The Healthy Coconut: Your Complete Guide to the Ultimate Superfood

Publishing

INTRODUCTION

Coconut oil is helping thousands of people all over the world look better, feel better, have more energy and lose weight for good.

A few years ago, I didn’t know what coconut oil was. Apart from the occasional junk food ‘treat’ I considered myself quite healthy. I ate mostly vegetarian food, drank clean water, gave thanks and lived what I thought to be a highly-conscious lifestyle. But I didn’t know about real chocolate, green smoothies or raw nutrition. I used olive oil in my cooking without knowing it was unstable and heat sensitive, and put what I thought were ‘good’ cosmetics and lotions on my skin.

Despite this healthy lifestyle, I didn’t feel great. I often felt run down, low in energy and tired. I suffered from serious bouts of eczema on my forearms and feet, and for as long as I could remember I had rashes on my arms and legs from dermatitis. I had a vulnerable immune system and my digestion was weak, with regular bloating and sensitivities, candida and abdominal pain.

My curiosity about raw food nutrition was sparked when I saw David Wolfe, one of the world’s leading authorities on nutrition, speak at a health seminar in Fiji back in 2005. It was a massive eye-opener for me. At that time not one raw food restaurant existed in Australia. Today they are popping up everywhere, as are health coaches, nutrition educators and coconut ambassadors.

Introducing coconut oil into my life was a game changer – the missing link. Eating coconut oil daily, using it in all of my cooking and on my skin and practising oil-pulling therapy, became incredibly easy, sustainable and economical. To this day I continue to discover new benefits and new ways of using coconut oil.

Coconut oil became my passion; the more I used it, the healthier I felt and looked. For the first time in years my skin was not covered in bumps, I had energy without experiencing slumps, and I was free from food addictions and cravings. I drank smoothies and ate foods that were full of coconut oil and other good fats. My body started to absorb food nutrients and no longer gave me digestive problems.

For many years we’ve been conditioned to believe that fat is the enemy – especially coconut oil! Much of the health industry is yet to catch up on the benefits of coconut oil and other good fats known as ‘essential fatty acids’. Put simply: those fats and oils that are ‘natural’, in other words, made in the way that nature intended – are healthy. Those fats that have been hydrogenated, manipulated and synthesised – are toxic.

In this book I explain the difference between oils that are good for you and oils that are not. I recommend completely avoiding the bad ones if you are to get any real, lasting benefits from coconut oil and superfood nutrition.

‘Coconut oil became my passion; the more I used it, the healthier I felt and looked. For the first time in years my skin was not covered in bumps, I had energy without experiencing slumps, and I was free from food addictions and cravings. I drank smoothies and ate foods that were full of coconut oil and other good fats. My body started to absorb food nutrients and no longer gave me digestive problems.’

Nature’s fats are an essential source of nutrition. This book explains how coconut oil can balance blood sugars, reduce cravings, benefit your skin, your brain, your baby’s health, your digestion – and so much more. This book explains the science behind food combining; how to use good fats to help you lose weight; and how to properly absorb nutrients from other natural food sources.

Adding good fats such as coconut oil to your diet is a must for optimum body function. Good fats are a natural source of nourishment, hydration and healing.

This book is about using coconut oil, whole-foods, superfoods and plant-based foods, both raw and cooked, brimming with goodness, to create radiant health. It will show you how to live clean and well with coconut. It’s also a recipe book, a compendium of all the ways I obtain my daily dose of coconut oil and live a toxic-free food and beauty regime.

It contains many of my own recipes, as well as contributions from the Coconut Magic team and coconut-conscious friends.

These recipes are simple and healthy, and are designed to help you incorporate more coconut into your daily lifestyle.

Most, but not all recipes, will include coconut oil, or coconut in some way. Some recipes, such as salad dressings, for example, are best made with olive, flax or hempseed oils. I have also included some juice recipes as I believe they are absolutely necessary for good health. I don’t juice with coconut oil – I’ve never tried it and I don’t think it will work. (But if you have, please share your experiences with me!)

I am not a nutritional expert – but I did succeed in transforming my own health and lifestyle in a positive way using coconut oil. This book is the result of years spent researching and travelling the world to visit coconut farms and producers, to get the best, most up-to-date information about coconut oil and its uses.

Join me in the journey towards better health, as you switch from toxic oils and lotions to a simple, cost effective, sustainable lifestyle with Coconut Magic.

Jenni

THE HEALTHY COCONUT

The call

The healthy coconut literally called me. I was invited to Thailand by a reputable health retreat with an offer of employment. I felt uncertain about making such a big move, but something inside me said – just go!

I hadn’t been there long before I knew something wasn’t right. I wasn’t happy; I felt trapped and my entrepreneurial spirit was drowning. But I was too afraid to leave. I didn’t know what to do – where would I go, how would I earn money? I had just packed up my entire life in Australia, and I couldn’t go back. I decided to do what I could to make this job work.

The catalyst

Four weeks later, the Managing Director called me into a meeting. They had made the move for me. ‘Pack your things and finish up today,’ he said. ‘We’ll pay you until the end of this week.’ I had done nothing wrong – we all knew it was never going to work.

I had made some new friends, so I decided to stay on this beautiful island and try and sort my life out. I felt lost, confused and devastated. Before long the stress started to kick in and my health took a turn for the worst.

My stomach was constantly bloated like a balloon. