Coconut Oil Part 2

Coconut oil has been a dietary and beauty staple for a very long time. It’s been touted as powerful weapon against many microbes, from viruses to bacteria to protozoa, and provides your body with high-quality fat that is critical for optimal health.

Why is Coconut Oil So Good?

1. LAURIC ACID: Around 50 percent of the fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature. In fact, coconut oil contains the most lauric acid of any substance on this planet.

Our bodies convert lauric acid into monolaurin, a monoglyceride which can destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as giardia lamblia.


2. Medium Chain Fatty Acids: Coconut oil is comprised of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) that are easily digested and readily cross cell membranes. MCFAs are immediately converted by your liver into energy rather than being stored as fat. This is in part why coconut oil is recommended as an ideal replacement for non-vegetable carbohydrates.

3. Gentle on Digestion: Coconut oil is easy on your digestive system and does not produce an insulin spike in your bloodstream, so for a quick energy boost, you could simply eat a spoonful of coconut oil, or add it to your food. In the video above, I also share my recipe for a scrumptious yet healthful chocolate treat, courtesy of the healthy fat from coconut oil.

4. Additive Qualities: To get more coconut oil into your diet, you can add it to your tea or coffee, in lieu of a sweetener. It will also help improve absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, so taking a spoonful of coconut oil along with your daily vitamins may help boost their effectiveness.

5. Great for Baking and Cooking: Coconut oil is ideal for all sorts of cooking and baking, as it can withstand higher temperatures without being damaged like many other oils, vegetable or canola.

6. Long Lasting and Stable: Furthermore, coconut oil does not go rancid, which is a huge boon when you’re making homemade concoctions. Coconut oil that has been kept at room temperature for a year has been tested for rancidity, and showed no evidence of it. Since you would expect the small percentage of unsaturated oils naturally contained in coconut oil to become rancid, it seems that the other (saturated) oils have a powerful antioxidant effect.

7. Health Benefits: Research has shown that coconut oil rich diets promote a healthier heart, better brain function, better thyroid function, improved immunity and younger looking skin.

Coconut Oil Part 1: Improved Brain Function

Dr. Mary Newport came up with a theory a few years ago after wanting to help her husband who was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Her research lead her to believe that Alzhiemers is much like Diabetes of the Brain and that there is a problem with Glucose utilization in the brain. Further investigation lead her to believe that ketone bodies could be an alternative fuel for your brain that when digesting coconut oil (other fats as well), might offer profound benefits in the fight against Alzheimer's disease.

Now, Dr. Newport's research is being used to launch one of the first clinical trials of its kind to test her theory. The research is being done at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute.

Sixty-five patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s have been enrolled to evaluate the effects of coconut oil on the disease, compared to a placebo. Dr. Newport hopes to have the results within a year.

This issue strikes close to home for Dr. Newport, whose husband has been battling the disease for years. As reported by CTV News:

“While there is currently no clinical data showing the benefits of coconut oil on the prevention and treatment of dementia, Newport -- whose husband Steve was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 51 -- said she began to see improvements after starting him on four teaspoons of coconut oil per day.

‘Before the coconut oil, he could not tie his shoes. His weird slow gait… That improved. He walked normally and he was able to start running again.

He was able to start reading again, his conversation improved dramatically and then over several months we saw improvements in his memory,’ Newport said. Prior to starting him on coconut oil, Newport said none of the existing medications were working.”
Coconut Oil Appears to Be an Ideal Brain Food

There are only two types of fuel your body can convert into energy: carbs/sugar, or fat. Again, ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy. And a primary source of ketone bodies are the medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) found in coconut oil. In fact, coconut oil contains about 66 percent MCTs.

Medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) are fats that are not processed by your body in the same manner as long-chain triglycerides. Normally, a fat taken into your body must be mixed with bile released from your gallbladder before it can be broken down in your digestive system.

But medium-chain triglycerides go directly to your liver, which naturally converts the oil into ketones, bypassing the bile entirely. Your liver then immediately releases the ketones into your bloodstream where they are transported to your brain to be readily used as fuel.

While your brain is quite happy running on glucose, there’s evidence suggesting that ketone bodies may actually help restore and renew neurons and nerve function in your brain, even after damage has set in. Interestingly, the mechanism of this MCT-ketone metabolism appears to be that your body treats MCTs as a carbohydrate and not a fat. This allows the ketone energy to hit your bloodstream without the normal insulin spike associated with carbohydrates entering your bloodstream. So in effect, coconut oil is a fat that acts like a carbohydrate when it comes to brain fuel.

