The facts behind all that industry misinformation
Cholesterol is not the enemy. In fact, if you do not provide your body with enough of the right kind of fats, your body will have to manufacture its own cholesterol. And remember, our bodies are a lot smarter than the food industry’s hired gun scientists.
What I am about to say regarding oils is not what the food chemists want you to know about, or what the expensive ads postulate. This information flies in the face of the ‘conventional wisdom’, which may be conventional, but certainly isn’t wise: all of the polyunsaturated oils that are now promoted as healthful, are not. In fact, they are dangerous. In order to maintain your health, shun these manufactured, oxidised, chemicalised products.
The polyunsaturate-pushers don’t want you to know the truth. For decades their propaganda has covered up the dangers associated with having low blood cholesterol, and the safety of the old-fashioned fats and oils that have nourished countless generations.
Lost in the shuffle are the hundreds of studies proving that low cholesterol leads to much higher deaths from cancer. These studies have appeared for decades in obscure medical journals and in the books of corporate-neutral scientists. Regrettably, few people are exposed to them. But articles praising the heart ‘benefits’ of polyunsaturated oils appear everywhere. So, too, do the glossy, full-page advertisements their manufacturers have paid for. Advertisements are the lifeblood of most magazines and newspapers, and when the ads are accompanied by favourable articles, it is prudent to look with healthy scepticism upon the products they promote.
A study in Honolulu showed that age-adjusted mortality from cancer was four times higher in the low serum cholesterol group, compared to the high serum cholesterol group. In a Yugoslavian study, as cholesterol levels fell, total mortality rose. In Malmo, Sweden, the lowest serum cholesterol group was associated with the highest death rate, mainly due to cancer and other non-coronary heart disease causes.
Men, are you aware that without the right kind of cholesterol, your body will be unable to manufacture its own testosterone? Apart from the obvious masculinity problems, scientists have identified low testosterone as the cause of ‘Irritable Male Syndrome’, the grumpy, non-communicative, moody male who makes life miserable for his family.
Shorter Life
Gary Taubes, the author of The Soft Science of Dietary Fat, wrote in Science Magazine, 2001, “Men with very low cholesterol levels seemed prone to premature death; the lower the cholesterol the shorter the life… Men with cholesterol levels below 4.1mmol/L tended to die prematurely from cancer, respiratory and digestive diseases and trauma. As for women, the higher the cholesterol the longer they lived.”
Dr Robert Jay Rowen agrees. In his newsletter, Second Opinion, he writes, “Cholesterol dangers are largely a myth… The majority of heart attacks in this country [the US] are incurred by people in the ‘normal’ range… I see a 67-year-old woman with cholesterol levels over 800 with no signs of vascular disease or hypertension whatsoever!”
Women must have cholesterol. Without this vital nutrient, their bodies will not be able to produce the hormones they need for their reproductive cycle, and to keep them healthy throughout their later years.
Perhaps most telling of all is what leading endocrinologist Dr Raymond Peat wrote in his book, From PMS to Menopause: “Unsaturated oils, especially polyunsaturates, weaken the immune system’s function in ways that are similar to the damage caused by radiation, hormone imbalance, cancer, aging, or viral infections. The media discuss sexually-transmitted and drug-induced immunodeficiency, but it isn’t yet considered polite to discuss vegetable oil-induced immunodeficiency.”
The hysterical cholesterol scare campaign gained currency for all the wrong reasons shortly after World War II, and was picked up by the food manufacturers and health professionals who didn’t read the research, and blown into a dangerous cult. Sure, some fats are deadly – but they are the manufactured fats, such as margarine, homogenised milk, soy oil, corn oil, etc. In short, all of the heavily-promoted oils are dangerous, and the fats and oils reviled by the huge companies – coconut oil, butter and olive oil, are the good fats. But only if they are properly formulated and carefully stored.
