The Health Benefits of MCT Oil

How MCT Oil Can Help You Lose Weight and More

MCT oil or medium chain triglycerides (MCT’s) are unique fatty acids that are found naturally in coconut and palm oils.  They have a remarkable ability to stabilize blood sugar and enhance ketone body production.  This process makes MCT’s a powerful tool to reduce inflammation, improve metabolism and enhance cognitive function.

The term “medium” is in reference to the length of the chain of fatty acids.  Oils can have short, medium or long chains.  Most oils are a combination of short, medium and long chain fatty acids.  MCTs are the easiest type of fatty acid that your body can burn for calories. They get absorbed directly from the gut to the liver and then are used for energy instead of being stored as fat.
Research confirms that MCTs can make you lean and healthy. In one study, researchers compared the results of MCTs with long-chain triglycerides on body fat, energy expenditure, appetite, and other aspects of weight loss in overweight men. They put these men on different diets for 28 days. One group ate a coconut-oil-rich diet high in MCTs such as caprylic acid and lauric acid. The other group ate a diet rich in long-chain triglycerides like olive oil. They then switched the diets so that they could see differences in the same subjects.

The researchers found the coconut group lost more body fat, which they attributed to a greater increase in energy expenditure and burning fat. Coconut oil actually sped up their metabolisms, allowing them to lose more belly fat and curbing their appetite compared with the men on the olive-oil-rich diet.

In fact, studies suggest that MCTs can help men burn about 460 extra calories a day and women about 190 extra calories (I know, women it’s just not fair!).  MCTs also affect your hormones, including appetite-controlling hormones, helping you feel full.


MCTs are brain food:
Ketones are unique energy producing molecules made from fatty acids.  Our bodies can make them from stored fat or from MCTs.  Ketones feed all the cells of the body, but in particular they are a preferred fuel for the brain.

Research has demonstrated that MCTs can readily cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and be oxidized by the brain. Thus, MCTs may provide both a direct and an indirect brain fuel source via the generation of ketones.  More information on brain health is in this podcast and includes steps to follow to help with ADD, poor memory, lack of motivation, depression, dementia and more.  It includes:

Detoxifying the body of pesticides,  and heavy metals

Taking in probiotic foods to keep the gut balanced

Eating more essential fatty acids than just coconut oil which are vital for the brain, like avocado, flaxseed, hemp seed, oily fish, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts

Reducing inflammation through the diet  - Listen to our podcast on Chronic Inflammation 

Making quality sleep a priority

Reducing psychological and emotional stress through exercise, meditation, journaling

You can also get a pure MCT oil that is concentrated caprylic and capric acid.  An MCT oil is processed in a manufacturing plant to remove all the longer chain fats and other compounds except these two fatty acids.  But be careful with the brand of MCT oil you purchase as it is important to get one that is tested for purity and heavy metals. This is the MCT oil I use.

MCTs raise up ketones and lower blood sugar naturally.  They have a strong blood sugar stabilizing effect that helps to reduce inflammation.

You might be hesitant to use coconut oil or MCT oil because it's high in saturated fat, which has unfairly been demonized for decades. There is a world of difference between quality saturated fat in coconut or MCT oils and what you might get in a fast-food meal.

You can get MCTs from whole foods: here’s a list of MCTs in foods, as a percentage of total fats (source):
Coconut oil: 15%
Palm kernel oil: 7.9%
Cheese (if you tolerate dairy): 7.3%
Butter: 6.8%
Milk: 6.9%
Yogurt: 6.6%


But you can also get MCTs from specially concentrated MCT oil, which is much more concentrated (it’s almost entirely MCTs).  A tablespoon of coconut oil will give you 2 grams of MCTs while MCT oil will give you 15 grams of MCTs.


Most people tolerate MCT oil very well, however, too large of dosages too quickly can cause gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.  If you have this problem, don’t panic and give up on MCT oil right away. You can easily reduce or eliminate these symptoms by starting with very small doses at a time.  This would mean ½ tsp several times daily and slowly increasing the dosage as tolerated.

Adding MCT oil can substitute for some of the oil in your diet but should not be used to replace all the fat in your diet.  Begin using MCT 1 tablespoon per day and slowly increase over several days.  Too much MCT may result in diarrhea or a stomach ache.  1-3 tablespoons per day is recommended.  


How To Use MCT Oil:

MCT oil is very versatile and can be used as a salad dressing, in smoothies, for cooking or just straight up off the teaspoon.  Here are the most popular ways to use MCT oil:

Cooking Oil:  Highly stable under heat like coconut oil but no coconut flavor

Salad Dressing:  No major flavor so combine it with herbs and vinegar
In Coffee & Tea:  Great for thickening up coffee or tea and improving their health benefits. Here’s a recipe for Bullet Proof Coffee. 
Smoothies:  Add 2 tbsps of MCT oil in a smoothie to curb hunger and have the smoothie keep you satisfied longer.

Grainless Food that Tastes Great!

Grainless Goodies!

Here is a list of our favorite foods that are grainless and yet still taste good! I know hard to believe, but it's true.  Healing Arts tested and approved list for your convenience.  
Don't know what to eat for breakfast?  Try Coconut Flakes.  That's all they are, coconut meat, coconut water and palm starch.  All these can be found on thrivemarket.com which if you haven't tried yet you must!  It's an easy way to get all these products shipped to you at a lower cost than what you would find at your local health food store.  
 

