Coconut OIl Supplement Question

susiestar

Roll With It
husband read about coconut oil doing some crazy awesome things if you take a tablespoon of it a day as a supplement. It is supposed to help your skin and hair be softer, your brain be smarter, and your body just work better because it is 'lubricated'. It also is supposed to help your joints.

I think it would be just fine IF husband didn't spend a huge amt of money on a teensy bottle of coconut oil AND if he used that coconut oil to replace some of the other fat in his diet. The man smothers food in cheese, butter and ranch and thinks it is 'healthy' food. He praises himself for eating a healthy diet and how that is better than my diet because I like sweets. Yes, I do eat sweets. I moderate portion size and what is a serving for me wouldn't even be a snack for him. My diet could be better. But his is NOT better than mine. He will not eat all day and then eat a large plate covered (not even a centimeter of plate is visible) with baked potato (2 or even 3 of those extra large baking potatoes worth, though he will use smaller potatoes if that is all we have - but he eats five to ten of them!). This 'healthy' meal gets at least a cup of cheese, 1/3 cup of bacon bits (unless he is going meatless for the day), close to half a cup of ranch, and half a stick of margarine.

There is NO WAY the man needs to worry about dry skin. He has oily skin, and those added fats make extra sure that his skin isn't dry. Ditto hair. I wish I was exaggerating about the amounts of cheese etc... on his food. He sometimes has a 'snack' an hour later of four of those frozen burritos covered with salsa and cheese. The salsa is very healthy and I never fuss about that. But the rest?

Anyway, he insists that if he uses the coconut oil on a dish then it will NOT work for his skin/hair. He also has a firm belief that the fat in the coconut oil is healthy and just fine to add to his diet. That he doesn't need to worry about reducing his fat ntake because the coconut oil somehow doesn't 'count' toward calories, daily fat intake, etc.....

He also says I am just trying to keep him from being healthy by saying he needs to count this in his diet. Um, the container has calories listed, and other nutritional info. So why would it not 'count'???

I don't want him to not take something that would help. I am all for the vitamins the doctor suggests, the glucosamine and chondroitin, etc.... Heck, I go and buy them and set up his pill box with them. HAPPILY! but the coconut oil is nuts.

I have asked that if he insists on doing this, that he allow me to buy the coconut oil. He can have the cheap stuff from the baking aisle, less than 1/8th the total price of this jar he got and five times as much, or I will go and get organic from the organic food section of the local store or I will drive to the Whole Foods on my monthly trip to the city to get my rx's. There he would end up with organic, at less than half the price for three times as much as his little jar.

Am I wrong to think this is not healthy unless he removes the fat from another area of his diet (which needs to be lower in fat anyway)? Or is there something to coconut oil that makes it so super-healthy that you should eat it by the tablespoon? (No way I could just eat a spoon of coconut oil or any other oil. I would gag.)

Is there a reason that buying a tiny jar of coconut oil that is so expensive would be better than getting a larger jar for less money? If you are going Occupational Therapist (OT) do it, at least be somewhat price conscious. Esp if both are organic?
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I know that coconut oil is very fattening. I haven't seen any studies on it. We use Fish Oil capsules, and get it fairly cheaply at Costco. There are many studies that show that Fish Oil is beneficial for heart and skin, etc.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I saw that study he is talking about. I cant remember what it was about but I went out and bought that container in the baking isle at the grocery store. I didnt know there was another way to buy it...lol. We tried putting a little bit in things but it was just nasty. I sometimes use it to rub on my feet when they are extra dry. LOL.
 

Estherfromjerusalem

Well-Known Member
I just read an article in a local newspaper that coconut oil helped to reverse Alzheimer's, and scientific research is at the moment being done into it. The article I read was only concerned with Alzheimer's.

Love, Esther
 

1905

Well-Known Member
He doesn't need that at all. I put that in my hair- it's wild and curly- It would never occur to me to eat it. I also use it on my face, either that or jojoba oil under my make-up. It makes my skin so smooth and healthy, but I don't ingest it. You could use it on your face and hair if he accidently "loses" the bottle, lol. Tell him it makes hair and nails better if you apply topically, he's using it wrong, will he believe that?
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I didn't learn about this until he had eaten more than half of the first jar. He had been having stomach issues for the first time ever, and I suggested that it was the oil he was eating causing the problem. He got a bit upset, but over a few days he realized the cramps and problems only happen after he eats a spoonful of that stuff.