For decades, the multinationals who manufacture trans-fats and unsaturated oils manipulated research, in order to promote the sale of their chemicalised, oxidised products, which are unfit for consumption – human or animal! In doing so, they have taken attention away from the real causes of heart disease – sugar, junk food, heavy grain consumption and the wrong kinds of fats. In spite of all the glossy ads and the misinformation campaigns that have led our health practitioners astray, cholesterol, unless it is oxidised, is a valuable nutrient. We need it because it is the precursor of progesterone, oestrogen, DHEA, pregnenolone and other hormones. Our bodies cannot manufacture these invaluable hormones without it.
Can Cause Impotence
According to the late Dr John Lee, “This decades-long misinformation campaign has been a contributing factor in the meteoric rise in the incidence of heart disease and cancer, and has helped bring billions of dollars in profits to companies selling both cholesterol-lowering drugs and hydrogenated oils.” Men who are prescribed these drugs, usually without warning from their physicians, learn the hard way that they can cause impotence.
For those who need any more reasons to embrace a healthful diet, consider this: if you eat and drink yourself into severe heart disease and your physician warns that a bypass is your only option, you run a 42 percent risk of brain damage, neurological complications, and suffering a stroke on the operating table. My suggestion – do everything you can to avoid the knife!
Dr Julian Whitaker, of Whitaker Wellness Institute Medical Clinic (www.drwhitaker.com), explains why: “There are several explanations for this. Ill effects of anaesthesia may be a factor. Inflammatory chemicals that are released in massive quantities during surgery likely have adverse effects as well. However, the primary culprit appears to be the heart-lung machine… which may introduce air bubbles into the bloodstream that can interfere with blood flow to the brain. Even worse, messing with the aorta loosens embolic matter (small bits of plaque and blood clots), which can break off, travel up the carotid arteries in the neck, lodge in the blood vessels of the brain, and disrupt oxygen delivery.”
Be wary of doctors and persuasive glossy advertisements pushing statin (cholesterol-lowering) drugs. They work by blocking an important enzyme the body uses to make cholesterol, but the makers have evidently not considered what other essential work that enzyme may be required to do. Or, perhaps with an eye only on the bottom line, they simply do not care.
Then there are the well-documented side effects: intestinal disease, increased risk of cancer, stroke, suicide and severe Alzheimer’s Disease. Bayer had to withdraw its statin drug, Baycol, from the US market, when it was found to be responsible for 31 deaths from a muscle-destroying disease. Another, Cervistatin, was also taken off the market when it created the same problems. Public Citizen, a US consumer watchdog, petitioned the government to force drug companies to warn that they should quit the pills at the first sign of muscle pain or weakness. Why not warn people not to take these poisons at all? And, where are the consumer watchdogs in Australia? Recently, one pharmaceutical firm patented the inclusion of Co-Q10 in its newest statin. This happened because they finally acknowledged that statin drugs reduce synthesis of this nutrient, which is vital for heart health. This means, of course, that none of the other firms making statins will be able to add Q10 to their formulation. Dr Whitaker believes this is grounds for a huge class-action suit by patients who have been damaged by statins, without being warned to take supplemental Q10.
Failed to Protect the Heart
Dr Duane Graveline, on the radio show, The People’s Pharmacy, described bouts of total amnesia he experienced while taking a statin drug. Pfizer, who make the killer statin, Lipitor, deny that there have been any reports of memory loss. But then, they would, wouldn’t they? Lipitor earns them more than US$5 billion per year! There will still be a huge profit for them after paying off lawsuits from family members whose loved ones have been killed by it.
A large Hungarian study, reported in Dr Peat’s Newsletter, showed that using a drug to lower cholesterol failed to protect the heart, and greatly increased the cancer death rate. “It is now widely recognised that the pattern of blood lipids associated with lower incidence of heart disease – higher blood levels of the High Density Lipids (HDL) and lower levels of the Low Density Lipids (LDL) – is associated with a higher cancer risk. It seems that any intervention – not just excess vegetable oil – which lowers the LDL cholesterol will increase the risk of cancer.” Wow! In other words, just the opposite of what the ‘experts’ say.