How Much Coconut Oil Might You Need?

Therapeutic levels of MCTs have been studied at 20 grams per day. According to Dr. Newport's calculations, just over two tablespoons of coconut oil (about 35 ml or seven level teaspoons) would supply you with the equivalent of 20 grams of MCT, which is indicated as either a preventative measure against degenerative neurological diseases, or as a treatment for an already established case.

While more research certainly needs to be done in this area as well, I see no reason not to incorporate coconut oil in your diet, or the diet of a loved one who is exhibiting symptoms of brain degeneration. Coconut oil has so many profound health benefits; it’s not going to do any harm.

It’s worth noting that people tolerate coconut oil differently, and you may have to start slowly and build up to these therapeutic levels. My recommendation is to start with one teaspoon, taken with food in the mornings. Gradually add more coconut oil every few days until you are able to tolerate about four tablespoons. It’s best to take it with food, to avoid upsetting your stomach.
Low-Fat Craze Has Likely Contributed to Dramatic Rise in Alzheimer’s

A number of seriously flawed nutritional guidelines have contributed to more than a few health problems in the US, and the low-fat craze (aimed at preventing heart disease) is toward the top of that list. Not only does avoiding healthful fat promote heart disease, it also promotes brain diseases like Alzheimer’s.

According to neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, fat avoidance and carbohydrate overconsumption are at the heart of the Alzheimer’s epidemic—which is an entirely preventable disease, driven by lifestyle factors such as diet. Dr. Perlmutter’s book, Grain Brain, provides a powerful argument for eliminating grains from your diet to protect your brain health. Another major factor is the development and increased consumption of genetically engineered grains, which are now pervasive in most processed foods sold in the US. Unfortunately, despite dire need, there’s little money available for research into treatments using regular food items. As Amanda Smith, Medical Director at University of South Florida (USF) Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute told CTV News:

“The pharmaceutical industry is in this -- of course to make money for their companies, and of course they want to help people theoretically -- but at the end of the day it is about dollars and cents, and so money gets invested in things that are new or patent-able rather than things that are sitting on the shelf already.”

Why You Should NEVER Eat Vegetable Oil or Margarine! Part 1

Trans fat, found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils became widely popularized as a “healthier alternative” to saturated animal fats like butter and lard around the mid-1950’s. Its beginnings go back 100 years though, to Proctor & Gamble’s creation of Crisco in 1911.

These oils are supposed to help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, increase weight loss, and somehow improve overall health. The only problem is that science had not backed up these claims.

In 1961, the American Heart Association began encouraging Americans to limit dietary fat, particularly animal fats, in order to reduce their risk of heart disease. In the decades since, despite low-fat diets becoming increasingly part of the norm, heart disease rates have soared.

It’s been a long time coming, but on November 7, 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is now considering removing partially hydrogenated oils—the primary source of trans fats—from the list of "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) ingredients.

The FDA will accept comments for 60 days, after which a permanent decision will be made. If finalized, the FDA’s decision means that food manufacturers can no longer use partially hydrogenated oils, i.e. trans fats, in their products without jumping through hoops to get special approval.

This is a remarkable turnaround, and I personally could not be more pleased by this proposed change. This is the first step towards the truth, informing consumers that trans fats are a primary culprit causing premature death. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also called for the elimination of trans fats from the global food supply.

These oils are supposed to help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, increase weight loss, and somehow improve overall health.

The only problem is that science had not backed up these claims. Finally, now we are hearing the truth, watch this news clip, it also gives you the sense of how tricky the food manufacturers are with labeling...

What Are Vegetable Oils/Margarine?

Vegetable oils (and margarine, made from these oils) are oils extracted from seeds like the rapeseed (canola oil) soybean (soybean oil), corn, sunflower, safflower, etc. They were practically non-existent in our diets until the early 1900s when new chemical processes allowed them to be extracted.

Unlike butter or coconut oil, these vegetable oils can’t be extracted just by pressing or separating naturally. They must be chemically removed, deodorized, and altered. These are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets, yet they get promoted as healthy.

Vegetable oils are found in practically every processed food, from salad dressing to mayo to conventional nuts and seeds. These oils are some of the most harmful substances you can put into your body, but more on that in a minute.

How Vegetable Oils are Made

Vegetable oils are manufactured in a factory, usually from genetically modified crops that have been heavily treated with pesticides. This article has fascinating videos contrasting the production of vegetable oils and butter.

Take for instance, the common Canola oil, the beauty queen of the vegetable oil industry. It was developed by making a hybrid version of the rapeseed, and it was given its name in the 1980s as part of a marketing effort organized by a conference on mono-saturates.

