Health Benefits of Coconut Oil - continued...

On Health Benefits of Coconut Oil - Page 1 we saw how coconut oil can have positive effects on your cholesterol levels.

Here, we'll look at this tropical oil's role in reducing your risk for cancer and fighting infectious diseases.

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil and Cancer Prevention

New York - Eat fat and prevent cancer?

It may sound a little far fetch but consider this animal study from the Division of Nutritional Carcinogenesis at the American Health Foundation in New York.

Rats fed a semi-purified, high-fat diet containing 23% corn oil, safflower oil, lard or beef tallow showed a higher incidence for developing chemically-induced colon tumors.

Nothing new here as health agencies have been telling us for years about the dangers of eating a high-fat diet.

But consider the following....

When these rats were fed a high-fat diet containing 23% coconut oil, olive oil or fish oil they showed no colon tumor-enhancing effect, compared to eating a low-fat diet.

So it appears that one of the health benefits of coconut oil is it may reduce the incidence of colon-tumors. Of course, more human-based research is needed to determine actual dosages and effectiveness.

Another study from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute supports these health benefits of coconut oil.

2 seed oils (safflower and corn) and 2 fruit oils (coconut and olive) were fed as high-fat (23%) or low-fat (5%) diets to a group of rats.

The only exception was coconut oil was also fed at a high-fat diet of 23%.

This time, scientists tried to chemically-induce breast cancer in the subjects.

Animals fed the high-fat safflower and corn oil diets showed increased breast tumors, compared to animals fed the high-fat olive oil or coconut oil diets and their low-fat diet counterparts.

Why is this?

Researchers believe the slight increase of serum cholesterol in the animals fed coconut oil helped protect them from developing breast cancer. Rats fed polyunsaturated vegetable oils had reduced serum cholesterol and developed more tumors.

Since weight gain and total caloric intake were similar in all groups, the results show a high-fat diet may promote cancer - but again, it depends on what type of fatty acids are in the diet.

It appears that eating a high-fat diet of coconut oil or olive oil reduced the incidence of chemically-induced breast cancer, compared to eating a high-fat diet of safflower oil or corn oil.

Of course, this doesn't mean eating lots of vegetable oil will increase your risk for breast cancer. But it does bring attention to a possible relationship between the types of fats you eat and your risk for developing cancer.

The health benefits of coconut oil against cancer are promising and more human studies are needed in this area before forming any conclusions.

Anti-microbial Effects of Virgin Coconut Oil

Do a search on 'virgin coconut oil' on the internet and you'll come across websites touting the germ-fighting properties of coconut oil.

Can you use coconut oil to fight germs, viruses and fungi?

Well, one of the benefits of coconut oil is it's an excellent source of Lauric Acid, a special kind of fatty acid.

Lauric acid is used by our bodies to make Monolaurin, a potent antimicrobial. This is the same substance produced by babies when they ingest their mother's breast milk.

Research shows Monolaurin can inactivate viruses by destroying the fatty membrane surrounding them.

So will eating lots of virgin coconut oil help your body inactivate virus and other pathogens? Learn more about the Antiviral Properties of Virgin Coconut Oil and see how this fatty acid may change how we fight viral infections such as HIV and Herpes.

In spite of the negative press this tropical oil has received in the past, you can see how there are many benefits of coconut oil.

This healthy oil is truly a functional food. More research on the health benefits of coconut oil are needed for us to discover the full potential for this tropical oil.

Research References: