On the new PEERtrainer Facebook page recently somebody posted something to the effect of "Your vegetable soup recipe is great, but I took out the coconut milk because my friend the cardiologist says that the saturated fat in coconut is bad for you."
We had been thinking about this question for a few days. Then today a box arrived in the mail with 6 books from Dr. Jonny Bowden. He is someone that we have gotten to know recently, and have begun to dig into his work. What we have found so far is someone who has taken all the "health stuff" and made it very understandable.
Anyway, we were flipping through one of the books, titled "The 150 Healthiest Foods On Earth." And one page 107 there was a section on Coconut, that answered this exact question! Bowden writes:
"I really looked forward to writing this section, because I felt that it would give me a chance to right one of the greatest nutritional misconceptions of all time: the idea that coconut, because it contains saturated fat, is bad for you."
Summary of Dr. Jonny Bowden's insights on coconut:
- Coconut and coconut oil are superfoods. Coconut is one of the most healthy, amazing things you can ingest.
- People in Asia and the Pacific Islands whose diets are high in coconut oil have low levels of chronic disease- cancer, heart disease etc.
- The fat in coconut is actually good for you. The book explains the science in detail, but the basic idea is that the fatty acids in coconut are easier to metabolize, and are different from the fatty acids in other forms of saturated fat.
"Some studies have shown that MCTs can help in the process of excess calorie burning, and thus weight loss. However, close to half of the calories in one's diet would have to be from the MCTs themselves. Therefore, consuming medium-chain triglycerides in a regular diet may or may not be beneficial to weight loss; studies are still being conducted"
Anyway, the bottom line here is that we now have a greater level of understanding now of WHY our soup recipe has been such a hit. Most of the calories in the soup come from the coconut milk, which might explain why so many people have found that it helped them lose weight.
And we have also found a great book, one that that we will be referring to again and again. Also- if you are interested in our recipes, please keep reading this post for information on how to be sent new recipes from PEERtrainer that meet our criteria of being easy, tasty, cheap, nutrient dense, fill you up, give you energy....
Here Is One:
