The Benefits of Coconut Oil

So, we've heard that Coconut Oil is good for you.  The thin I LOVE about Coconut Oil, is that it not only is beneficial, it smells and tastes wonderful!!!  If you use it in place of butter, margarine, or about any other oil in baking recipes it tastes SO delicious!!!!  Our family actually loves to cook our eggs in it.  I also add a couple tablespoons to my brown rice when I make it.  It adds a rich wonderful flavor.


Coconut oil is extremely healthy.  It is a fat, so a lot of people would stay away from it due to the caloric content But the truth is, that,  "it contains short and medium-chain fatty acids that help in taking off excessive weight. It is also easy to digest and it helps in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems. Further, it increases the body metabolism by removing stress on pancreases, thereby burning out more energy and helping obese and overweight people reduce their weight. Hence, people living in tropical coastal areas, who eat coconut oil daily as their primary cooking oil, are normally not fat, obese or overweight."


It also is very good for your, hair, bones (teeth), skin, killing virus's, etc...  It helps healthy growth of your hair, and gives it a shiny look.  Regular massages with Coconut Oil takes away, dandruff, lice, and lice eggs.  It also smells so wonderful, so I would have no problem using it on my hair/skin.  It helps your skin as a moisturizer, and helps delay your skin getting wrinkles, or sagging with age.  It can also help with skin problems (i.e. eczema).


Mixing honey and Coconut Oil helps with a hoarse throat.  Today I had a TERRIBLE hoarse voice.  I also have a cough.  I ate some honey mixed with coconut oil and flaked, unsweetened, organic coconut.  My voice started getting better right away.  It soothed it and I was able to talk without it sounding raspy.  


Coconut oil is also great for the immune system.  "It strengthens the immune system as it contains antimicrobial lipids, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid which have antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV."


 "Coconut oil helps in controlling blood sugar, and improves the secretion of insulin. It also helps in effective utilization of blood glucose, thereby preventing and treating diabetes."

Calcium helps your bones and teeth because it facilitates absorption of calcium by the body.  That is very important.  So, it can help you have stronger teeth and lessen your chance of getting osteoporosis, or other bone problems.  

I have used Coconut Oil as a moisturizer on my face, and it never made me break out.  I have done the same thing with Olive Oil.  Something about those oils don't make you break out into acne.  At least they didn't cause me any problem.

I just think that over all it is a wonderful oil.  I love things you can use to cook with and it is good for you.  

One other thing that is wonderful is that when you heat it up it doesn't go rancid and release free radicals like olive oil and some other oils do.  

Try cooking with it! I think it is a wonderful alternative in many things!!!!

Hope you like Coconut!  If you don't now, maybe after this you'll just have to develop a taste for it!!! =)

Nutrition for the Spirit

Today I was reading "Passion and Purity" written by Elisabeth Elliot.  It is an amazing book.  I highly recommend it!
This really caught me, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

"Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke,-
    I love, as you would have me, God the most:
    Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look,
Unready to forgo what I forsook:
    This say, having counted up the cost,
    This, though I be the feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.
Yet while I love my God the most, I deem
    That I can never love you over-much:
    I love him more, so let me love you too:
    Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such
I cannot love you if I loved not Him,
    I cannot love Him, if I love not you."

It is written by a woman by the name of Christina Rossetti.

Isn't it so beautiful?!?!?!  Now I just want to live it fully!  It would be nice to say that I do have this kind of love for God, but I'm not sure.  I am seeking to know God better, because without knowing someone fully, how can you love them fully?! It is so amazing that God loves us with unconditional love!  An undying love!  How awesome is our Lord, and Creator!  The least we can do is to love Him with everything inside us, but even that is nothing compared to His love for us.

Psalm 57 "...In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast...God that performeth all things for me...My heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise."

An apple a day keeps the doctor away!

I am going to share about the health benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV).  It is all-natural resulting from the fermentation of apples.  The most beneficial kind is organic, cold pressed, with the "mother of vinegar."  I use Braggs.  It is not clear.  It has some cloudy looking stuff floating in it.  That "stuff"  is the "mother."

One thing that I know it helps is gastrointestinal reflux (acid reflux).  My aunt was having a horrible case of it while she was pregnant.  She had it so bad that she had a hard time eating, and she had to go to sleep sitting up.  I had read something about if you drink a few teaspoons of apple cider vinegar before, or after you eat it stops the acid reflux.  I told her about it, so she tried it.  She said that she took some the first night in water and she only had to use three pillows.  The next day after she ate and started to burn she took some and it immediately stopped.  She said that it was amazing!  She was then able to eat and not burn!

Some people say they can't stand even the smell and wonder how I can drink it, but I really don't think it has a bad taste.  I use it on my salads and I like drinking it hot.  I put 1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar in a glass of hot or cold water and add honey or stevia to taste, or a mix of both.  If you mix honey with apple cider vinegar it adds to the health benefits because honey has it's own, separate health benefits, too.  Adding some cinnamon makes it taste like a tangy apple cider.  I love the smell of it!.  If it is too strong at first, add a little at a time until you can take a whole tablespoon....or more.  I usually do more like 2 Tbs.

