devoid of omega-6 and omega-3 fats. The problem was, most fats that are totally devoid of essential fatty acids are hard to incorporate into rat chow.  In fact, the researchers couldn’t find a fat in nature that was totally devoid of essential fatty acids…so they manufactured one.

It Looks Like Coconut Oil & Tastes Like Coconut Oil, But…

Of all of the fats that the researchers evaluated for the study, coconut oil was closest to the ideal oil. Unfortunately, natural coconut oil contains a small quantity of essential fats, which the researchers had to remove in order to make sure the rats became totally depleted of EFAs. To achieve this, the researchers developed hydrogenated coconut oil, a coconut oil that is flooded with hydrogen in order to remove all EFAs. There was one problem…

Hydrogenation Produces Trans-fats!

During the course of the study, the researchers were setting up the perfect storm for heart disease to develop…They were inducing an essential fatty acid deficiency and simultaneously flooding the rat’s body with trans-fats, which are known to promote high cholesterol and heart disease!

Right Observation…Wrong Finding

The researchers concluded that essential fatty acid deficiency leads to high cholesterol and heart disease. The media concluded that eating coconut oil causes high cholesterol and heart disease…

They Were Both Wrong!

Well, they were both only partially right. Essential fatty acid deficiency probably does cause heart disease, but this study only proves that EFA deficiency along with supplementation with trans-fats causes heart disease. The media was also partially right, eating coconut oil does cause high cholesterol and heart disease, but only if it is hydrogenated coconut oil, full of trans-fats, in combination with an EFA deficient diet.

They rightly observed that feeding rats coconut oil led to heart disease, but they wrongly deduced that the coconut oil was to blame. In fact, it was the hydrogenation of coconut oil and the EFA deficiency that ultimately led to catastrophic problems.

Natural Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil is Healthy!

In 1992, researchers performed a review of the published research on coconut oil. They concluded that unadulterated coconut oil did not cause elevated cholesterol nor did it cause an increased risk of heart disease (Philippine Journal of Internal Medicine 30:165-171;1992.)

In 1994, researchers added natural, unadulterated coconut oil to the diets of men with normal cholesterol. By the study’s end, their cholesterol increased from 166.7 to 170.0 mg/dl, however, the bad cholesterol came down a little while the good cholesterol went up a little. By the study’s end, the men enjoyed a healthier cholesterol balance. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 59:841-846;1994.)

In 1991, researchers fed 83 men and women a diet that was comprised of 24% fat, of which 75% came from coconut oil. By the study’s end, the total cholesterol went up by 17%, however, the bad cholesterol came down while the good cholesterol increased by 21.4%!

This is a small sampling of the scientific evidence that proves coconut oil to be safe and healthy cooking oil.

Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil is the Healthiest of ALL Cooking Oil

In this video, I explain why coconut oil is the best cooking oil compared to canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, and corn oil.

Where to Get Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil

There are many brands of extra-virgin coconut oil on the market. I personally use the Nutiva Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil in my cooking, which is available in our online store. Other brands include:

Garden of Life Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Jarrow Formulas Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil

How to Choose a Good Coconut Oil

As I mentioned, there are many good brands of extra-virgin coconut oil on the market:

1. Only choose extra-virgin coconut oil – Extra-virgin means that you are getting unadulterated and unrefined coconut oil.
2. Organic is Not Essential – Because coconuts are not typically sprayed with pesticides, it is not essential that it be organic.
3. It should be a white-solid at room temperature – Pure extra-virgin coconut oil is a white, soft, solid at room temperature. It will turn to a clear liquid at temperatures slightly above room temperature.
4. It should be lightly aromatic – In other words, it should smell like a coconut
5. It should have a mild and pleasant flavor – It is from coconut, so it does have a bit of a coconut flavor to it. If it is not right for your recipe, then use extra-virgin olive oil as an alternative.

Extra-virgin coconut oil is a safe and healthy oil to use in cooking and you should enjoy this oil without fear of heart disease or high cholesterol. Due to its mild, coconut flavor, it may not be appropriate for all recipes. If coconut oil doesn’t work for your recipe, then turn to organic butter as a second option followed by extra-virgin olive oil.