The lesson to be learned here is that all of us should consume as perfect a diet as possible, shun drugs, and keep the sickness industry at bay. Don’t let them play Russian roulette with your heart and life!
Dr Peat quotes experiments that show even a ‘moderate’ use of unsaturated oils in the diet accelerates aging. Mice fed soy oil produced offspring with smaller brains and learning difficulties, compared to the offspring of mice given coconut oil. He says, “The brain seems to be especially sensitive to the toxic effects of vegetable oils.” Dr Peat also says that if polyunsaturated oils are not eaten, vitamin E needs become low, and he warns that women should shun unsaturated oils during pregnancy, in order to protect their babies.
Mother’s milk is rich in cholesterol, and nature didn’t put it there because it is bad for infants. It is there to ensure proper development of the nervous system and brain. Whenever women tell me proudly that they have their babies and older children on margarine and low-fat milk I am horrified. These children will never realise their full potential – they are being starved of the kind of fats their brains need. Denying babies and children the right kinds of fat is child abuse, and any physician or so-called health professional who advises this starvation diet should be ashamed. And, while I’m railing against the health advisors, they have either forgotten or never learned that a major cause of extremely high cholesterol is low thyroid function. Bring the thyroid up to normal and cholesterol will drop.
Radical Facts
What are these ‘free radicals’ we hear so much about? This is Dr Peat’s definition: “Free radicals are reactive molecular fragments that occur even in healthy cells, and can damage the cell. When unsaturated oils are exposed to free radicals they can create chain reactions of free radicals that spread the damage in the cell, and contribute to the cell’s aging.”
Rancidity
Flax oil has been heavily promoted for several years as ‘essential’ for health, and many people force themselves to take a tablespoon each day, even though they don’t like the taste. This is misguided, according to Dr Peat, who considers it “…the most carcinogenic of oils”! The British alternative medical newsletter, What Doctors Don’t Tell You, carried out exhaustive tests on all the brands of flax oil sold in London. They found that most were rancid, which is dangerous because rancidity promotes cancer. Two were not rancid, but the magazine reported that they turned rancid after a few days of refrigeration.
Next time a health professional urges you to consume this oil, ask why it comes in a dark bottle and must be refrigerated immediately. Commonsense dictates that this is because it is highly unstable and readily breaks down into free radicals. If that doesn’t scare you, this should: under the influence of unsaturated fats (including flax oil) brain cells swell, and their shape and interactions are altered.
As for the so-called, much-touted ‘essential fatty acids’, consider this quote from Dr Peat’s book, From PMS To Menopause:
“Essential fatty acids are, according to the textbooks, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, and they are supposed to have the status of ‘vitamins,’ which must be taken in the diet to make life possible. However, we are able to synthesise our own unsaturated fats when we don’t eat the EFA, so they are not ‘essential.’ The term thus appears to be a misnomer.”
(M.E. Hanke, Biochemistry, Encycl. Brit. Book of the Year, 1948).
Intrinsically Toxic
Far from being ‘essential’, these oils are intrinsically toxic
and should be avoided. They inhibit enzymes that are needed for
digestion and for the production of thyroid hormones. As Dr Peat writes, these oils “increase the risk of abnormal blood clotting, inflammation, immune deficiency, shock, aging, obesity and cancer… Since the unsaturated oils block protein in the stomach, we can be malnourished even while ‘eating well’….
Linoleic acid constricts blood vessels and promotes hypertension… and is specifically associated with serotonin-dependent disorders such as migraine…. Polyunsaturated fats contribute significantly, maybe decisively, to the degenerative changes that occur in aging.” Flax oil and all the other unsaturated oils are everywhere – small wonder there is so much serious illness in the ‘civilised’ world.
Canola oil should also be shunned, but this is easier said than done, as it is ubiquitous. The only way to keep it out of your diet is by strict avoidance of fast food outlets, by keeping junk food out of your life and by being fussy when choosing manufactured foods. Remember, when you are tempted by a quick snack:
Fast Food = Fast Death!
