Medium Chain Fatty Acids

[Martin]

Hello,

Not getting out too much, (mostly hanging out with Tim Brewer in his thread The Department of Positive Out of Body Possibilities - Freethought Forum (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20419) ) I felt I should do my part and make a contribution to the Freethought-Forum by starting a thread. Not wanting to blather on about something I know little or nothing about, I have chosen the topic of Medium Chain Fatty Acids, or MCT's (Medium Chain Triglycerides) as the subject of my dissertation.

Normally I wouldn't just pop onto a message board and start talking about such a subject, but since there is lots of interest in health and fitness, I felt this subject would not only be appropriate, but welcomed.

To start.....did you know that coconut oil is not only an excellent source for beneficial MCT's, but in all practicality, it is the only choice one has....(Palm Kernel oil is another choice but it is not as good of one....but more on that later)

OK, right about now you are probably asking yourself...."What's the big deal with MCT's?" Well, how does this link hit you.......

http://www.coconutketones.com/whatifcure.pdf

This link will take you to a website that holds the PDF of a case study that Dr. Mary Newport wrote about using ketones to bypass the "dysfunction" that may be responsible for the symptomatology of diseases such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis as well as other neurological conditions. Diabetes is another condition that can be greatly helped as a result of supplementation with MCT's.

Why is this? Well, when your liver gets ahold of Medium Chain Fatty Acids, it metabolizes them into lots of different things...mainly ketones. Ketones can be used by the cells of your body as an immediate source of energy in the same way that the cell uses glucose.

In the case of diabetes, the problem with glucose is the insulin pathway does not function for some reason...perhaps the body can't make insulin or maybe the body has developed a tolerance for insulin....either way, the body can't use glucose. The good news is that none of that is necessary when it comes to ketones, the cells in your body can use those no matter what. Apparently, in the case of Alzheimer's, ALS, and Multiple Sclerosis there is a part of the brain that becomes unable to utilize glucose that does not depend on the insulin pathways....there is something else causing the dysfunction, but just as with diabetics, the brain can still use ketones. I highly recommend clicking on the link and printing off the case study.

All that aside, MCT's from coconut oil are important for lots of other reasons too, primarily because the two major fatty acids that are found in coconut oil (Caprylic and Lauric) are both immune enhancing.

Lauric Acid is found in mother's breast milk and is converted into a substance called monolaurin. Caprylic Acid is anti-fungal. Unless you eat coconut oil, you really don't have access to these nutrients from any other food source.....if you remember, back to the beginning of my posting, I mentioned that one can get MCT's from Palm Kernel Oil too....well, you can get Lauric Acid, but there isn't any Caprylic Acid. Coconut oil is a better choice for health, but for baking......Palm Kernal might be a better choice because it has a higher melting point, so instead of being like butter the way coconut oil is, Palm Kernel Oil is going to be more like shortening.....healthy shortening. :)

So again, why is this important? Well, as the old saying goes, we are what we eat and we all need to eat lipids.....they are good for lots of different things as well as being highly functional ingredients that allow for baking and frying. Why not use the best of the best that is good for you? That is the kind of strategy that is a can't lose sort of proposition.

By choosing coconut oil for your dietary source for lipids, you can bake, fry, and supplement your diet in such a way as to feed your cells the energy they need to do everything they want to do, all while arming your immune system with the heavy weaponry that tends to make even the most hardened germ shake in its proverbial boots.....

I'm sure at this point you are saying to yourself...."where do I sign up?"....well, wait there's more!

One of the biggest problems with eating lipids is when they oxidize and rancidify. In nature, there are many things that can cause oil molecules to do this, namely, heat, oxygen, ultraviolet light, and moisture. Many of these variables are determined at the molecular level, based on how saturated the oil molecule is.