Do you have a craving for granola?  Try this grainless granola that can be found at Whole Foods or online.  It's a delicious nuts and seeds combo blended with a generous portion of unsweetened coconut and berries. They have all different flavors.  


Try these tortilla chips make with coconut!  They are thick and hearty and will go with any dip.  They come in different flavors which I haven't tried and the company also makes cookies!


Here's another tortilla chip alternative made from cassava which is a root vegetable, kind of like a potato.  These chips are thinner than the coconut version and also come in lime flavor.  


Want crackers with your soup or as a quick snack? Try these made with almond flour.  Can be found at Whole Foods or other health food stores. 

Trying to find an alternative to bread to make a great sandwich? These two different wraps could be what you are looking for.  The first one is is made from coconut, is a little sweet and thicker.  The second one is from cassava and doesn't add any taste at all.  

         

Quintessence Restaurant

I was lucky enough to have a dear friend of mine take me out on New Year's Eve to the East Village and show me a few gems of health food stores and restaurants before doing an 1130pm yoga class to celebrate the New Year. After eating dinner at Souen, a macrobiotic restaurant, we walked to Quintessence for dessert. Going out for dessert is not something I do so I thought this would be worth blogging about especially since it tasted so good!

Not only is Quintessence gluten-free and sugar-free but also raw and vegan! They not only serve sweets but also lunch and dinner. The menu includes crepes made from yam, apricot, avocado, vanilla, and coconut flakes. They have cashew cheese, fresh coconut water, squash coconut bread and so much more!



In their desserts they don't use refined sugar but coconut sugar or stevia instead. Their ice cream is made of a fresh blend of ice, a natural fat like coconut, avocado, or nuts with fruit or other flavors and sweeteners that whip up into a creamy frozen treat. Their most popular dessert is pecan pie which I will have to go back and try. For my first time I decided to go for chocolate and ordered this:

Pavé de Chocolate Raspberry: $12 (ala mode $15)

This divine creation features a crunchy pecan-date ganache sandwiched between two chewy almond chocolate fudge cakes, coated with a raspberry infused hard dark chocolate coating with white chocolate highlights.

Ingredients: Pecans, Almonds, Dates, Cacao, Coconut Sugar, Sea Salt, Raspberry Flavor, and Stevia
To find out more go to Quintessence

I also ordered their cranberry chaga tea which was just sweet enough that I didn't have to add any honey. Chaga tea is made from the chaga mushroom which has lots of health benefits because of their high antioxidant levels. It helps boost the immune system, have anti-cancer effects, decrease stress and help the skin glow. With all of those health benefits how can you not drink it?!

I raise my chaga tea cup up, in celebration for a healthy, happy New Year! Let's make it a great 2016!

Juice Press is a Must

After many weeks of saying, 'I should check out Juice Press' I finally went this last Saturday. One of their locations being only 10 blocks from my office (1050 Third Ave. at 62nd St.) a friend and I took a stroll and loved what we discovered.

There was an assortment of choices for juices and one could easily get overwhelmed but Juice Press does a good job of labeling to make it as easy as possible. Green labels were used for super green drinks, blue labels were used for green drinks with fruit or starchy vegetables and orange labels were used for fruit drinks. Actual ingredients are listed for all products so you know exactly what is in it, no guessing necessary! My friend has been before to the 239 Columbus Ave. at 71st St. and was looking forward to his 'Horny Gorilla' juice but they don't make that one at this location, so something to keep in mind. Instead he got the 'Lait de Coconut' which even though on the expensive side of the average juice price at $13, tasted like coconut candy. All it is is coconut water blended with coconut meat but it's so rich and creamy. Now remember, all my patients out there that have to stay off of fruit, coconut is a nut, not a fruit, so if you are in the mood for something sweet I highly recommend it!

Besides all the juices, they have smoothies and I decided to get 'D-tox Super Smoothie'. It was $10 and was so rich it could have been a meal for me. I loved the consistency for it was as thick as an actual milkshake and stayed that consistency the whole time I was drinking it. Ingredients were coconut water, acai berry, avocado, cashew, agave, coconut meat, cacao powder, coconut oil, vanilla and mint. It wasn't too sweet which I liked and the taste reminded me of carob. It wasn't minty at all and if I did not read the ingredients list I would not have known there was any mint in it.

My friend and I decided to share the 'Sin-o-Bun' which at $9 is about a $1 a bite. Expensive as it was I thought it was well worth it. It was soooo delicious, tasted like a sweet cinnamon roll (not the same texture), and the raw dessert was made of buckwheat, date, golden flax, cinnamon, vanilla with an icing of Irish moss, coconut, coconut sugar and vanilla.

Ambiance was pleasant. They played a mix of music from Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" to Frank Sinatra's "Polk-a-dots and Moonbeams". At the time we went it was not busy and we waited 4 minutes for my smoothie, so just a FYI for New Yorkers on the go. Unfortunately everything they sell comes in plastic so bring your stainless steel straw with you when you go. My smoothie did come in a Greenware cup which is made from plants, not petroleum and will compost in a commercial facility in 50 days. So kudos to Juice Press for being environmentally aware!

Juice Press does advertise a juice cleanse (6 juices a day) so if your in the mood you may want to check it out on their website. And if you decide to go to the one on Third Ave. and feel like eating out Anassa Taverna is a delicious Mediterranean restaurant at 200 E. 60th St. at Third Ave.

I am lucky that Juice Press has a location in Williamsburg at 144 N. 8th St., 7 blocks away from my Brooklyn office. I'll have to check out their lunches next!