Nutritional experts Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD, in a lengthy article in Wise Traditions, wrote, “…canola oil is definitely not healthy for the cardiovascular system. Like rapeseed oil, its predecessor, canola oil is associated with fibrotic lesions of the heart. It also causes vitamin E deficiency, undesirable changes in the blood platelets and shortened lifespan in stroke-prone rats… Furthermore, it seems to retard growth, which is why the FDA does not allow the use of canola oil in infant formula.” Finally, the FDA did something right!
Margarine, one of the worst offenders, must be avoided. During the many chemical processes used to manufacture this product, hexane and carbon tetrachloride are used as solvents, and traces remain. To achieve a butter-like consistency, hydrogen gas is bubbled over a nickel catalyst, saturating the fat and turning it into an artery-clogger.
These chemical insults create an odoriferous black goop, which must be bleached and deodorised with even more chemicals. Then artificial flavours, dyes and preservatives are added. The result is a plastic, chemical non-food that your body does not know how to deal with or detoxify. You might just as well inject liquid plastic into your veins. Amazingly, many doctors still recommend this stuff for prevention of heart attacks!
Risk of Heart Disease
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that trans-fats (polyunsaturated fats) increase the risk of heart disease by damaging arteries. These dangerous fats are in all fast food, fried food and most bakery goods. They are produced when polyunsaturated vegetable fats are artificially hydrogenated. When you see “partially hydrogenated oil” on a label, put it back on the shelf. This is the dreaded trans-fat, and it is a killer. Dr Peat agrees that these oils damage the heart, and adds, “It is now known that polyunsaturated fats interfere with thyroid hormone in just about every conceivable way.” Healthy functioning of the thyroid gland is essential for good health. Dr Peat also wrote, “The easily-oxidised short-and medium-chain saturated fatty acids of coconut oil provide a source of energy that protects our tissues against the toxic inhibitory effects of the unsaturated fatty acids and reduces their anti-thyroid effects.”
For the sake of your health, ignore the ‘experts’ who jumped on the bandwagon, and search out the alternative health professionals who know the truth behind one of the most cynical and dangerous publicity campaigns ever mounted. Dr William Campbell Douglass is one, and he has graciously permitted me to reprint the following from his newsletter, Second Opinion:
Coconut oil is the best example of an innocent saturated oil getting the reputation of clogger of arteries because of a misinterpretation of the research. The wrong interpretation was then repeated until it became ‘a known fact’ that the food manufacturers were killing us by using large amounts of coconut oil. Now there are a lot of things wrong with the food industry, and they do use a lot of unhealthy oils in their foods, but Ame isn’t one of them. In fact, the seed-oil cartel has managed, by what nefarious method I don’t know, to almost eliminate coconut oil from the diet of the American people.
Twenty-five years ago, I was taken in by the seed-oil company propaganda against coconut oil, just like everybody else. It was easy to fool us: coconut oil is a saturated fat; ‘saturated fat is bad’. And there’s the economic factor; that’s the one that really counts. Coconut oil is relatively expensive. Soy bean, peanut and corn oils are not. But these cheap oils that are used in processed foods today are very unstable. They can become rancid in just a few hours, even in the refrigerator. So the answer to that problem, you may have already guessed, is the addition of a lot of preservatives.
Coconut oil, for reasons not completely understood, does not become rancid, even though it contains a small amount of unsaturated oils. Coconut oil has been left at room temperature for a year without developing any rancidity. The five percent of unsaturated oils in coconut oil should turn rancid, but they don’t. It is theorised that the saturated oil in coconut oil has an antioxidative effect and thus prevents the oxidation of the unsaturates present in the oil.
