Bart Maes

Coconut oil, the ideal vehicle for all types of applications

Ayurvedic medicine uses ghee (clarified butter) and coconut oil especially as a vehicle for medicine and herb mixtures. This is mainly because coconut oil is a highly stable fat with antimicrobial properties. Can be stored at room temperature for at least two years.

The ideal hand cream: Check the list of ingredients of your usual hand cream. It is usually full of muck, water, and diffi – cult words. Often you really don’t know what it all means. Moreover these creams will often use parabene in different forms, to guarantee long storage, while parabene has been proven to be a carcinogenic. Bet- ter to wash your hands a little less, than to use these expensive or cheap junk creams. Extra virgin coconut oil heals dry hands. The very small fat molecules, which carry a lot of MCTs, penetrate the skin rapidly. It gets even better when you add the essential oil of lime, lemon or orange to coconut oil. Then your hand cream based on coconut oil will smell delicious. Moreover the essential oils of lime, lemon, mandarin, and orange will also ensure that your hands will feel soft as silk. Why? The essential oil in the peel of this fruit will ensure that the peel maintains its moisture balance.

Do the test yourself. Lightly grate the peel of a lime, lemon or orange. Put the fruit with its lightly grated peel away and one day later you will notice that it will have completely hardened. The peel has lost its essential oil during the grating proc- ess. The essential oil in the peel can also regulate your moisture balance. Ideal for dry skin on your feet and hands: Rub some coconut oil onto your heel every night before you go to sleep, wear clean socks and you will notice that your feet will look a lot better after a few nights. Combine this with the internal intake of a spoon of vegetable omega 3/6/9 a day.

Ideal lubricant

Coconut oil is much safer than products based on petroleum derivates, making it the ideal choice for a natural lubricant. Miles better than Vaseline, which at the end of the day is a petroleum derivate. Anyway, who would put petroleum derivates in their body. Coconut oil is a natural food and also stimulates electric impulses. Because coconut oil contains a lot of lauric, capryl and caproic acids, it combats fungus infections and has a healing effect. In case of fungal infections use abundantly (2 to 3 spoons a day) and also apply in vagina and on skin.

Massage oil

Coconut oil in its pure form or mixed with cashew, olive oil, almond or avocado oil is an ideal massage oil. When you use coconut oil in its pure form, it is solid under 25°C and will melt during the massage. Do you prefer it to be liquid at all times? Then mix it with the aforementioned oils and with some drops of essential oil of lavender, camomile, rosemary, rose, bergamot or sandalwood: These blends will allow you to fully enjoy your massage. Some are even delicious to eat or lick up. Attention: Some essential oils can cause allergic reactions depending on the person.

Toothpaste

Coconut oil is known to have antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties. As a result there is no better or more natural toothpaste to brush your teeth. By brushing your teeth with coconut oil you can prevent tooth decay by up to 80% according to Dr. J. Kabara. If you add a little bit of essential oil, an aroma that you enjoy smelling and tasting, then your teeth and your partner will be very grateful. A Lot of toothpastes are full of junk, incomprehensible substances that you shouldn’t be using in your mouth. A lot of ‘natural’ toothpastes also contain a lot of sorbitol to camouflage the junk they contain. Of course coconut oil is also an ideal lip balm.

Hair

In India and in the Philippines women have known for centuries that coconut oil is excellent for one’s hair. It is the perfect hair conditioner. It gives the hair its natural shine and lustre. A study compared the effects of coconut oil, sunflower oil and mineral oil (petroleum derivates) in the treatment of damaged and undamaged hair. Coconut oil is better suited to prevent the loss of protein in undamaged and damaged hair than sunflower oil or mineral oil. The researchers say that the extremely small molecules can easily penetrate the hair shaft more deeply. (97) Joke, a herbalist, will apply extra virgin coconut oil to the wet points of her daughter’s hair in order to give the hair a natural sheen and to protect it from dry- ing out and from extreme pollution.

In first instance a healthy and balanced diet enriched with coconut oil and some omega 3/6/9 is the best way to improve your hair and skin’s condition. Beauty comes from within first and foremost! Wheat germs are also very good for your hair. Wheat germs contain a lot of silicium and almost all B vitamins for healthy strong hair. By using coconut oil on the outside, you will also strengthen the whole in a natural manner. In tropical countries they will apply the oil just before washing the hair.

In some cases coconut oil also seems to work very well in preventing dandruff and lice.

To be used before or after washing one’s hair. Coconut oil can also be used to get rid of warts and nail funguses. Coconut oil in a solution of pressed garlic and a little bit of tea tree oil to strengthen the mix- ture. Apply 3 to 4 times per day together with the coconut oil dur- ing meals, for two to four months and the warts and nail funguses will have disappeared forever. Animal fur will also gain more lustre from coconut oil. Especially in horses.

Natural deodorant

Coconut oil is the ideal deodorant. The bacteria responsible for a sweaty odour are killed by the caproic, capryl and lauric acid in extra virgin coconut oil. By adding some essential oil of thyme, rosemary, tea tree or sage you can even strengthen the antibacterial properties, which will prevent odours.

Extra virgin coconut oil in the kitchen: Very stable and 0% transfats

Because coconut oil mainly contains saturated fats, it will not get rancid easily at room temperature, nor will it change structure when exposed to high temperatures. You can use it for baking, stir frying, roasting and deep frying. Why? Coconut oil contains 92% healthy saturated fat with maximum 2% polyunsaturated fatty acids. As a result coconut oil is 300 times less likely to oxidize than for example linseed oil and five times less than olive oil. Coconut oil can easily be stored for up to two years at room temperature without going rancid. It can be heated at high temperatures time and again without the formation of transfats and free radicals. (31)

Cherie and John Calblom and Michael Mahaffey, the authors of the book ‘The Com- plete Cancer Cleanse’, recommend that you should cook with ‘extra virgin coconut oil’, because they feel that it is the most stable oil among all vegetable oils. (34) Udo Erasmus also considers extra virgin coconut oil to be the best oil for heating. Extra virgin coconut oil contains 0% transfats. This is a perfect solution to prevent very unhealthy transfats from putting in an appearance in your cuisine. If the many manu facturers of refined products were to replace their refined and hydrogenated vegetable oils with extra virgin coconut oil, people would look better and healthier.

Only extra virgin coconut oil of organic quality. It is important that you choose an organic unrefined, undeodorized and unhardened coconut oil. Unfortunately most coconut oils are all of the above. So please limit yourself to buying extra virgin coconut oil of organic quality, which still smells of coconut.