Polyunsaturated fats, have at least 2 or maybe more spots on the oil molecule that is missing a hydrogen atom. One of the worst case examples is of flax seed oil. Flax seed oil is filled into black bottles to protect it from photons of ultraviolet light, and packed with nitrogen in order to prevent any oxygen atoms in the air from oxidizing it. In addition, it is also stored under refrigeration because this will help to extend its shelf life.....Flax seed oil is very, very unstable. Vegetable oil is another example of an unstable polyunsaturated fat. Have you ever noticed that when you pour some vegetable oil from the bottle and it drips down on the side how it gets all sticky? This is because the oxygen in the air is actually causing those oil molecules to degrade and become rancid forming all sorts of free radicals. This is how they make varnish and varnish is not good to eat! Coconut oil can be exposed to the air forever because is it fully saturated and as a result, is quite stable.

Monounsaturated fats are quite good, and they provide lots of great nutrition that our bodies need. Oleic acid for instance, (omega 9) is primarily what olive and avocado oil are made up of......this is the stuff that you body uses to manufacture the myelin sheath that surrounds your nerve fibers....The problem is, those oils are are still somewhat unstable and they don't provide any MCT's.....coconut oil is what you need if you want those.

Earlier, I mentioned that there are four things that can cause oil molecules to break down and rancidify.....heat (smoke point), ultraviolet light, oxygen, and moisture. Moisture is a result of the oil's manufacturing process. When a sufficient amount of oil is not removed during the manufacturing process of the oil, the retained moisture can actually bond to the oil molecules causing them to hydrolyze....this will result in a soapy taste and is not good for your body to ingest.

So there you have it.....the information that will hopefully provide the motivation for you to investigate coconut oil in more depth and the knowledge to determine if the coconut oil you have purchased was made properly in regards to removing a sufficient quantity of the retained moisture.

I'd be happy to go into more detail about the various production methods for coconut oil if that would be of any interest to anyone, but suffice to say, there are lots and lots of different way to make coconut oil.... :)


Wishing you all the very best.....


:)

[Dingfod]

Fatty acids, as in Spam?

[Martin]

Fatty acids, as in Spam?

Hello Dingfod,

Spam is meat product, as such it will contain fatty acids. Butter, lard, beef tallow, chicken fat, etc, all are made up of saturated fats, just the way that coconut oil is. This is a very good thing. Butyric Acid for instance (found in butter) is a very healthy short chain triglyceride....

Butyric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid)

A long time ago, back when our grandparents and great grandparents were young people, the majority of the fats that were consumed were these sorts of fats....butter, lard, beef tallow, chicken fat, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, olive oil, etc.....all healthy food oils. As of today, the coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and olive oil are still basically the same as they once were......animal fats, however, are not so lucky. The sad truth is, because of our modern factory farming practices, the fatty acid profiles of animal fats has been changing. This is in large part, due to the prevalence of corn in the diets of those animals, cows in particular. :(

Remember, back in the other posting, back when I mentioned "Omega 9's" and how they came from olive and avocado oils?......Well, corn is a great source for Omega 6's, an essential fatty acid that our body can not produce. Omega 6's come from foods, such as grains that mature in the fall. Beef, by its natural inclination, eats grass, a plant that is rich in Omega 3's. Omega 3's are found in plants that grow during the spring, like green leafy vegetables.


I just did a google search for "green leafy vegetables omega 3"....the first result that came up was this one:

Making Sense of Omega-3 Fatty Acids (http://www.drbenkim.com/articles-omega-3-fatty-acids.htm)


Omega-3 fatty acids. You've probably heard a lot about their value to your health, but do you really understand the ways in which they are beneficial to your health and which foods to get them from?

If not, I hope that this article will help you make sense of omega-3 fatty acids and help you make food choices that will ensure that your cells are nourished with them on a regular basis.

First, here are the key health benefits of including omega-3 fatty acids in your diet:

1.

Omega-3 fatty acids can help keep your heart and blood vessels healthy. In doing so, they can reverse and prevent high blood pressure, as well as reduce your risk of suffering a stroke.


2.

Omega-3 fatty acids can decrease pain and inflammation throughout your body.


3.

Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent breast and colon cancer.


4.

Omega-3 fatty acids can help reverse and prevent depression and other mental/emotional health challenges.




...from the brief amount of time I spent scanning the article, I am certain that the author is an authority on this subject matter, therefore, I defer to him for the most accurate information on the subjects of Omega 3's.

