For my first blog post, I decided to talk about the pros of taking, yep, you guessed it, coconut oil (hence my hopefully hilarious blog title)! About a week ago I was in a car accident, where I unfortunately slammed my head into my windshield, giving me an injury to the right side of my brain, which has therefore caused some cognitive issues to the left side of my body as well as some pain. As you can imagine, this was quite the traumatic experience, but some good has come out of it, and that's my newfound education and love of coconut oil. When I went to the chiropractor to get my injured neck looked at as well as my left hip and back, he was the one that informed me of the brain injury and suggested the use of coconut oil to help repair my injured brain - yes, coconut oil can help with this!
I realize how crazy this sounds, because I was a little shocked and confused at first too - how could coconut oil effect my injured brain? How could it help?! My awesome chiropractor named Josh (which, if you're in the Seattle area you should totally check out at http://www.bellevue-chiropractor.com/) explained to my mother and I that there have been dozens of studies that show how coconut oil can help repair and keep the brain safe after trauma, as well as a ton of other health benefits. So, let's get started on some of the pros of taking coconut oil!
Coconut oil helps:
- balance hormones
- improve Alzheimer's
- improve digestion
- burn fat
- balance blood sugar and improve energy
- promote brain health
- moisturize skin
- boost immunity
- fight inflammation
- promote hair growth
As you can see, as a person who currently has an auto-immune disease, I probably should've already been taking coconut oil to begin with. But I am so grateful now to have come full circle and been given the idea by my incredible chiropractor.
There are a lot of ways you can take in coconut oil, and here are a list of them:
- stir it in coffee/tea
- make it in a smoothie (my personal favorite)
- fry your eggs in it
- mix it in stir fry
- eat it by the spoonful - yes, you can actually do that!
- pop your popcorn in it
- use it as a butter replacement and eat it on toast
From the list I gave, there are a lot of ways you can eat coconut oil and get it into your system, and I'm sure there are other ways you can eat it as well, but those are just some of my favorites. Because of my car accident and brain injury, my chiropractor recommended that I take three tablespoons of coconut oil a day; I usually drink one tablespoon in my tea in the morning, and then either fry the rest of it or mix in a smoothie during the lunch and dinner hours. You can kind of taste the coconut oil but it's not an intoxicating flavor or difficult to take in whatsoever. For a normal person who hasn't been in a car accident, I think a tablespoon a day would be perfect.
Coconut oil can be used for other benefits too, like skin care and beauty. I personally haven't tried any skin care/beauty coconut oil products yet, but friends that have really like them, so I'll need to check some of these ideas out. Here's a link to some ways you can use coconut oil, as well as some DIY coconut recipes for food and skin care/beauty:http://www.swansonvitamins.com/blog/natural-health-tips/using-coconut-oil
Here's the coconut oil brand I usually use:
It's good, clean, and simple. I get mine at Whole Foods (because who doesn't love an excuse to go to Whole Foods?), and while I can't remember the direct price, most coconut oils can be anywhere between $8 and $22. I know Walmart sometimes carries cheaper brands around $8, but I just love Whole Foods and I feel like I might be getting a slightly better form of coconut oil, even though it is a little more expensive.
So there you have it! My little tidbit on the greatness that is coconut oil. Below I will be attaching some articles on the benefits of coconut oil (especially the brain benefits) for anyone that wants a little more information and might want to test out the greatness that is coconut oil.
http://fitlife.tv/coconut-oil-and-your-brain/
http://themindunleashed.org/2014/09/fats-found-coconut-oil-boost-brain-function-one-dose.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/030971_coconut_brain_function.html#
https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/oils/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html
http://www.doctoroz.com/article/surprising-health-benefits-coconut-oil
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