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Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of having to watch our aging parents develop the diseases commonly associated with age. If you are like me, you have a nearly obsessive desire to make sure that we don’t follow along the same path. In order to succeed in this mission, we need to start with a paradigm that allows us to understand why we develop these diseases in the first place.

A well-respected researcher at the University of California, Berkley, has come up with a theory that may give us insight into how to avoid common diseases associated with aging, including:

1.      Heart disease (specifically calcifications of the arteries)
2.      Osteoporosis
3.      Various forms of cancer
4.      Diabetes and insulin resistance
5.      Breast fibroid
6.      Fatigue
7.      Weight gain
8.      And more…

Dr. Bruce Ames announced that he had a new theory of aging, which he named, “Triage Theory”. Triage theory states that when the body does not have sufficient nutrients to feed all tissues equally, the urgent needs of the body will outweigh the less urgent needs, even if they both share a high level of importance. A good way of illustrating this theory is to associate it with principles of time management.

I am a student of time management, mostly because I am terrible at it. One principle that is at the core of time management is the process of differentiating between urgent and important tasks and non-urgent but important tasks. Urgent/important tasks are things that need to be handled right now or you will suffer immediate consequences. Examples of urgent/important tasks include:

1.      A phone call from an important client
2.      Paying your mortgage on time
3.      Urgent staffing issues, and work emergencies.

Non-urgent/important matters are important to the long-term goals but there are few immediate consequences to not doing them. Examples include:

1.      Learning about new technology that may impact your job or business in the future
2.      Upgrading accounting software to be compliant with next year’s tax laws
3.      Setting up your next dental-hygiene appointment

If your life is filled with urgent/important tasks, usually the non-urgent/important tasks will be thrown by the wayside resulting in a lack of personal and organizational growth. In other words, the organization may remain healthy for today, but in the long run, the neglect of non-urgent-but-important matters will cause the person or organization to fail from ineptitude.

Dr. Ames suggests that the body is doing the same thing; prioritizing immediate needs above the future needs of the body.  He believes that the body does this because we evolved during a time when we weren’t expected to live to be 100 years old anyway.  Instead, nature prioritized the act of keeping us alive long enough to procreate rather than long enough to see our great grandchildren.

Iodine is a good example of how this theory presents itself within the body. When iodine is moderately deficient, the thyroid will take precedence at the expense of other tissues that need it, albeit in a less urgent manner. This assures that the body has enough iodine to keep the metabolism functioning, at the cost of long-term health of other tissues such as the breasts, prostate, and immune system.

Another example of the Triage Theory in action is vitamin K deficiency. Vitamin K has biological effect in most cells of the body including the arteries and the bones. When vitamin K is moderately deficient, the liver will snatch the vitamin K from the blood in order to make sure that it can produce clotting factors needed to prevent you from bleeding to death from a paper cut. Unfortunately, because the K is being used in developing clotting factors, the bones grow weak and the arteries develop calcifications from being slowly starved of vitamin K.

To protect against the consequences of biological triage, you must make sure that there is an abundance of nutrition that is available to the body so that both urgent/important processes and non-urgent/important processes are able to function on all cylinders. Doing so will allow you to enjoy optimal health well into your later years.

A multi-vitamin is a good start in assuring that the body has sufficient levels of the various nutrients to feed the urgent/important and non-urgent/important processes.  Unfortunately, most multi’s (even high quality multi’s) fall short in providing sufficient levels of various nutrients such as vitamin D, vitamin K and iodine. Given this fact, we typically need to supplement with higher levels of these nutrients than are supplied by a multi.

Previously, I was taking these nutrients separately. Luckily, they are now provided in a single capsule to support your current supplement program. This supplement combines 5,000 iu of vitamin D3, 1.1 mg of vitamin K2 and 1 mg of whole-food iodine. The product is called Vitamins D and K with Sea-Iodine by Life Extension Foundation.

The reason that such a blend is so powerful is because of the broad importance and the relative deficiency of these nutrients. By providing the body with optimal levels of these three nutrients, you are helping to shore up the body’s defenses against many of the previously reported disease associated with aging.

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