I actually do NOT recommend coconut oil for skin as it is actually quite harsh. I use almond, macadamia, grapeseed, or walnut oil on my skin. I get super dry skin and coconut oil makes it seem better but it actually depletes the natural oils and it ends up drying out your skin. In soaps it increases the lather but results in dry skin,w hich is when I first encountered it. You can buy this oil in the supplement section but the price is nuts. Heck, it is cheaper to buy it at the organic food section than this supplement one.

As for ingesting, he has stopped but he keeps saying that I am keeping him from being healthy by not buying this for him. Last time he said it I told him that he could buy it, but he could forget complaining to me and getting sympathy. I pointed out that if it causes stomach pain then how healthy is it?

I thought I would ask you all because I know you may have heard of this. He doesn't realize that one brand of chips he avoids like a plague because it causes stomach problems is cooked in coconut oil. It is a strange brand, but he has gotten very very ill on them three times. gee, if coconut oil is so healthy, but he gets sick on it, then ? ? ? ? maybe there is something not good about it?

I was just floored by this because he will harp on the fat in what I eat and how he eats so healthy because he eats baked potatoes and salads. Um, I eat those also, just with-o all the fat on them and I don't make a big deal about them. I was esp floored by the total rejection of the idea to cut down on other fats if you are eating this fat. Calories and fat grams are calories and fat grams. You don't magically avoid those things if you take something as a supplement. Of course, that is logical.

I just bought a month supply of his supplements. If I hadn't used coupons and deals it would have been $140+. I was flabbergasted. But hey, if it helps then it is fine. I just don't like things that cause cramping, etc....
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Hmmm. I looked it up. I can't say I'm impressed with what I see. 1. It has a high concentration of saturated fat, yet they claim it to be healthy for your heart. Now unless everything they taught me was wrong.......this is just bogus.

Reminds me of "snake oil" ads back in the days before the FDA that claimed their products (natural or otherwise) cured everything but the kitchen sink, when many times it did help certain things but the damage it caused while doing so.........well, there is a reason we have the FDA.

I would not ingest it for certain. (even if I wasn't allergic to coconut) I'd be iffy about putting it on my skin like that. Honestly you really don't need fancy oils for dry skin. Crisco and Vaseline work just as well. Actually Vaseline for severe dry skin works wonders if done right, especially for feet/hands. Drinking lots of water to keep hydrated works well too.

Your husband is on the expressway to a massive heart attack. Fred ate that way. Oh, not the potatoes.......I wouldn't let him eat that many at a sitting......but the cheese, butter, oils ect.....oh yeah. Although if it's margarine it is worse. That stuff is not healthy at all. Most docs are recommending people stay away from the stuff.

Fish oil is the only "true" healthy oil. Next in line would be olive oil, extra virgin.

Maybe you could convince him his hair/skin is so oily because he's got oil oozing from his pores from eating so much. lol Men sure do get some wonky ideas, and it tends to be next to impossible to get those ideas back out of their heads.

I do fish oil every day. And I am not even fully convince by the whole cholesterol deal......regardless, it's good for you. If I'm cooking with oil (which is not that often) it's extra virgin olive oil. Now if I'm frying chicken? It's good ol' crisco in the can. I might get brave and try it with the olive oil once, who knows.

As with anything though, you can get too much of a good thing too. Then it's no longer good for you.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
My first reaction was, even the most healthy oils are not handled well by the body in "tablespoon at a time" quantities, especially direct ingestion (mixed with food, at least, avoids direct overload...)

And on top of that... if he is reacting negatively to chips cooked in coconut oil, then maybe his body isn't coconut-oil-friendly.

We don't really measure fat in our house. We are fairly liberal.
BUT... we restrict our fat to one of two categories...
1) healthy oils (e.g. organic olive, for one), or
2) butter

Margerine? That's worse than lard!
Salad dressing? Loaded with preservatives and all sorts of other nasties... (If it's home-made, I will take that comment back...)

Sounds like your relationship in the area of food, is about as healthy as what's on his plate. ;)
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well Im going to hell with my margarine. If I bought butter in the amounts of margarine we use, we would go broke. I only use real butter when I bake. Which tells you how often I buy butter. Tony doesnt even like the taste of butter but then again he wasnt raised on it. I used to love it but after all this time, I have adapted to it.