Unsaturated oils cause cancer; the research is there to confirm it, but few people have seen it. The ‘essential’ fatty acid, linoleic acid, when fed to experimental animals, gives them heart disease. But if you give the animals saturated fat, in the form of animal fat or coconut oil, they will be protected from the harmful effects of the ‘essential’ unsaturated linoleic acid. This is clearly understood in the organ transplant field. Emulsions of unsaturated oils are used specifically for their immuno-suppressive effects. Is that what you want on your salad – oils, such as canola and soy bean, that suppress your immune system? Or would you prefer an oil, like coconut oil, that protects you against the ravages of immune suppression?
Fifty years ago, farmers attempted to fatten their livestock by using coconut oil, which was a lot cheaper than grains. They reasoned that fat (any fat) would make the animals fat, a simple and self-evident postulate. But they were wrong. What they got instead was lean and perky, rather than fat and indolent. Granted, the cows were hungry all the time, and ate a lot, but they didn’t get fat.
So, back to the drawing board. They next tried drugs that would suppress the function of the thyroid. It worked; the animals got fat on less food. But the compounds were found to be carcinogenic and it was feared that the meat would in turn give cancer to the consumers. So they decided to try various cheap beans, such as soy, and cheap vegetables, such as corn.
Both soy beans and corn worked. And here is the point of all this animal husbandry: the soy beans and corn suppressed the thyroid gland, just like the drugs, and the animals got fat without consuming a lot of food. So do you wonder why it’s hard to lose weight on these oil-based vegetarian diets? You don’t lose weight if your thyroid gland is suppressed, you gain it. What the farmers already knew was later ‘proven’ with animal studies. The animals fed unsaturated vegetable oils, such as soy and corn, were fat; the animals fed coconut oils were lean. The total amount of fat eaten was not the controlling factor. The higher the ratio of unsaturated oil to coconut oil, the fatter the animal, no matter what the quantity of oil ingested.
And there are other reasons not to use the unsaturated oils. The seed oils block proteolytic enzymes, which is probably why they block the production of thyroid hormone. But they also block digestive enzymes and affect the clotting mechanism.
Even worse is the effect of the unsaturated oils on the brain. Soy oils are incorporated directly into the brain, making the brain structurally abnormal. Children fed exclusively on unsaturated oils are not going to develop normally unless they get the protective effect of coconut oil.
As expected, the drug companies have fractionated coconut oil to obtain patentable products, such as butyric acid, because it’s well known that coconut oil contains many important nutrients. But you don’t need purified products; you just need coconut oil. The natural coconut oil acts as an antihistamine, an anti-diabetic, an anti-cancer agent, and an anti-infective.
The Journal of the American Medical Association agrees with Dr Douglass: “Coconut oil may be one of the most useful oils to prevent heart disease because of its antiviral and antimicrobial characteristics (JAMA 1967 202:1119-1123; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1981 34:1552).
“In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower people’s serum cholesterol… we found that the people who ate the most saturated fat weighed the least and were the most physically active.” (William Castelli, director of The Framingham Study).
“The diet-heart hypothesis had been repeatedly shown to be wrong, and yet, for complicated reasons of pride, profit and prejudice, the hypothesis continues to be exploited by scientists, fundraising enterprises, food companies and even governmental agencies. The public is being deceived by the greatest health scam of the century.” (George Mann, MD, renowned researcher).
“An analysis of cholesterol values in 1,700 patients with atherosclerotic disease revealed no definite correlation between serum cholesterol levels and the nature and extent of atherosclerotic disease.” (Michael DeBakey, MD, famous heart surgeon.)
The pioneering Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients states: “Coconut oil is particularly useful as it has an essential saturated fat, lauric acid. Trans-fat is the fat that should be absolutely avoided at all times. Read labels. Any time you see partially hydrogenised fat – that means trans-fat. Avoid it… Organic, unrefined coconut oil is safe. However, most other coconut oil products are hydrogenated. Coconut oil has been subjected to a smear campaign by commercial vegetable oil producers, but the research studies cited have used hydrogenated coconut oil, which has skewed the results.”
