As you will see, coconut oil is very diabetic friendly and deserves the title “Diabetes MVP”! The three main topics for this post…
- List of the MANY uses for Coconut Oil
- Benefits of Coconut Oil
- Coconut Oil and Blood Sugar
Coconut Oil has played an important role in my personal diabetes management for over eight years! It’s associated with elevating beneficial HDL cholesterol, reducing insulin, lowering blood sugar! More benefits later in the post.
People often associate me with meat consumption and I don’t mind that at all. However, if I am to be associated with what I use the most? … it’s coconut oil in a landslide. Read and heed!
Many Uses of Virgin Coconut Oil
I have personally used each of these!
- Additive in my coffee – one or two tablespoons of coconut oil per cup.
- Cooking oil – when I needed, rendered animal fats, coconut oil and butter are my favorites.
- Hair gel – yes you read that correctly, I use coconut oil as a hair gel. :)
- Skin moisturizer – our skin is our largest organ and benefits from coconut oil greatly.
- As a toothpaste – I mix with baking soda!
- Before and after sun therapy – if I know in advance that I will obtain a lot of sun, I’ll ‘lube up’ before going out, if not… I’ll lube up after obtaining a lot of sun. :)
- Before and after shaving – I rarely shave with a razor, I use an electric beard trimmer but regardless, I lube up before and after shaving. :)
- Cuts, scrapes and blisters – I do not normally use coconut oil, unless it’s a particularly nasty cut, but coconut oil has antimicrobial qualities that make it an excellent healing salve.
- Mild deodorant – coconut oil applied under the arms is great as a mild deodorant. I also use baking soda and occasionally non-aluminum containing deodorants.
- Body lubricant – I think most people can figure out what I am referring to here. :)
- Flea treatment for dogs – I use it as a ‘spot’ treatment for fleas, dipping my finger and rubbing on a flea when it’s found. Also if my dog has many fleas, I will massage into the dog’s coat and skin… it works! :)
- Leather restoration – as a master furniture restorer told me once, “don’t put anything on leather that you would not put on your skin”, coconut oil worked great on an old leather jacket that needed restoration!
Coffee Additive Explained
I often add coconut oil to my coffee. In the early days of my journey the fat would typically be heavy cream, then I branched out into adding butter, coconut oil, coconut milk and even bacon fat to my coffee.
I went through my period drinking a coffee like the one described below most mornings.
Add approximately 1 TBS of coconut oil and 1 TBS of butter to 1 or two cups of coffee. Blend for 3-4 seconds, I use a Magic Bullet, stick blenders work too. :)
The resulting frothy mixture is divine. I describe this as ‘fat coffee’. It’s roughly based off of a recipe called ‘Bullet Proof Coffee”.
Today? I usually just spoon a tablespoon of coconut oil into my black coffee.
Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
Amazon has unbeatable deals on one of my favorite coconut oils, Carrington Farms Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (affiliate link).
Organic Virgin Coconut oil is an indispensable tool for weight loss and for managing blood sugars.
Coconut Oil and Blood Sugar
I’ve posted quite a bit about coconut oil in the past. Here’s an experiment I performed eating only coconut oil for 4 days… “Coconut Oil Fast“. Read the post but in short… my blood sugars decreased every day until I had to discontinue the experiment.
In this experiment I tested my Overnight Fasting Blood Sugar (picture above) and immediately after drank a coffee with coconut oil and butter.
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I’ll mention now, the reason I post two meters in each picture? I’m testing them… thanks to TotalDiabetesSupply.com which has graciously agreed to supply me with meters and supplies. I’ll be posting on the FreeStyle Lite vs Contour soon. Here is my previous post on the FreeStyle Lite Vs ReliOn Micro comparison.
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I next tested my blood sugar one hour later. The Contour showed a 10 point bump, while the FreeStyle Lite showed a 7 point drop.
Given the variances in the meters and the strips… one went up, one went down relatively small amounts, I think it’s safe to say there was likely little to no blood sugar response, which is typical.
Note: I have tested the FreeStyle Lite with a meter that I really trust and it was a tie, so I tend to trust the FreeStyle Lite more than the Contour but even the FreeStyle Lite can have variances.
Once again I tested after another hour and this time the Contour showed a sizable decrease while the FreeStyle Lite showed a slight increase. Still, only an 11 point difference between the two meters is essentially a tie given the variances.
Note; The blood sugar meter I tend to trust the most had these three readings. 81 – 74 – 80 … that’s a very tight grouping and would tend to suggest that the blood sugar effect was little to none.
Coconut Oil Benefits
I have been eating a very low carb, paleo-style meal plan for 8 years!!!
The benefits of coconut oil have been well documented.
- Improves cholesterol profiles. Raises HDL, reduces small dense, LDL
Boom!
What more could YOU ask for? Improves blood cholesterol profile, helps reduce fat …and helps control blood sugars. Coconut oil is truly diabetic friendly!
Do not listen to the pathetic advice spewed by the lackeys of Big Food and Big Pharma when they tell you saturated fats are harmful!
… DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!
My hope is that you will incorporate more real fats, including coconut oil into your diet and into your lives… I did. :)
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If your blood sugars are elevated and you cannot achieve truly normal blood sugars with diet alone…
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