benefit and harm, popular myths

Coconut oil is a nice addi­tion to your make­up bag, and some peo­ple can’t imag­ine their lives with­out cheese­cakes fried in coconut oil. But is it real­ly that use­ful? What are the myths sur­round­ing coconut oil and how can you get the most out of it?

We will tell you in detail about all the secrets and prop­er­ties of coconut oil in a new arti­cle. Use this tool cor­rect­ly, and you will always be in the black.

What is coconut oil

Coconut oil is one of the veg­etable oils, only it is obtained from copra, the dried oily pulp of coconuts.

Apply it for:

• soap brews;
• man­u­fac­ture of cos­met­ics;
• cook­ing.

Coconut oil comes in hot-pressed and cold-pressed vari­eties, and cold-pressed oil is more ben­e­fi­cial. This method allows you to save more use­ful prop­er­ties, and the oil extract­ed in this way is more expen­sive and use­ful for your beau­ty.

Composition of coconut oil

This is a rather fat­ty prod­uct with a pleas­ant aro­ma. Its ener­gy val­ue per 100 g is 862 kcal.

Coconut oil con­tains many ben­e­fi­cial fat­ty acids, includ­ing lau­ric, myris­tic, palmitic, and ole­ic.

In coconut oil, you can also find phy­tos­terols, vit­a­mins C, E, K and a vari­ety of min­er­als — mag­ne­sium, cal­ci­um, potas­si­um, zinc, iron and phos­pho­rus. The hyaluron­ic acid found in coconut oil acts as a nat­ur­al mois­tur­iz­er for the skin, mak­ing it very use­ful in beau­ty prod­ucts.

Lau­ric acid, which is most in coconut oil, affects the immune sys­tem. Ole­ic acid will help improve the sit­u­a­tion with water and lipid bal­ance, and caprylic acid will help improve the bac­te­r­i­al bal­ance.

Benefits of coconut oil

So what are the ben­e­fits of coconut oil for your health? Let’s take a clos­er look at all of its ben­e­fi­cial prop­er­ties to under­stand if you need coconut oil, or you can do just fine with­out it.

Ben­e­fits of coconut oil:

• mois­tur­izes the skin, restores water bal­ance in the upper lay­er;
• helps improve immu­ni­ty;
• helps to improve the bac­te­r­i­al bal­ance in the intestines;
• nour­ish­es the body and skin;
• soothes;
• ben­e­fi­cial effect on hair.

A small amount of coconut oil will help improve the activ­i­ty of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem, restore the flex­i­bil­i­ty of blood ves­sels, and also save metab­o­lism. But only if you use it in mod­er­a­tion.

Myths about coconut oil

Coconut oil has been giv­en the sta­tus of a super­food, an incred­i­ble rem­e­dy for every­thing and every­thing, but in fact it can not be used for every­thing. Here are the most pop­u­lar myths about coconut oil.

Myth 1. Makes skin smooth and silky

Yes, coconut oil can hydrate, soothe, and soft­en skin. But as soon as you wash off the prod­uct, the feel­ing of dry­ness will return. The fact is that coconut oil per­fect­ly restores the epi­der­mal hydroli­pidic film, but it does not pen­e­trate into the deep­er lay­ers of the skin. Fra­grant oil can­not slow down aging and pro­vide a reju­ve­nat­ing effect — its effect is exclu­sive­ly super­fi­cial.

Myth 2. Can be added anywhere

In fact, coconut oil should not be added to any prod­ucts, because not only will it not improve, but it will also spoil. The for­mu­la and the right bal­ance of com­po­nents have been devel­oped over the years by cos­met­ic man­u­fac­tur­ers, and coconut oil, even a few grams, will dis­rupt the ratio of the liq­uid and oil phas­es.

As a result, your favorite cream will not only lose its prop­er­ties, but can also become haz­ardous to health. Apply coconut oil to your skin if you feel like it, but def­i­nite­ly don’t mix it with oth­er prod­ucts.

Myth 3. The more often / the more, the better.

In addi­tion to the lack of a deep effect, the con­stant appli­ca­tion of such a fat­ty agent pro­vokes the appear­ance of inflam­ma­tion. The dense tex­ture of the oil does not allow the skin to breathe. By the way, coconut hair masks also need to be done care­ful­ly. The prod­uct is applied only to the ends of the hair and in no case to the scalp. Oth­er­wise, the hydroli­pidic film will not allow the oil to be washed off for a very long time!

Myth 4. Helps you lose weight

Yes, but only if you fol­low a diet and reg­u­lar­ly vis­it the gym. Jam­ming coconut oil with buns, get­ting rid of extra pounds will not work. More­over, the effect can be reversed: the prod­uct is high in calo­ries, so if you don’t make a nutri­tion plan, you run the risk of “heav­ier” your dai­ly diet even more.

Myth 5. Save from the sun

Netush­ki. There is noth­ing in its com­po­si­tion that repels or absorbs the sun’s rays.

Harm of coconut oil

Coconut oil can be used in many cas­es, but we strong­ly dis­cour­age it if:

• you have acne, enlarged pores (coconut oil is come­do­genic, clogs pores);
• you are aller­gic to coconut oil, coconut and all its man­i­fes­ta­tions;
• you have a weak stom­ach;
• you have chron­ic chole­cys­ti­tis and pan­cre­ati­tis.

Coconut oil is not a uni­ver­sal prod­uct and not a sal­va­tion from every­thing in the world. Be care­ful and always know the mea­sure.

How to use coconut oil

This oil is used both in cook­ing and for cos­me­tol­ogy. How­ev­er, you should not get too car­ried away with them for food, experts say.

Coconut oil in cooking

Nutri­tion­ists and doc­tors unan­i­mous­ly declare: coconut oil is not a super­food and not a sal­va­tion from every­thing in the world. Although it is served as a healthy food and sal­va­tion from excess weight and health prob­lems, it is worth using it in a very dosed and care­ful way in cook­ing.

The fact is that coconut oil has long been rec­og­nized as not the health­i­est due to the fact that 82% of it is sat­u­rat­ed. They can raise the lev­el of “bad” cho­les­terol in the blood, which can clog arter­ies and increase the risk of heart dis­ease.

On a note: The male body needs no more than 30 g of sat­u­rat­ed fat, and the female body needs no more than 20 g.

For culi­nary delights, choose cold-pressed, unre­fined coconut oil. Melt it in a water bath and use it for cook­ing warm and hot dish­es, for fry­ing and, main­ly, for desserts.

Coconut oil in cosmetology

Remind and warn: Coconut oil is come­do­genic, it can clog pores. That is why we do not rec­om­mend using it direct­ly on the prob­lem­at­ic scalp, face, body.

Use coconut oil for beau­ty like:

• eye and face cream (if you have good skin) — no more than once a week;
• body milk — after scrub­bing, show­er or bath;
• cuti­cle soft­en­er;
• rem­e­dy for split ends;
• mas­sage oil;
• make­up remover;
• nat­ur­al scrub base.

Coconut oil is a healthy and enjoy­able self-care prod­uct, but it does­n’t solve every­thing and does­n’t deserve super­food sta­tus. Don’t get too car­ried away with them.

Pho­to: Unsplash