We are in the age of supergerms, and our environment is teeming with microorganisms. They are in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, and they even live on our skin. Many of these germs cause disease. Some have become drug-resistant supergerms. Fortunately, nature has provided us a number of medicinal plants to help protect us from attack by these harmful pests.

Coconut is one of these. Medications can’t be relied on to protect us against all infectious organisms. We need something more to boost our immune system and help us fight these troublesome invaders – a super anti-microbial. When coconut oil is eaten, the body transforms its unique fatty acids into powerful antimicrobial powerhouses capable of defeating some of the most notorious disease-causing microorganisms. Even the supergerms are vulnerable to these life-saving coconut derivatives. The unique properties of coconut oil make it in essence, a natural anti-bacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal, and anti-protozoal food. I am quoting from the book entitled “The Coconut Oil Miracle” authored by Dr. Bruce Fife, an American certified nutritionist and naturopathic doctor. Dr. Fife whom I personally know is also the president of the Coconut Research Center, a nonprofit organization based in the US dedicated to educating the public and the scientific community on the nutritional and health benefits of coconut oil. Dr. Bruce Fife has done an immense job of promoting the nutritional and health benefits of coconut oil produced in the tropical areas like Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India.

Dr. Bruce Fife has practically been waging a one-man crusade since some years ago to promote the use of tropical coconut oil in the United States. Dr. Fife’s years of intensive research into scientific literature as well as into firsthand clinical use of coconut oil has unveiled a new image of coconut oil. Promoting the tropical oil of the coconut growing countries like the Philippines. Encouraging more people in the US (and in other countries) to patronize coconut oil. Diffusing the coconut oil scare bomb. Neutralizing too, the negative and deceptive publicity regarding coconut oil which immensely misled the consuming public in the US. A result of the then adverse propaganda waged by an American Soybean Association (ASA) which began in the mid 1980’s. The massive and expensive propaganda of ASA (that coconut oil is a saturated fat and would cause heart attacks) was so effective that US food makers and restaurants started switching from the tropical oils they had been using for years to soybean oils and other vegetable oils. By the early 1990s, the market for tropical oils including coconut oil drastically dropped. The media blitz of ASA was aided by other well-meaning but misguided health groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). In the words of Dr. Fife: “This war of oils, unfortunately, made every man, woman, and child in America (and elsewhere) its victim. Tragically, the oil that replaced coconut oil and palm oils was hydrogenated vegetable oil (principally from soybeans) – one of the most health-damaging dietary oils in existence – and the only people who actually benefited from this new health craze were those in the soybean industry. These hydrogenated replacements contain as much saturated fat as the tropical oils, but they are not made from easily digested medium-chain fatty acids like those found in coconut oil – they are composed of toxic trans fatty acids. The result has been to replace healthy tropical oils with some very nasty, chemically altered vegetable oils. We are all victims, because when we eat foods containing these oils our health suffers.”

Have a joyful day!

(To be continued)