What Are the Health Benefits of Coconut Oil?

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Peter_Zelst]Peter Zelst

Recently there has been a lot of talk about 'super-foods' and their extreme health benefits. Of all these foods, very few can boast the same wide range of health benefits as coconut oil.

Perhaps the most important health benefit of this oil is its impact on the immune system. The fats contained have been proven to be anti-viral. These fats boost your immune system increasing its resistance to viral infections. Recently it has even been suggested that coconut oil can greatly increase an individual's resistance to the H1N1 virus (swine flu). A boost of the immune system will also increase resistance to infections such as HIV or general flu.

Perhaps the second most beneficial advantage of using this oil is its ability to help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight. The primary reason that coconut oil is so effective in helping people lose weight is that it speeds up your metabolism. By helping the thyroid gland to work and by encouraging your body to use fat for energy, this oil will help you slowly but surely attain your natural, healthy weight. In addition to these two very clear benefits, it can also help the functioning of your digestive system and help your body with growth and repair.

Coconut oil, though it has great benefits to all of us, can have an amplified significance to athletes. It has been suggested, because of the fats which make this oil different from most oils, that they can help increase the strength to weight ration of the athlete. This is achieved through the same boost in the metabolism I spoke about previously. If you lose weight but maintain your strength and energy then, naturally, your strength to weight ratio will improve.

Many of the benefits of the oil are specific to certain health related problems. One prime example is the effect on skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. The two properties of this oil which make it so effective against these conditions is its ability to help repair the skin from the inside whilst restoring moisture from the outside. Eczema and psoriasis are generally treated using moisturising skin creams. These creams generally have at least one component which is chemical based. For this reason they rarely heal the problem area completely. Coconut oil is 100% natural and if you use organic unrefined coconut oil then there will be absolutely nothing that will harm or irritate your skin in it.

There are so many uses for this oil, to get the best results it is worth buying the good stuff. As with any oil, the best coconut oil is extra virgin. Pure virgin coconut oil if it is organic and unrefined is one of the most beneficial natural substances available. One of the best and easiest ways to purchase this oil is on the internet. Many websites offer a very wide range of coconut oil products, many offering very good value for money.

For more information on health benefits of this oil, products and prices simply visit coconut oil website. Peter Van Zelst, the founder of [http://www.zelst.co.uk/]Zelst Online Marketing, has over a decade's experience of internet marketing, e-commerce, SEM and online business, 20 years in offline business and an MBA.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Are-the-Health-Benefits-of-Coconut-Oil?&id=3525428] What Are the Health Benefits of Coconut Oil?