Skin Care
Dr Peat has this advice for women; he suggests avoiding skin creams containing polyunsaturated botanical oils because they promote aging of the skin by intensifying the effects of the sun’s ultraviolet rays. He recommends coconut oil as the best for skin care, and so do I. It’s the only cleanser or moisturiser I use, and I always give it to my massage therapist, because I don’t want any dangerous oils absorbed through my skin.
The Health Centre’s interest in coconut oil started years ago when we read the following story in Health and Healing Wisdom, the journal of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation:
“When an AIDS sufferer found that his viral load had reached almost 700,000, he decided that the best use of his money and remaining time on Earth was a relaxing vacation. He chucked all the vitamins and drugs he was using – including Naltrexone – packed his bags and headed for an Indian village in Surinam. There he dined on fresh coconut meat every day. Within two days his peripheral neuropathy was gone and within two weeks, he was ‘running through the jungle’. Back home, and continuing to consume at least one-half of a coconut per day, his lab tests showed that the viral load had dropped to just over 300,000. Within another month the viral load had dropped to non-detectable levels and he had gained 32 pounds.”
More On Rancidity
Regarding the rancidity in most oils, Dr Peat said, in one of his informative Newsletters, “The fact that saturated fats are dominant in tropical plants and in warm-blooded animals relates to the stability of these oils at high temperatures. Coconut oil which had been stored at room temperature for a year was found to have no measurable rancidity. Since growing coconuts often experience temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, ordinary room temperature isn’t an oxidative challenge. Fish oil or safflower oil, though, can’t be stored long at room temperature, and at 98 degrees F the spontaneous oxidation is very fast.”
This little paragraph came like a bolt from the blue. Knowing the integrity of this non-profit foundation I decided to research coconut, starting by turning myself into a guinea pig – not for the first time! Within minutes, I was on the way to our local supermarket. Unfortunately, green, soft flesh coconuts are hard to find in cities, so dried nuts are the next best thing.
A coconut novice, I didn’t have the sense to ask the produce man to saw the coconuts in half and empty the liquid into a jar. (Some will cooperate, some won’t, I later discovered). Fired with enthusiasm, I rushed home, not giving a second thought to the task ahead – how to open two incredibly hard spheres.
After trial and error I discovered the way to proceed, and the following are my recommendations, but first, when choosing your coconuts, shake them to make sure there is plenty of liquid inside. If not, they are old and probably spoiled. Be sure to keep your sales slip because sometimes even those with liquid are found to be spoiled, and the market will return your money.
Preparation
If your produce man is uncooperative, fend for yourself, this way: Take the nuts outside, along with a hammer, screwdriver and a jar. Prop the coconut between your knees, place the screwdriver on one of the eyes, and hammer it into the eye, until it slips in easily. Then do the same with the other two eyes, being careful not to spill the liquid. Up-end the nut and pour the liquid into the jar. Taste it. If it’s sweet, you have a good nut. If it smells or tastes sour or offensive, you have an old nut. If it’s good, drink the liquid while it’s fresh. If you have eyestrain, put some of the water in a glass dropper bottle and use the healing water as eye drops. After removing the water, cover the nut with an old towel or a plastic bag and hit it with the hammer until it breaks into pieces.
Then you will have to remove the meat from the husk, which is easier said than done. But persevere, it will come out. Don’t be concerned by the thin, brown coating on the outside of the meat. There is nothing wrong with it. And, don’t attempt to chew the meat – you run the risk of cracking a tooth.
Once you have the meat separated from the husk, the best approach is to shred it. We use a Champion Juicer, with the ‘blank’ on. This shreds beautifully. If you use a different shredder, make sure it doesn’t heat up, and don’t under any circumstances use aluminium; it is toxic and will contaminate the coconut. I then put my coconut in a food drier, although it isn’t necessary. It tastes better, and is slightly crunchy, dried, and appears to keep better. But remember, if you opt for drying, be sure the drier doesn’t have aluminium trays, and keep it at a low temperature so the nutrients aren’t destroyed, 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit) or under. Most Indian stores sell a great and inexpensive coconut scraper that gets the meat out simply, if you first saw the coconut in half. For those of you who do not have this equipment, or the time to go through this exercise, there is another way – buy pure, unadulterated coconut oil. More about that below.