Anyways, back to what we were talking about....., the beef. When you eat beef that has been eating corn, you get way too many of the Omega 6's. If you do a google search for "Omega 6", be sure to look at all the things that pop up under the suggestions field.....stuff like "bad for you", "foods to avoid", and other stuff like that. Omega 6 can be problematic if we eat too much of it that is not properly "balanced out" by the Omega 3's. Just to give you an idea about what this means......You can't eat too many Omega 3's...all they promise is health benefits, Omega 6's on the other hand serve a useful function and are truly "essential" because our body can not manufacture them and needs them for something or other, but if taken in sufficient quantity become toxic!

In addition to the screwed up fatty acid balance of meats that are fed the "wrong" foods, there is also the matter of food preservation.

Before talking about the preservatives that are in Spam, I thought I'd go and check out the website, www.spam.com

Would you believe that there isn't a link for nutrition information!

Hmmmm........

Well, without a quantitative analysis of the ingredient list and nutrition information I can't speak to the subject in any great depth, but suffice to say, there are probably some ingredients like sodium erythorbate, which is a nitrite.....

http://www.sixwise.com/images/articles/2007/08/22/30354125%5B1%5D.thb.jpg

When you eat nitrites, they can be converted into nitrosamines, which are potent cancer-causing chemicals, in your body. :(


http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/07/08/22/the-dangers-of-nitrites-the-foods-they-are-found-in-and-why-you-want-to-avoid-them.htm


As you can see, the world of Fatty Acids is very important and interesting. I sincerely hope you continue your quest in the accumulation of additional information on this subject matter.


Wishing you All the Best,




Martin :)

[Dingfod]

I'm totally into ketones. And my meat doesn't eat grain. So, other than 55 years of bad diet, I'm good, right?

[Martin]

I'm totally into ketones. And my meat doesn't eat grain. So, other than 55 years of bad diet, I'm good, right?

The main thing to keep in mind is that we get a new body about every 7 years. This is to say, the cells that are living in your body right now, will be, in 7 years, replaced with a new cell.

There are lots of other factors to consider like mutagenic changes in the cell's internal replication functions, but for the most part, if you are putting in enough of the right things while avoiding enough of the bad things, your body will pretty much go to equilibrium without you even having to think about it.....after that, there is upkeep, of course.....stretching is a great way to use your muscles and promote circulation so that the cells may properly dispose of its metabolic waste products and the like.

Chiropractic care, massage therapy, and inversion therapy are great ways to get lots of productive exercise without all the work from a workout......beyond the physical, there is the mental...keeping a positive outlook and staying mentally active is completely necessary in order to extract a full measure of enjoyment from life, so meditation and thoughtful contemplation are also part of the equation.

Speaking of thoughtful contemplation.....have you by chance ever considered assigning your free will decision making choices over to the worldview of Tim Brewer? I am confident that your goals of physical health will meld nicely with the mental health that adherence to this worldview will provide and after many years of reading and rereading the wise and thoughtful postings of Tim Brewer you too, will find that ease and comfort will be generously afforded to your existence....

I am happy to be of service in this regard as well as serving in any capacity for all indepth discussions involving fatty acids and gastronomical endeavors of the nutrient dense variety.

Wishing positive thoughts and benevolent tidings to both you and yours....


:)

[Dingfod]

Uhm... no.

[Martin]

Speaking of thoughtful contemplation.....have you by chance ever considered assigning your free will decision making choices over to the worldview of Tim Brewer?




Uhm... no.

Hello Dingod,

Today is your lucky day......no time like the present to embark on a new endeavor that promises to bear the fruit of triumph and joy......a day too late and dollar short certainly will not apply to you, because you can begin right now, plus, adherence to the Tim Brewer lifestyle is free!

Aren't you happy you have a friend like me to help you with this sort of thing during your time of uncertainty and doubt.....I'll be here to provide the stable, unflinching support you will need during this transitional period.......no need to worry, you can thank me later.


See you soon,



:wave:

[Dingfod]

:roflmao: