a “Fat Fighter Kit” to soybean farmers encouraging them to write to government officials and food companies protesting the importing of the highly saturated tropical fats of palm and coconut oil.14 And in 1988, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a booklet called the “Saturated Fat Attack.” Section III, “Those Troublesome Tropical Oils,” encouraged manufacturers to put warnings against saturated fats on food labels. “There were lots of substantive mistakes in the booklet, including errors in the description of the biochemistry of fats and oils and completely erroneous statements about the fat and oil composition of many of the products,” writes Enig.15
In 1988, Nebraska millionaire Phil Sokolof joined in the attack by taking out a full-page newspaper ad warning against coconut oil. Sokolof was a recovered heart attack patient and the founder of the National Heart Savers Association. His newspaper advertising accused food companies of “poisoning America” by using tropical oils high in saturated fats. He ran a national ad campaign attacking tropical oils as a health danger by showing a picture of a coconut “bomb” with a lighted wick, and cautioned consumers that their health was threatened by coconut oil.16
The tropical oil industry, centered in countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, did not have the financial resources to counter such negative media campaigns. However, many researchers who knew the truth about coconut oil tried to set the record straight, but public opinion was already very high against saturated fats and tropical oils.
Researchers familiar with tropical oils were called upon to testify before a Congressional hearing on tropical oils in June of 1988. “Coconut oil has a neutral effect on blood cholesterol, even in situations where coconut oil is the sole source of fat,” reported Dr. George Blackburn, a Harvard Medical School researcher at this congressional hearing.
Dr. Mary Enig stated: “These [tropical] oils have been consumed as a substantial part of the diet of many groups for thousands of years with absolutely no evidence of any harmful effects to the populations consuming them.”
Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General, even called the tropical oil scare “Foolishness!” and added “but to get the word to commercial interests terrorizing the public about nothing is another matter.”17
But despite their efforts, the voices of coconut oil defenders were drowned out by mainstream media sources informed by members of the edible oil industry and members of the scientific and medical community, thus, virtually banishing coconut oil to the margins of the American diet. But this is all about to change with the Coconut Diet.
I have lost 56 pounds so far and have another 20-50 pounds to go. I know I’ll get there. I have added coconut oil to a low-carb diet that I’ve been on for eleven months. I am now off all prescription medications for high blood pressure, asthma, and allergies. My cholesterol levels have improved greatly—triglycerides were 940, and in three months have gone down to 247. I have energy again and can exercise. A year ago I could not walk around the mall without stopping to rest. Now I go day hiking with my hubby. The coconut oil fits perfectly with this way of eating. I have my life back!
Dabs
The Truth Can Make You Trim
What we know today, but was not understood in the 1950s, is that hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils create trans fatty acids that have been linked to heart disease as well as other health problems. And vegetable oils, which are made up predominantly of LCTs can cause us to gain weight.
Amidst all the hype and hoopla about coconut oil—you now know the full story. Coconut oil is one of the reasons Asians and people of the tropics eating a traditional diet that includes coconut are typically not overweight and don’t usually suffer from diseases that plague Westerners. The secret of the tropics—the key to weight loss and vibrant health—is in eating the right kinds of fats, avoiding refined carbohydrates, and consuming a diet of whole foods.
The 21-day program in the Coconut Diet will help you to make dietary changes for the better and reap the benefits of improved health and weight management. You will lose weight on the Coconut Diet and the program, meal plans, and recipes will help you put this diet into action.
chapter 2
When I mention the word carbohydrate, what comes to your mind? If you’re like most people, probably sugar and starch. The topic of carbohydrates is certainly confusing for most people. Do we need these sugars and starches or don’t we? For decades we’ve been told to eat lots of carbs, making them the highest percentage of our diet, and to limit protein and fat as much as possible. Now, we’re being told the opposite.
Because of all the encouragement over the years to eat carbs, Americans have become the main refined carbohydrate consumers of the world, closely followed by the UK and Australia. From bagels, muffins, boxed sugary cereals and orange juice for breakfast, sweet rolls and doughnuts for coffee break, sandwiches and French fries for lunch, and pasta and bread for dinner, many people have centered their entire day around carbs.
Unfortunately, most of the carbs we eat are not the healthy, fiber-rich carbohydrates eaten in many other parts of the world; they’re simple, refined carbs that have had the fiber and nutrients stripped away. Once ingested, these foods rapidly turn to sugar in the body. And all this sugar, scientists are telling us, is making us fat and unhealthy.
What are Carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are macronutrients known as sugars, starches, and fiber. A carbohydrate is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and they come arranged in three sizes—monosaccharides, disaccharides, or polysaccharides. Sugars such as glucose with a single sugar ring are known as monosaccharides, sugars made from pairs of single rings such as sucrose are known as disaccharides, and large molecules like starches, which are long chains of single-ring sugars linked together, are known as polysaccharides. The monosaccharides and disaccharides are simple carbohydrates such as white sugar. The polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates that include starches, glycogen, (a polysaccharide, stored in the liver; easily converted to glucose) and most fiber.
To help you succeed on the Coconut Diet, you’ll need an understanding of the difference between the good carbs and the bad.
Simple Carbohydrates: The Bad Ones
When it comes to our blood sugar and weight management, simple carbs such as sugar, starch, and refined flour products are the biggest obstacles. These foods have little or no fiber and plenty of readily available sugar. French fries, sweet rolls, pretzels, potato chips, soda pop, milk shakes, ice cream, doughnuts, bagels, alcohol, and most packaged breakfast cereals are all examples of foods that provide high amounts of simple carbs, very few, if any, nutrients, and little to no fiber. They convert to sugar quickly in our bloodstream, which often goes straight to the fat cells.
Some of the simple-carbohydrate foods can catch us off guard—they don’t taste sweet, and we may think we’re actually eating something healthful. Take a savory-flavored rice cake, for example. It has no fat and not a lot of calories, but look out when it comes to carbs—about 12 carbs in each rice cake; plain has about 8 grams of carbs. Many people have felt good about eating three or four of these snack crackers in place of something that has fat in it. But they are not a good-carb choice. They are made of puffed rice, which is high on the Glycemic Index. (An index that shows the rate at which carbohydrates break down to glucose in the bloodstream and turn to sugar). White bread is another example; it doesn’t taste sweet either. We may think it’s okay when it’s French or sourdough bread or a sesame bread stick—at least these forms of white flour have a more sophisticated image than a slice of plain white bread. There’s not much difference, however, between eating these breads and a sweet in terms of how quickly they turn to sugar when they are digested.