Everyone knows it soothes the skin and helps make hair more manageable—but did you know that coconut oil is as wonderful inside your body as it is on the surface? Find out what separates coconut oil from other types of oils and fats, and why it’s such an excellent way to help maintain wellness throughout your body.
Fat Isn’t a Dirty Word!
Fat often gets an underserved bad rap in meal planning, which is a shame because healthy fats are a necessary part of a healthy diet. Where it gets tricky is that all fats aren’t the same—some (like trans fats) are legitimately awful for you, but others are actually necessary to keep you healthy. And a type of fat found in coconut called medium-chain triglycerides is very beneficial for supporting energy.
Triglycerides get their name from the fact that they all contain one glycerol molecule plus three fatty acids. Most of the fat we eat is made up of long-chain triglycerides (LCTs), which are comprised of lengthy fatty acid chains containing 13 to 21 carbon atoms. Because of this length, it takes the digestive system a while to process these fats—and they may end up getting stored in the body as excess fat.
What sets medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) apart is that they have only six to 12 carbon atoms in their fatty acid chains—and these shorter chain lengths allow them to be metabolized more efficiently.1
Your body actually handles medium chain triglycerides completely differently than fats with longer chains. MCTs are able to make their way straight to the liver, where they’re more likely to be processed into valuable fuel than stored as fat.2 These healthy fats also encourage your body to absorb more of the valuable nutrients you eat, including vitamins A, D, E, and K—so you get the most gain from your smart food choices.
Coconut Oil: Your Best Choice for Medium-Chain Triglycerides
There are only three main ways you can get medium-chain triglycerides from the foods you eat:
• Coconut oil
• Palm kernel oil
• Dairy products
Unfortunately, palm kernel oil is generally unsustainably harvested—posing a threat to fragile rain forests and endangered animals like orangutans and Sumatran tigers. And while dairy products do contain some MCTs, they often also contain significant amounts of unhealthy types of fat.
Coconut oil turns out to be the healthiest and most sustainable dietary source of medium-chain triglycerides you can find, and it’s very rich in beneficial lauric acid (with about 50% LA!) as well as caprylic acid. Delicious coconut oil works well in frosty smoothies and lots of other recipes, but it’s not always easy to get enough MCTs from diet alone. Coconut oil supplements are a convenient way to make sure you’re getting all the medium-chain triglycerides your body craves to help maintain balance and glowing wellness from head to toe.
Choosing Your Coconut Oil Supplement
When you care enough about your well-being to support your health with coconut oil supplements, be sure to choose a premium option that provides all the purity and quality you deserve.
At 42Nutrition we value your wellness just as much as you do. That’s why we keep all our supplements simple, ethical, and clean with no exceptions. Our GMP compliant, third-party tested, and sustainably harvested organic coconut oil capsules are made from cold-pressed, non-GMO, extra-virgin coconut oil that naturally delivers beneficial fats like lauric acid and caprylic acid—with no gluten, wheat, sugar, soy, dairy, yeast, artificial preservatives, synthetic additives, or any of the stuff you don’t want in a supplement.
Organic coconut oil capsules treat your whole body to the healthy MCT goodness that keeps all your systems humming—even on the most challenging of days. It’s nice to know that something so simple and basic does so much to help maintain almost every aspect of your wellness.
References:
1. Medium-Chain Triglyceride. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/medium-chain-triglyceride
2. You, Y. N., Ling, P., Qu, J. Z., & Bistrian, B. R. (2008). Effects of Medium-Chain Triglycerides, Long-Chain Triglycerides, or 2-Monododecanoin on Fatty Acid Composition in the Portal Vein, Intestinal Lymph, and Systemic Circulation in Rats. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, 32(2), 169-175. doi:10.1177/0148607108314758