Those people with a good metabolism are able to convert most of the food they eat into energy; whereas, those people with a slower metabolism find it difficult to convert food into energy, and instead the food becomes body fat. Coconut oil is the best for the metabolism because it is different to nearly all other fats.

When we are young we seem to have untold reserves of energy and whatever we eat we don’t put on weight. As we get older the metabolism slows down and more food is stored in the body as fat. 99% of fats whether they are saturated, monosaturated or polyunsaturated contain long chain fatty acids. These fatty acids are converted by the liver into lipoproteins that are stored in the body. For the average metabolism these lipoproteins are only converted into energy when the body runs out of carbohydrates. This is why regular exercise is so important – it burns off excess carbohydrates and allows you to burn stored body fat and thus reduce cholesterol levels.

The best type of oil for the body is oil that contains medium chain fatty acids. Coconut oil contains over 50% medium chain fatty acids. It is very unusual in this respect. The great thing about medium chain fatty acids is that the liver converts them straight to energy; they are not stored in the body as lipoproteins. So no matter how slow the metabolism might be, eating coconut oil will not increase body fat. Rather it increases energy levels.

Even if an obese person does no exercise, just by switching to coconut oil in the diet he or she will lose weight. He or she will also feel more alive because of higher energy levels. If the obese person eats coconut oil and does exercise they will soon see a sharp decline in body fat.

Finally, science has established a connection between the thyroid gland and coconut oil. Basically coconut oil in the diet increases thyroid gland activity which in turn speeds up the metabolism and means that more food eaten is converted into energy.

So if you find your energy levels are flagging with age, and that your middle age spread is getting you down, the best thing you can do is to switch to coconut oil in your diet.