Before eating coconut oil, please spare a few minutes to learn a little more about this tropical oil. Too many people have tried and gotten some bad experience with it. I don’t want you to be the next one on the list.
Fact #1: Coconut Odor – Can You Stand It?
To me, eating coconut oil that carries its natural coconut scent is aromatic. But to some, they find it disgusting.
Particularly virgin coconut oil. It gives off the strongest odor of all types of coconut oil. This is because of the retention of intrinsic phytonutrients that gives off the smell. Which also means that virgin coconut oil offers the best benefits among the various types.
If you want to see whether you can work with the odor of virgin coconut oil, purchase a small jar or bottle first and use it. If it’s to your liking, great, get a bigger container next time around. It’s more cost-effective. Otherwise, go with RBD coconut oil.
RBD stands for “refined, bleached and deodorized”. It means the oil has lost its innate coconut odor after going through the refining process. Its health benefits, needless to say, is slightly inferior to those of virgin coconut oil, but sufficient to keep your healthy.
Fact #2: Eating Coconut Oil on an Empty Stomach
Even a seasoned coconut oil eater like me will still get diarrhea-like symptoms when I take coconut oil by itself on an empty stomach, let alone those who are just getting started.
Unless you’re desperate to relieve constipation with coconut oil, you should avoid taking coconut oil that way.
No wonder some athletes who’re looking to improve their performance whine that coconut oil breaks their performance instead, because they take it out of the jar to feed their hollow stomach.
Of course, the more you consume, the stronger its bowel-stimulating effect.
Therefore, always add coconut oil to your food and mix them well before you chew and swallow. This can slow the breaking down of coconut oil into its individual compounds that stimulate bowel movement.
Mixing coconut oil with food can also help to prevent its slightly acidic nature from scorching your throat, which can lead to an inflamed tissue at the back of your throat.
Fact #3: Taking Coconut Oil Internally for Weight Loss
You want to lose weight with coconut oil, don’t you? But some people manage to while a few others fail to. Why?
Let’s say you consume 1500 kcal and your body is always burning off 1500 kcal per day. You get to maintain your weight. No gain, no loss.
Imagine now you add one tablespoon of coconut oil to your diet in the hope of burning some fat off. One tablespoon of the oil equates to about 126 kcal. That means you’re taking in 1626 kcal now.
If coconut oil boosts your metabolism in the way that burns off more calories than what it contributes, say 150 kcal, then you’ll lose weight. Otherwise, you’ll gain.
So, to lose weight effectively with coconut oil, you need to cut back on the calories of other foods while adding coconut oil to your diet so that your total calorie intake per day remains unchanged.
And when coconut oil elevates your metabolism, you can then burn more than what you eat. You’ll lose weight as a result.
