The Incredible Secrets of Coconuts

I feel one of the biggest issues in healthcare is that since everything is so rushed, there’s very little time for doctors to talk with their patients, and as a result, many of the most important parts of medicine get lost. Because of that, my goal was always to be able to reply to be able to correspond with everyone who reached out to me (e.g., through comments). Since there are now over 336,000 readers here, it’s no longer feasible for me to do that and still have the time to write. Because of this, I decided the best solution was to have monthly open threads where people could ask whatever they wanted on any topic (e.g., any lingering questions from the previous months) and I would make a point to always reply to them. Alongside these open threads, I like to highlight a topic that I believe is worth exploring, even if it doesn’t warrant a full article on its own. This month, I’m focusing on the often-overlooked wonders of coconuts as I often reflect on the small things I take for granted and how different life would be without them—and coconuts frequently make that list. Note: one of the things that is extremely frustrating about nutritional guidelines is that they always tell you what you should not eat rather than what you should. One of the wonderful things about coconuts is how much easier having them be a dietary staple makes the rest of your diet. Lastly, as a quick update on the DMSO project. Due to reader request (and very compelling testimonials I’ve received), the first article I am releasing is DMSO’s uses in neurology. In the process of doing that, I realized this was a very challenging topic to start with (as there are so many neurology articles in the master document I’ve compiled), so it took about a week longer than I expected to extract and sort all of them, and rather than do a single article, it needs to be split into three parts (neurodegenerative disorders, spinal and nerve issues, and traumatic injuries to the nervous system like strokes). On one hand I feel bad about this, as despite my absolute best efforts to prioritize getting this done as quickly as possible without cutting corners, I am now about a month behind where I’d hoped to be. However, I am also excited to finally be at my favorite part of this process (synthesizing the data and unraveling the fascinating insights within it) and provided nothing too difficult comes up during the upcoming work week, I hope to have the first installment (neurodegenerative, autoimmune and psychiatric conditions plus developmental disability) out this Saturday. This has been a rough hump to get over (finding the time to identify every medically relevant DMSO study, then summarize and sort them), but once it’s done, I know it will help a lot of people, and I sincerely thank you for your continued support and patience as I work on it. As the years have gone by, there has been increasing awareness that seed oils (specifically their omega 6 fats) are not good for us, but unfortunately, even if we want to avoid them they are in almost every processed food (e.g., infant formula, due to outdated science from the 1960s is required to contain large amounts of seed oils). This touches upon a longstanding observation I’ve made—if something toxic is on the market place, in most cases, regardless of how much the public protests against its use, normally only way it ever gets phased out is if a less toxic substitute is found for it Note: examples include antibiotics replacing highly dangerous antiserums, ultrasounds replacing routine prenatal x-rays,the introduction of catalytic converters making lead no longer work in gasoline or the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act forcing the development of the less toxic DTaP vaccine to replace DTwP). As such, I’ve put a lot of thought into which oils could replace the high omega 6 oils we routinely use (e.g., soy oil). If we look at it from a standpoint of omega 6 content and omega 3 content, the following options exist: While a case can be made for a few of these, as the chart shows, coconut oil is arguably the best option, particularly since it also has a high smoke point (which means coconut oil, particularly refined coconut oil, can be safely used for frying). Note: another option for frying is to bypass needing a liquid with a boiling point above that of water entirely with an air fryer. Likewise, coconut oil (when prepared correctly) can be used as a substitute for many of the common oils (e.g., canola or soybean) in around 50-60% of processed foods and I’ve found most of the time a coconut oil containing version of a common product (e.g., chocolate or potato chips) can be found that both tastes and feels much better than those made with standard processed oils. Note: there are a variety of other issues with the commonly used oils to (e.g., by not being saturated they are often rancid and they frequently contain a significant number of harmful chemicals). Lastly, there are many non-culinary uses for coconut oil. For example, people, particularly those sensitive to chemicals, often find coconut oil is an excellent lubricant, skin care or hair care product (or carrier for DMSO cosmetics), I’ve heard a few reports of it being an excellent tick repellant (as ticks will not go onto skin covered with coconut oil) and I’ve heard numerous stories over the years of Alzheimer’s significantly improving from the consumption of coconut oil derived MCTs (for which which has been corroberated by a clinical trial—where it actually performed better than any of the costly therapies on the market). Note: because there is a huge need to incentivize transitioning to healthier oils, RFK Jr. has been publicly promoting Steak and Shake’s decision to transition from using vegetable oils to beef tallow so that the market inertia for this shift can begin to form. Many (myself included) believe one of the most harmful nutritional myths is the notion that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease and must be avoided. As best as I can tell, this myth originated with in the 1960s from the sugar industry paying for fabricated data that showed animal fats rather than sugar were responsible for the increase in heart disease we were seeing, after which point vegetable oil producers became invested in the mythology (since it allowed them to displace animal fats). The medical community tried to get on the bandwagon as well, but could not for decades as no medication could reliably reduce cholesterol. However, once statins (which could reliably lower cholesterol), were discovered (with the first one hitting the market in 1987) one of the largest drug markets in history formed (now worth 25 billion dollars a year in America alone). This incentivized funding a lot of research that argued saturated fats and cholesterol were bad for you and thereby cemented this dogma throughout medicine. Note: A strong case can be made the primary factors responsible for the decline in heart disease we saw were removing lead from gasoline and smoking reduction (and conversely that the increase was in part due to water chlorination). However, much in the same way vaccinators took credit for modern sanitation reducing infectious disease, the cholesterol industry claimed credit for declining heart disease and now blames ongoing cases (which remain the leading cause of death) on too few people taking statins or blood pressure pills, rather than on the neglect of actual treatments for the conditions (much in the same way the persistence of COVID or the flu is always blamed on not enough people vaccinating). All of this has been quite problematic for a few different reasons. First, the premise behind it is wrong. Cholesterol does not clog arteries, rather it is the body’s way of repairing damage to the blood vessel lining. Note: I believe the key reason this myth persists because it is easy to visualize (with disgust) arteries being clogged by thick fats in a manner equivalent to a drain pipe being clogged. Second…