Personal Experiments

After diving into a raw food joint in Patagonia last fall...I've been fascinated with raw foods and much of the ingredients used. Why? Because I feel so damn good. But then I often think my feeling good has a lot to do with the fact I quit my job. My latest buzz?

Coconut Oil and various coconut fats (butter, meat, etc.). This is actually an amazing fat because although it has a high saturated content (reportedly bad, right?) it does not create the free radicals or oxidative stress in the body like all other saturated fats (which come from animal meats). In fact, it doesn't oxidize even when heated! Even olive oil oxidizes (you know that bottle that turns rancid) after just a few short months on the counter. So just as we try to focus our diets on lots of antioxidants, consuming an oxidative fat is like reversing all the good we do in eating antioxidant foods! Coconut oil, butter, meat is an amazing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and lubricate for your joints, skin and hair.

Then I read this study about farmers that fed cattle coconut oil because it was cheap and they needed a way to fatten up the cows quickly. But wait...theses cows started exhibiting more energy and lost weight. The farmers quickly turned to canola and soy oils and the cows fattened up nicely. Hmmmmmm.

Well, my personal experiment had me switching most of my fat consumption to Coconut oil and away from Olive Oil without any other changes in my diet (and actually I have had less exercise with all the cold weather here in Seattle but tons of energy). This past week I got on the scale and I was down 7-8 lbs and 2% body fat from October. Needless to say my skin and hair feel amazing (so I'm told - ha, ha, ha), and I feel great. Maybe you should check it out too - more info here.