A warning:  Don't drink very much straight.  It burns.  My mom tried it once and it burned her throat.  I have also tried drinking some straight and it gave me a stomach ache.  I have read that it isn't very good to drink excessive amounts at a time either.  I just always think that being excessive in almost anything isn't good.
I use the apple cider vinegar diluted, three parts water to one part vinegar.  It can sting when you have open sores, but it cleans the pores out.  Don't put it straight on your skin.  It isn't good for it.
ACV is said to help people lose weight and they recommend taking a few teaspoons to two tablespoons before each meal.  They aren't exactly sure how it helps, but it is thought to make the metabolism faster.
It is good for your hair and getting rid of dandruff.  It is said to make your hair really shiny.
I read that you should get up in the morning and immedietly drink a glass of water with 2 Tbs. each of apple cider vinegar and honey.  It also helps with constipation if anyone has a problem with that.

It may taste acidic, but it is really alkaline.  Cancer grows in an acidic environment.  So, by drinking apple cider vinegar health drink you are lowering your risk of cancer!  With cancer on the rise this is important to consider.  It is also used for people with diabetes.  Studies suggest that it may help to lower glucose levels.
There is so much more I could write, but now that you know this much you can research it more on your own.

So, you don't have to eat an apple to keep the doctor away, you can drink your lovely glass of what I call, "Apple Cider Vinegar Tea."  Mom is always asking me to make it for her.  She now likes it, too!  You have to at least try it!  It gets better each time I drink it!  Have fun!

Yum!

Exploring the Unknown

Last week I watched the movie, "Food, Inc."  It inspired this post.  I really recommend it to everyone!!!!  Wonderful, educational video!
Did you know that when meat producers process beef they don’t get it cleaned thoroughly, from standing out, ankle-deep in mud and manure so there is are high risk factors of you getting sick from it?  it is true.  And because of that, they sterilize it with Ammonia to kill the bacteria and germs.  What’s the matter with that?  Well, for one, it is a chemical that is used in cleaners, such as window cleaner.  Did you know that if you mix ammonia and bleach there is a toxic chemical reaction that occurs, and breathing it is fatal?  And just think, you are putting it inside your body every time you eat a hamburger, taco or even when you think you’re eating a good healthy meal of vegetable beef soup, unless you have bought specialty organic meat.  That is only part of why it’s so bad for you. You see all those healthy cows grazing on those fields of lush grass, but that’s not what you’re getting.  The cows we get buy every day from the store are pumped full of antibiotics, hormones to make them bigger, and are on an unhealthy diet of genetically modified corn, living on lots without any grass.  As I said before, they are standing ankle-deep in mud and their manure.  Yuck!  And again, they don't get the animals cleaned well at all.  So that means that all that gross stuff is in your food.....but be assured, it is sterilized with Ammonia, so you are safe! Not!  It makes me think of how doctors give you drugs for your ailment, but then the side effects may be a headache, or nausea, so you take something for that.  It can go on and on!  Before you know it you are taking a ton of medications just because you had maybe even a small problem!  They don't clean the cows well, so they sterilize it, but you are giving yourself chemicals to kill the germs and bacteria that were there in the first place, so it causes havoc on your body.  So you get sick or feel bad.  That is when you go and take a medication, etc....  You see what I mean?  It was all because they don't take the time to produce quality meat.  

Even if the cow were cleaned better it wouldn't take away the fact that they are eating corn that is bad for them.  Cows aren't made to eat corn.  Why are we feeding it to them then?  Why can't they just graze in the fields on grass?  Corn fattens them up fast, and it is cheap!  If you go to the store and buy lean ground beef,  and compare it to Organic grass fed beef, There is more fat in the lean beef from the store than the organic, grass fed beef.  Now isn't it ironic that Americans are having weight problems!  You look at almost any processed, packaged food product and see what the ingredients are....at least the ones you can pronounce.  There is almost always at least one form of corn.  They feed cows corn to fatten them up, we eat it and expect to stay slim???  How does that make any sense?  You try to get a pretty healthy snack.  Chips and salsa, even homemade salsa. But there's the genetically modified corn right there.  

The definition of genetic modification (or genetic engineering) is, 'any alteration of genetic material of an organism by means that could not occur naturally.'

Isn't our food industry sick!!!!!  We are hurting ourselves and don't even know it!  We think we are actually making good choices and eating pretty healthy, but really we're making our bodies unhealthy!

I'm just going to mention one thing before I end.

There is a certain little ingredient called Sodium Benzoate.  It is a preservative that is in SO many things!  By it's self it is harmless as far as people know, but when combined with Vitamin C (Citric Acid), it is a proven carcinogen!  The combination of the two is called Benzene. Carcinogenic means, causing cancer or contributing to the causation of cancer.  You see, there are a lot of things that are't known that should be common knowledge, so people can at least choose to put these thing in their body!  Sunkist has Sodium Benzoate in it, and the first ingredient is, what do you know, Citric Acid.  So, by consuming it, you are increasing your risks of cancer.  So now it isn't only Corn Syrup and Aspartame you should avoid when drinking soft drinks, there is Benzene!  It's kind of scary isn't it!?!  What other hidden ingredients are in our foods that we overlook, not knowing what they are?


I have just given you a taste of reality.  Maybe you knew it already, maybe you didn't.  This kind of knowledge has caused me to set a goal for my life.  It is to raise as much food as possible off the land naturally.  Which basically means pretty much everything!  


It is your turn to make your choice.