Health and nutritional benefits from coconut oil and its advantages over competing oils

In the second part some new directions where important positive health benefits are seen for coconut oil are suggested. These benefits stem from coconut oilís use as a food with major antimicrobial and anticancer benefits. The rationale for this effect and some of the literature will be reviewed here. The health and nutritional benefits derived from coconut oil are unique and compelling. They are underappreciated today by both the producer and the consumer. Better recognised are the functional advantages coconut oil has, over competing oils, in many food products. Historically, coconuts and their extracted oil have served man as important foods for thousands of years. The use of coconut oil as a shortening was advertised in the United States in popular cookbooks The lauric acid in coconut oil is used by the body to make the same disease-fighting fatty acid derivative monolaurin that babies make from the lauric acid they get from their mothersí milk. The monoglyceride monolaurin is the substance that keeps infants from getting viral or bacterial or protozoal infections. HEALTH