Rapeseed oil contains high amounts of the toxic erucic acid, which is poisonous to the body. Canola oil is an altered version, also called Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed (LEAR) and it is commonly genetically modified and treated with high levels of pesticides.

Canola (modified rapeseed oil) is produced by heating the rapeseed and processing with a petroleum solvent to extract the oil. Then another process of heat and addition of acid is used to remove nasty solids (wax) that occur during the first processing.

At this point, the newly created canola oil must be treated with more chemicals to improve color and separate the different parts of the oil. Finally, since the chemical process has created a harsh smelling oil, it must be chemically deodorized to be palatable.

If the vegetable oil is going to be made into shortening or margarine, is undergoes an additional process called hydrogenation to make it solid at cold temperatures. Unlike saturated fats (butter, coconut oil, etc.) vegetable oils are not naturally solid at these temperatures and must be hydrogenated to accomplish this. During this process of hydrogenation, the dangerous transfats are created.

Trans fat, found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils became widely popularized as a “healthier alternative” to saturated animal fats like butter and lard around the mid-1950’s. Its beginnings go back 100 years though, to Proctor & Gamble’s creation of Crisco in 1911.

In 1961, the American Heart Association began encouraging Americans to limit dietary fat, particularly animal fats, in order to reduce their risk of heart disease. In the decades since, despite low-fat diets becoming increasingly part of the norm, heart disease rates have soared.

It’s been a long time coming, but on November 7, 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is now considering removing partially hydrogenated oils—the primary source of trans fats—from the list of "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) ingredients.

The FDA will accept comments for 60 days, after which a permanent decision will be made. If finalized, the FDA’s decision means that food manufacturers can no longer use partially hydrogenated oils, i.e. trans fats, in their products without jumping through hoops to get special approval.

This is a remarkable turnaround, and I personally could not be more pleased by this proposed change. This is the first step towards the truth, informing consumers that trans fats are a primary culprit causing premature death. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also called for the elimination of trans fats from the global food supply.

More to follow

The Three Grossest Sentences You'll Read About Chicken Nuggets Today

Chicken nuggets are delicious things as long as you don't have to think about what parts of the chicken they actually are made from. The Journal of American Medicine looked into that question, leading Reuters to produce three sentences that might make you never want another chicken nugget again.

Here's what doctors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center found after studying two different nuggets from two different fast food chains in Jackson, Miss.:


The first nugget was about half muscle, with the rest a mix of fat, blood vessels and nerves. Close inspection revealed cells that line the skin and internal organs of the bird, the authors write in the American Journal of Medicine.

The second nugget was only 40 percent muscle, and the remainder was fat, cartilage and pieces of bone.

Now we've all seen that slime picture, and read the horror stories, and deep down we know that chicken meat comes in more shapes than circles and boots. But nothing is more disturbing than knowing that half of a white-meat chicken nugget is actually just a Frankenstein mix of pulverized avian bone, nerves, and internal organs.

Read More

Exercise Makes Middle-Aged People Smarter

High-intensity interval training makes middle-aged people not only healthier but smarter, showed a Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) study led by Dr. Anil Nigam of the MHI and University of Montreal, in collaboration with the Montreal Geriatric University Institute.

The participants all had a body-mass index (BMI) between 28 and 31 (overweight) in addition to one or more other cardiovascular risk factors. Body-mass index is calculated as a person's weight divided by their height squared (kg/m2) -- 25 to 30 is considered overweight, over 30 is obese. High-intensity interval training involves alternating between short periods of low and high intensity aerobic exercise -- for example, a series of 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 30 seconds of walking or jogging.

"We worked with six adults who all followed a four-month program of twice weekly interval training on stationary bicycles and twice weekly resistance training. Cognitive function, VO2max and brain oxygenation during exercise testing revealed that the participants' cognitive functions had greatly improved thanks to the exercise," Dr. Nigam said. VO2max is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during exercise. It impacts on the body's ability to oxygenate the brain and is related to cognitive function.

"Our participants underwent a battery of cognitive, biological and physiological tests before the program began in order to determine their cognitive functions, body composition, cardiovascular risk, brain oxygenation during exercise and maximal aerobic capacity," Dr. Nigam explained. The cognitive tests included tasks such as remembering pairs of numbers and symbols. To see what was actually happening in the brain, the researchers used near-infra red spectroscopy (NIRS), a technique that works with light (in the near-infra red range) sent though human tissue that reacts with oxygen in the blood (light absorption). It is so sensitive that it detects the minute changes in the volume and oxygenation of blood occur in our brains when we exercise or think.