Billy used to eat whole blocks of cheese in one sitting. He would buy those blocks that were more than 1 pound blocks and just slice them up and eat them all night long. I guess that is why his stomach is rebelling now about eating cheese. Or so he says. I just dont think he can eat that large of quantities. I think normal amounts would be fine for him but he develops these ideas that he cant eat something and thats it for him. My mother convinced him when he was a child that he was allergic to eggs and he refuses to even eat them. He isnt allergic to eggs or he couldnt eat anything with eggs in it. I have no clue why she did that. This is how stupid it was...she made him homemade egg nog with just raw eggs, whole milk, sugar and some nutmeg and cinnamon. If he was allergic to eggs, he sure shouldnt have eaten that.

As for the container of coconut stuff. I know it is a thick white substance that looks like crisco. I just looked in my pantry tonight and it is gone. I will bet my left arm it left with Buck. I used maybe a couple of spoonfuls trying to taste it (nasty), then tried it as a cream on my feet, and then just put it back in the pantry. Buck kept looking at it and asking what it was. I sort of told him it was expensive and NO TOUCH. Obviously it made it very intriguing to him...lol. Just like my flavored olive oil that he walked out the door with.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Coconut oil IS that thick white stuff. It is often used in lotions, potions, and creams because of the low melting point. You can easily melt coconut oil in your hand as long as you are using a small amount.

As for heart attack? Not sure on that one. Good heart health runs in both sides of his family. His dad did have a heart attack BUT given his age at the time and several other things, it is actually not as likely that husband will have a heart attack. this was a few years ago that we were told this. I was there and the explanation made sense, I just cannot remember all of it. husband does carry his weight in his torso, which isn't good. He is relatively active, physically. He has high blood pressure but is religious about his medications except for when we didn't have insurance. Then he would go off of them until I figured it out and had a tantrum. Even off blood pressure medications, he monitored it religiously and did what he could to lower it naturally.

Oddly, his doctor just this week gave hm the results of a whole bunch of tests. His cholesterol is in the higher half of the good range for all types. His triglycerides are not just normal, they are perfect. His doctor's words and she does NOT use that word lightly. He has had several stress tests over the years. Different docs in different states. Each doctor doing the testing ends up asking why they are doing the test. The things they are testing for all get better, sometimes much better, the more he walks. This was true even when he was not exercising.

Even given those things, I still think the study he read is pushing coconut oil the way snake oil was marketed (at one point they wanted about half the people I knew to take neurontin. not just for bipolar, which it doesn't work for but the company sold it for anyway, but for migraines, stomach cramps, chronic pain, and even for sprained ankles.

Lisa, I am astounded that your husband would allow you to limit his portions. husband would find some passive aggressive way to get me to stop if I did that. He would also wait until I went to bed or ran an errand to fix and eat them. husband would go and buy his own or he would nag and nag me and/or pay/bribe the kids to pester me.
 

1905

Well-Known Member
My hairdresser used this on my hair recently, he has curly hair like mine. This container is a lifetime supply. I put in on my hair very sparingly, just scrunching the ends. This is better than any hair gel for curly hair, my isn't crunchy like it would normally get. It was only around $5 at the supermarket. He told me not to buy any expensive hair products. If anyone wants to try it, you won't regret it.

I'm going to try it on my feet, it's probably awesome. Janet, Buck's whole house must be full of your things. Really, what can he do with coconut oil?

Maybe I'm wrong but I always thought butter and margerine were equally bad for you. There doesn't seem to be anything healthy in either one.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I have to have the taste of butter/margarine on my food. I dont care if you put gravy on rice or not, I still have to taste that butter taste. I dont use much in the way of salt but it is my spice I guess. I am a very bland person as far as food taste goes and I just cant get over that. I hate spicy foods. I dont like pepper. Dont even get near me with hot peppers.

Tony says I am so bland I am white bread...lol.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Susie, due to our income level............food has always been strictly regulated in our home, by me. If something got eaten up within the first couple of days (husband always got paid twice a month, sometimes once a month....when military) then you did without until the next pay check because I had so much budgeted for food and we never went beyond the budget.......and that budget was low as monthly bills came first. If husband had done that with either potatoes or cheese, no one would've had any the rest of the pay period. Trust me, the kids would never have backed him up under any circumstances. lol Nor did he like having to do without until he got paid again.

Now I will confess there during that last year he got out of control, especially with the cheese. I stopped buying it for a long time too. But then he'd make an excuse to go to the store and come back with cheese.

