Coconut oil is the new kid on the block when it comes to healthy fats. It’s also one of the most versatile oils out there, perfect to condition your skin and hair, good in coffee, and perfect for sautéing vegetables or cooking eggs.

You can even use it to clean your teeth, make your own lip balm, and polish your furniture. Talk about a maverick ingredient.

What makes coconut oil so unique is the fact that it’s made up of medium-chain fatty acids that are extremely heart healthy and easy to absorb into cells due to their small size. It’s also what gives coconut oil its ability to form a solid at room temperature, but melt when it hits your mouth or your skin.

While coconut oil has all sorts of different health benefits from lowering cholesterol and protecting your heart, to improving digestion, reducing inflammation and even improving brain function, it’s also a wonderful weight loss aid. Continue reading →

Let’s talk about butter. It’s been a staple food or thousands of years, yet somehow it got a bad rep in the 50s or 60s and we were told that our butter and animal fat consumption in general was the reason heart disease was on the rise.

The end result was that we were encouraged to eat a low fat diet and if we had to use something like butter, it should be man-made margarine.

Did it work? Of course not. Instead we’ve seen a steady incline of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a slew of related health conditions.

As it turns out that while butter does contain natural cholesterol, consuming it along with other animal fats (bacon anyone), and eggs does not increase your body’s cholesterol.

Instead, eating healthy whole food fats, including butter helps increase good cholesterol and decrease bad cholesterol. Continue reading →