Original Article

Exercises to Help Osteoarthritic Knees (Knee Pain)

Healthy Knee Joint

There are many kinds of knee arthritis but most common one is known as Osteoarthritis or Degenerative joint disease or garden variety arthritis. 

Osteoarthritis OA is usually a slowly progressive condition which is characterized by a breakdown of cartilage in almost any joint in the body, although it’s most frequently seen in weight-bearing joints such as the spine, hips and knees. Symptoms of this “wear-and-tear” condition include sore joints, pain after increased activity or extended periods of inactivity, joint deformity, and fluid accumulation.in which the joint cartilage gradually wears away.

OA Knee

It most often affects middle-aged and older people. But younger people can be affected especially following a traumatic injury like a fall or car accident or other sports related trauma.

 OA of the knee is one of the five leading causes of disability among older women and men.

One out of three people ages 63 to 94 will develop knee OA, but women are at greater risk than men. Other people at risk include overweight individuals, people with a history of trauma to the knee, or those whose jobs require heavy kneeling or squatting.

While treatment—including physical therapy, weight loss, pain-relieving drugs, anti-inflammatory injections and surgery—is tailored to each patient, experts agree that stretching is a vital component to any OA treatment plan. Stretching can help improve functioning, increase range of motion, and relieve discomfort.

Grab a mat, towel, or strap and read on for four easy knee moves that can be done at the gym or in the comfort of your own home.

Standing Calf Stretch

Stand facing a wall with your right leg in front of you and your left leg behind. Placing your hands on the wall for support, slowly bend your right front knee and lean into the wall, pressing the left heel to the floor. Once you feel a stretch in your left calf muscle, hold for 30 seconds, and then slowly relax. Repeat the stretch twice more before switching sides and repeating.

A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that knee OA patients who performed standing calf stretches as part of an overall exercise routine experienced improved function and reported less pain and stiffness than those who did not.

Seated Hip March 

Sitting up straight in a chair, slightly kick your left foot back a few inches underneath the chair, keeping toes on the floor for support. Lift your right foot off the floor, keeping knee bent at a 90-degree angle. Hold your right leg in the air for five seconds, and then slowly lower back to the ground. Repeat 10 times. Alternate legs and do another 10 on each side. (With or without theraband)


A University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics study found that stronger thigh muscles can protect women against knee OA symptoms.

Quadriceps Stretch
Lying face down, bend your right knee and grab your ankle with your right hand. (You may want to rest your forehead on your left forearm for support.) Gently pull your right foot towards your buttocks until you feel a gentle stretch in the thigh. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds before slowly lowering your leg. Repeat two more times (for a total of three times), switch sides, and repeat.

A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that patients with OA of the knee who performed this exercise as part of an overall routine experienced improved function and reported less pain and stiffness than those who did not.

Hamstring Stretch
Lie down on your back with both knees bent. Loop a towel or strap around your right foot and, holding onto the strap for support, extend and elevate your right leg to a 45-degree angle. Once you feel a gentle stretch in your right hamstring (behind the knee and thigh), hold for 30 seconds. Slowly lower and repeat two more times, switch sides, and repeat.

A 2010 study in the journal Physiotherapy found that hamstring stretching led to significant increases in knee extension range of motion in subjects with knee osteoarthritis.




When doing these exercises, go at your own pace. If you experience pain during these stretches, stop and talk to your doctor during your next visit to see what he or she recommends. 

Understanding How We Burn Calories When The Exercise is Over

The calories burned after the workout is over is called afterburn.


The afterburner effect is becoming increasingly popular in the world of health and fitness. In fact, many fitness experts are now suggesting that it is possibly the best method for weight loss. 

Obviously you can't ignore your diet, but I won't bore you with a lecture on the importance of diet here. In this article I will be explaining what the afterburn effect is and an outline of the methods used to take advantage of this effect.

So, the big question. Just what is this afterburn effect, and why should you care

What is the Afterburn Effect?

After burn is a term representing the calories you consume after the exercise is over. The afterburn effect is difficult to estimate. But what you do need to know is that it's real and you need to learn how to get the most out of it if you are serious about fat loss. Simply the more intense the exercise, the greater the afterburn effect. For example, sprinting as fast as you can for 30 seconds for 5 rounds will have a much larger afterburn effect compared to jogging for 30 minutes.

What is Energy Expenditure?

Energy expenditure is the total amount of calories you burn. More specifically, energy expenditure refers to the amount of energy a person uses during all bodily activities from movement, to blood circulation, to breathing, to digestion. When it comes to exercise, energy expenditure is the total measure of calorie burn during and after exercise.

