Body, Bath, or Kitchen: Coconut Oil is Your Best Friend

Organic coconut oil has ventured beyond the plate and blender, and is now found on bathroom countertops and even in medicine cabinets. People everywhere have gone nuts for this amazing (and tasty) organic oil with seemingly endless benefits.

To begin with, it’s a healthy fat that’s rich in nutrients, lauric acid, and antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Not only can it boost immunity, energy, and metabolism, burn body fat and soften skin, but it also removes makeup, prevents diaper rash, supports thyroid function, kills yeast infections, heals infections, cleans clothes, conditions hair, soothes eczema, whitens teeth, and much, much more.

Where to get it. How to buy it.

When buying coconut oil, be sure it’s raw (unrefined), virgin, and organic. Keep two separate jars – one for the bathroom for beauty, and one in the kitchen for cooking.

Healthy fat is your friend.

Don’t worry about the high-saturated fat content in coconut oil, because as you’ll hear me say again and again, “Fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar does.” Coconut oil is the exact type of good fat your brain needs to be high functioning. The molecular structure of coconut oil is dramatically different than the long-chain fatty acids found in animal products that clog arteries. It is so different, in fact, that coconut oil can actually help boost your metabolism. The good fat in coconut oil aids in the absorption of other fat-soluble nutrients that might be in your smoothie, etc. So, you’ve heard of studies that indicated coconut oil could be unhealthy? These older studies used refined and hydrogenated coconut oil that contained trans fats. These are certainly NOT healthy. But they also have no relevance to the unrefined, organic, virgin coconut oil suggested here and sold in health food stores today.

3 easy ways to introduce coconut oil

1. By the spoonful.
In the kitchen, naturally. Coconut oil is an immediate source of energy when eaten, and isn’t stored as fat, so you can add spoonfuls to foods or drinks daily for a natural energy boost. Eat one teaspoon each day to soak up all of the nutrients, and enjoy the probiotic antimicrobial properties in digestion. The healthy fat will also help your skin glow from the inside out. If you’re hesitant to eat coconut oil “straight up,” blend it into your fruit and green smoothies and even your coffee cup for an even creamier taste and texture. Coconut oil has a high smoke point, so it’s also excellent for stir-fry, baking, or as a dairy-free replacement for butter.

2. As a body lotion. (Your epidermis is glowing.)
Skin is your largest organ, so choosing natural products is always a goal. Coconut oil gives your skin a divine glow and smell. Leave a jar in the shower to shave with and apply just after toweling off.

3. Bright whites, clean breath.
For fresher breath and whiter teeth, put 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil in your mouth for a few minutes – or as long as 20 (while you shower or get ready), and “swish.” The oil will liquefy as you wash it between your teeth. After, rinse with warm water and brush as usual. Using coconut oil in this way is called, “oil-pulling” – an ancient Indian Ayurvedic technique that uses oil to “trap” and reduce toxins in the mouth. The results are fresher breath and naturally whiter teeth. *Avoid gargling or swallowing.

It’s easy to go coconuts over the endless healthful uses for coconut oil. It’s great as an eye-makeup remover, frizzy hair-eliminator, body scrub, lip balm, shaving cream, and post-shave lotion, and even in the bedroom as a personal lubricant (but not to be used with latex condoms), and much, much more.

Share your favorite way to use coconut oil below with us. Healthy and happy experimenting!