Coconut oil is less known compare to olive oil, corn oil, canola oil or any other vegetable oil. It is sad to hear that many terrified titles such as "fat contributor" or "cholesterol raiser" has been sticking on it for years. Do you want to know the facts?

Before you go further, it is important to differentiate between coconut oil we are talking about and "frying oil" that crowds the market and mistakenly has been accepted as coconut oil. The frying oil is made from copra, that is coconut flesh dried by smoking, by spreading out under the sun, by drying machine, or by combination of them. After that, the copra will be processed to be oil.

However, all the process to turn fresh coconut become oil is susceptible to dirt brought by insects or fungus. Therefore, purifying becomes critical session in RBD (Refined, Bleached, Deodorized) oil - this is such oil named. In this method, high heat and chemical additive are commonly used as well as hydrogenation. The hydrogenated oil is considered as cholesterol serum liver raiser and increase heart attack risk.

While the virgin coconut oil in our interest is produced in such a totally different way. It is made from old fresh coconut without any of high heat process, chemical additive or hydrogenation process. The only process virgin coconut oil pass trough is fermentation.

It is lauric acid makes coconut oil beneficial. Inside the body, lauric acid will be changed to monolaurine, a monoglycine compound that can damage lipid layer of virus such as HIV, hepatitis, influenza and other pathogenic bacteria. Lauric acid can also build body immune system, exactly the way mother's milk does.

Besides, coconut oil also contains 6 % of capric acid. Inside the body capric acid will be transformed to monocaprine, that is beneficial element againts sexual disease such as HSV-2 and HSV-1 and neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria.

Furthermore, coconut oil can also be an answer on weight loss problem by its lauric acid. Unlike any other nutrients, lauric acid does not need anzyme to pass through our body cells. As it comes to digestion system canal, intestines without hydrolysis process will absorb it. Afterwards, following blood stream, it reaches liver for metabolism process. This way, energy will be produced faster, just like ready to use fuel, without any chance to be heaped up as fat.

It won't be happened on common fatty acid called long chain fatty acid. Because of the length, it has to be cut and be divided into lipoprotein before taken by blood stream to all over the body and enter the kiver. The long process increases the chance of problem such as fat level raising, cholesterol and fat piles.

The opposite is medium chain fatty acid (lauric acid) needs short burning process. It can increase metabolism, too, as well as body immune and recovery process. Our cells will work more efficiently to produce new cells and to replace the broken cells.

A study in Papua New Genea shows that community who consume virgin coconut oil are more slender and never had heart attack problem or stroke. Besides, the cholesterol and blood tension are also lower compare to those do not consume it.