Aerobic Exercise

What is Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Exercise?

Aerobic exercise is a type of activity marked by long distances and slow paces like running, or cycling. Anaerobic exercise is marked by activities that require strength, speed, and power like weight lifting, or sprinting.

Anerobic

Energy Expenditure From Exercise: 3 Components

While total energy expenditure is the sum of the following 3 components, the After Burn Effect is the sum of #2 and #3 components:

1) Calories Burned During Exercise (O2)- This is the amount of calories you burn during a workout. A metabolic cart can accurately measure you calorie burn aerobically during exercise. This is because oxygen uptake (how much oxygen your body uses) is proportional to heat expenditure (calorie burn) for aerobic activities. This component is NOT part of the after burn effect.

2) Calories Burned AFTER Exercise (EPOC) – At higher exercise intensities, oxygen uptake is NOT proportional to heat expenditure. An oxygen debt is created, where EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) is used to help restore the body to a resting state and adapt it to the exercise just performed, which requires energy. This component is part of the after burn effect.

3) Lactic Acid Contribution of Exercise – EPOC is NOT enough to fully account for anaerobic contribution of exercise to total energy expenditure. This is a VERY important point and what differentiates Chris’ research. Chris has proposed that by measuring blood lactate reasonable estimates of rapid glycolitic ATP turnover are available and should not be omitted from the estimation of energy expenditure from anaerobic exercise, especially when anaerobic contributions are large. This component is part of the afterburn effect.


Value of After Burn Effect

Energy Expenditure component #2 is typically referred to as the “After Burn Effect”, when it should really be #2 and #3. The after burn effect is minimal for traditional cardio, but can be significant for strength and power related activities.


Why Most Exercise Physiologists Estimate The Afterburn Effect Incorrectly

One reason may be that the exercise industry is dominated by aerobic exercisers like runners, cyclists, and triathletes:

I think that the way scientists have started the origins of exercise physiology are pretty much all aerobic exercise. That’s what it is. Now many people are applying aerobic exercise concepts like long-distance running and cycling, and they’re using what they found there and applying it to resistance training and weight lifting. That’s where I pretty much have drawn the line. I’m not going to do that.


A Possible 4th Component of Energy Expenditure – Hypertrophy

If you’re working your muscle to the point where you’re causing damage at the microscopic level, it’s going to take energy to repair that… breaking proteins and laying down new proteins, that is most certainly going to be raising your energy expenditure…There’s also medical issues, if you will, that increase energy expenditure, and the largest one is burns. If you’re a burn victim, you can literally double your resting metabolic rate with severe burns. The reason why is you look at your skin, which is mostly protein, you’re laying down new protein. Your nutritional demands are literally off the chart.

High Intensity Anaerobic Exercise Burns More Fat Than Cardio

There was a study I saw years ago, and I still quote it, and they were doing these six-second bursts of all-out cycling. It was 10, 15 sets of this, and they found this unheard of amount of free fatty acids that were broken down from fat stores within the muscle. It begs the question why, during an anaerobic activity that clearly utilizes glucose as a fuel, why is so much fat being broken down.

The answer appears to be, well, the exercise component is six seconds long, and that’s using glucose, but however long the recovery component is, that’s when you’re burning fat. If you add all these intermittent periods together…you’re primarily burning lactate and fatty acids, and that’s where the body composition stuff comes in.

The way I was taught years ago was that if you wanted to burn fat you would have to do long, slow, distance activity because that’s going to burn the most fat. The newest research is starting to show this premise is false and that the other way around that during really brief, intense intermittent bouts of strength, speed and power-related anaerobic exercise is far superior.

So if you want to lose weight, lose body fat, get ripped, intermittent bursts of high-intensity activity followed by rest periods, is the best way to do it.


The Afterburn Effect: Research Still Has a LONG Way to Go!

We have a long way to go before we understand this, and that there are times when it’s almost – for me, from a scientific standpoint – it’s almost overwhelming because we’re finding out that isotonic contractions are different than isometric, that are different from isokinetic. Then you add different one repetition maximums or ten repetition maximum, how much exercise time’s involved, number of reps, the number of sets, the number of rest periods in between sets.

We have a long way to go before we find the perfect exercise program, if you will. The truth of the matter is there’s probably not one perfect program. There’s probably dozens of perfect programs. The fun is in finding out what works for you and having a variety of plans you can switch in an out of to prevent boredom.

I will leave it with this!

Nutrition Is Still King For Losing Fat
90% Nutrition and 10% Exercise