Our favourite way to ingest coconut is to make the effort to get a fresh one, with soft coconut meat inside. We pour the sweet juice into a blender, add the coconut flesh, some frozen bananas, raw eggs and blend it into a delicious, healthful smoothie.
Lauric Acid
After proving to my satisfaction the benefits of coconut, I wanted to know why? So, I rang the Price-Pottenger Foundation and talked to their dedicated, helpful editor, Pat Connolly. She suggested that I read a back issue of their journal, which contained an article by Mary Enig, PhD, an expert of international renown in the field of lipid chemistry. Dr Enig, who has impeccable credentials, is able to practice pure science, as her research is not ‘bought and paid for’ by the food conglomerates.
Dr Enig has done an enormous amount of research on coconut oil. She has found the oil to be not only antiviral, but anti-microbial, anti-protozoal and anti-carcinogenic. This is extraordinary information, and Dr Enig quotes other research studies made by many other prestigious scientists. She cited studies which found the lauric acid in pure coconut has adverse effects on various micro-organisms, such as bacteria, intestinal yeast overgrowth, fungi and enveloped viruses. She states that it was found that lauric acid causes the disintegration of the virus envelope!
Important Nutrient
“Some of the viruses inactivated by the lipids in lauric acid are measles virus, herpes simplex, vesicular stomatitis virus, visna virus and cytomegalovirus,” she says. Breast milk contains lauric acid for the protection of babies, indicating that nature considers this an important nutrient.
According to Mary Enig, immune-compromised people should ingest about 25gm of lauric acid per day. She based this figure on comparative levels found in human breast milk. If using oil only, this would amount to four tablespoons per day for an adult. It can be used in soups, as salad dressings, and for sautéing food and in drinks.
Coconut milk, if you can find a pure one, is another option, as four ounces contain about 11gm of lauric acid. Shredded coconut contains about 6gm per ½ cup. Although I don’t approve of it myself, since I don’t know what ‘they’ have done to it, another possibility is desiccated coconut. It, too, contains about 6gm of lauric acid per ½ cup. But please remember: no hydrogenated coconut oil, and no ‘lite’ oil! These large amounts are recommended by Dr Enig only for those with severe immune system problems. Smaller amounts are adequate for others.
Those of you who remain phobic about cholesterol, even after all the evidence I’ve compiled in this book, must now be trying to decide which is worse – eating an oil that is reviled by the multinational food industry and by ill-informed health professionals, or the virus or bacteria you are trying to banish.
Dr Peat says about coconut oil: “This oil contains immunity-boosting lauric acid, also found in mother’s milk. For these reasons, its regular use offers protection against disease and premature aging.”
Dr John R Lee and Dr Douglass both say that as an added bonus coconut oil increases the metabolic rate via the thyroid so, in spite of being a fat, it brings about an amazing loss of excess weight. Farmers, in fact, who thought it would be an inexpensive way to fatten their animals, found it had just the opposite effect!”
Addressing the irrational fears most people have regarding this oil and heart attacks, Dr Lee says, “Equatorial people, whose main source of fat is unrefined coconut oil, tend to be very free of heart disease.”
When you consider what commercial food processors do to coconuts before they reach the stores, it’s small wonder that proprietary coconut oils, grated coconut and other end products are toxic. They burn the coconut, dry it at extremely high temperatures, store it in dirty sacks, then bleach and deodorise it, because the manufacturing processes make it look and smell disgusting. And, in the case of oil, after all the above insults, they homogenise and hydrogenate it. They call it RBD Oil (Refined, Bleached, Deodorised) and it’s a disaster – everything decent has been killed.