Even with good genetics, eating like that is going to catch up to him. Maybe not a heart attack.....but there are other ways. Look at that high b/p for one. Stroke can kill, or it can be worse than death, at best it can leave you disabled. Even if his cholesterol is naturally very good, the extra weight is NOT helping his b/p. And a high b/p can make you feel totally rotten, physically and mentally. I'm battling a really high b/p right now even with medications, even eating well, even with good cholesterol levels and losing weight. (mine is more kidney related which docs have to go through all the tests before they believe me) I now know for certain what was making husband so darn grouchy he was nearly impossible to live with those last 2 yrs. omg I catch myself being downright surly and it surprises me.

As my kidney doctor explained to me.........it's the way margarine is made that makes it worse for you than butter. BUT both do increase cholesterol and can be fattening. So why not eat the one that is better for you and makes your food taste better. Butter is more expensive, but I don't have to use as much for the same effect and I catch it on sale for 1.99 and stock up in a huge way......lasts me a long time. Once husband passed there was no doubt who used all the butter. It certainly was NOT Travis and I.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I know that his eating habits are unhealthy. Even the veggies he eats that are supposed to be high in nutrients dont' end up that way. He boils the koi out of them. I haven't boiled a veggie in thirty or more years. I like corn and green beans hot. Carrots are either raw or hot and sweet (cooked wth brown sugar - which is why I don't cook them). Most veggies I prefer raw. I have no clue why husband thinks frozen veggies have to be boiled. I haven't put them on the stove in longer than I have known husband. Microwaving them preserves nutrients. I also don't add all the oil. He thinks that since extra virgin olive oil is supposed to be health, then using more means being healthier. He knows better and is choosing this delusion to be his truth.

I cannot control his eating. He likes to skip breakfast, have a protein bar at most for lunch and then come home and eat about three thousand calories. He alone goes through at least 3 pounds of tortilla chips a month. when I started getting them at Sams it was like getting a pay raise. Instead of paying three bucks a pound we are paying seven bucks for six pounds. If we run out he goes and buys them and buys the brand he likes, which is expensive. More than once he has blown a budget by going out to get more cheese or chips because we ran out. I only buy cheese at Sam's, and only buy chips there too. But if he hasn't eaten all day, he feels 'entitled'.

He KNOWs that this is the way to stay overweight. And that it IS going to cause problems. He just doesn't care. He is bizarre in his food beliefs. I know when I eat something unhealthy that it is unhealthy. I don't lie to myself and say that I am eating it with olive oil or coconut oil or salsa or brussels sprouts so that makes it healthy. It doesn't.

He thinks my ice cream is WAY worse than his chips. it owuld be if I ate the same amount. But usually? I buy pints for myself - Ben and Jerry's or Haagen Daz, the fancier stuff. A pint often lasts me more than a month. If I buy a half gallon, the kids eat it all. Even if it is clearly marked as MINE, Jessie eats it all. Sometimes before I get even a spoonful. So I buy the expensive stuff and eat maybe 2 spoonfuls at a time as a serving. I have done this for years. If husband has ice cream, half a gallon is three servings at most. He puts a cup of peanut butter on it, and often some chocolate syrup. But he gets on the kids for eating too much at a time. Esp if they eat the peanut butter the way he does. I am not joking about the cup of pb. I once measured it because he said it was 1/4 cup at most. I didn't even get all the pb off the ice cream before I filled up a measuring cup. I won't be around as he eats ice cream because it nauseates me to see him eat all of it. Esp because he usually is telling me how much better his eating habits are than mine.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Ewwww. Peanut butter and ice cream. I like Rocky Road but cant even eat that now because of my teeth. Now I eat something called Whoopie Pie. I eat about a quarter of the amount of what I used to eat. My dog really loves me now...lol.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Suzie... can I toss a left-curve out there?

It sounds to me like the real issue isn't food.
Sometimes "food" becomes a cover for something else - a "real" problem that is the elephant in the room.
Rather than deal with the real issue, people make an issue over something that really isn't so big.
But it becomes polarizing... and that is the impression I get with the food issues in your house.

Cooked vs. raw. Fresh vs. frozen vs. canned. The arguments out there about food quality go on forever - and the best research I can find says that the biggest problem people have with veggies is that they just don't eat enough of them in ANY form.

Are his eating habits "good"? No. You admit your's aren't good either.
But... maybe there's really another problem, a different root?
 
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