The Good Oil on Oils
Olive Oil
Buy only green olive oil, or extra virgin for salads, and make sure it is in a dark bottle, to avoid the oxidation that occurs when oil is exposed to light. Please do not cook with olive oil, as heating oxidizes it and creates free radicals, which we all need to avoid.
It is becoming difficult to find quality olive oil these days, probably because there are too many people who want it, and too few olive trees. It is necessary to be selective and find a brand that tastes of olives. Some producers add other oils that are not healthful. I used to buy the Melrose brand, but the last bottle tasted strongly of fish oil. I asked them for an explanation, but never heard back. I’ve switched brands.
Butter
This fat, recommended by all the oil experts I trust, contains the valuable A and D vitamins, which are vital for the proper absorption of calcium, and efficient functioning of the thyroid gland. The fatty acids in butter are valuable to the immune system, and the lipids in butter protect gastrointestinal health. These fatty acids are burned for quick energy, rather than stored as fat. According to the American health journal, Health Freedom News, “The notion that butter causes weight gain is a sad misconception.”
Tragically, ‘they’ have ruined this nourishing food by taking the cattle out of grassy pastures where, in the ‘good old days’, they were free to absorb the life-giving nutrients nature provided. They are now fed the cheapest, most unhealthful grains, dosed with drugs, and treated inhumanely. If you can locate a dairy that allows their cows to live according to the laws of nature, their butter will be high in life-giving fats and will nourish your family.
New Zealand’s butter and meat are said to be from grass-fed livestock. Americans, in some States, are fortunate to have certified dairies, as well as organically raised meat. In Australia, some health stores carry butter from properly raised animals. Always purchase the unsalted variety and do not use it for cooking, as heat causes butter to oxidize, creating free radicals. It’s lots of effort to locate natural butter, due to government connivance, and it’s hard to keep ahead of their Machiavellian moves, but do your best. It’s worth the effort.
Because most commercial food manufacturers lie and cheat, we recommend home-churned butter, so you will know exactly what it contains. The trick is locating a dairyman willing to sell pure, uncontaminated milk. An even bigger problem is finding time for such things.
Coconut Oil
For all the reasons already mentioned, and from a great deal of experience, I am convinced that this is the most healthful oil available. Nature has wisely provided the coconut with protection against tropical heat, so its oil does not turn rancid or oxidize in hot weather. Nor does it create free radicals when heated. Because of this, coconut oil is the only oil that is safe to use in cooking. Storage is also not a problem. Although I do not recommend it, I have stored it un-refrigerated for years without noticing a rancid smell or flavour.
Coconut oil turns hard when exposed to cold, but when the bottle is placed in warm water or in the sun for a while, it liquefies. And, of course, when in the body it is in its liquid state, contrary to poly-pusher propaganda. Do not purchase commercial coconut oil products: the processing turns it deadly.
For years, we were unable to find a good coconut oil. They all smelled of chemicals, and now I know why. Finally, after months of phone calls to several countries, we were able to locate a superb oil, and the Hippocrates Health Centre imports it. It is made by native South Pacific communities, using very old and safe methods. Nothing is done that can hurt the oil, and the presses are washed only with hot water, never the benzene or other poisons most oil processors use. These poisons, of course, end up in small amounts in most of the conventionally-processed oils. Manufacturers stress the minute amounts, ignoring the cumulative effects of years of poisons our bodies are expected to detoxify. For information see http://www.hippocrates.com.au/hippocrates-news-archive/coconut-oil
For the truth on cholesterol and the health of your heart, there are two superb, life-saving books with, coincidentally, identical names: The Great Cholesterol Con. The one by Dr Malcolm Kendrick is easy reading for the layman, and the one by Dr Anthony Colpo is aimed at scientists. These books will change forever the way you look at cholesterol, statin drugs and cardiologists.
The preceding article is an extract from Elaine’s book, Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry, to learn more about this amazing book go to: http://doctorsaredangerous.com/book.htm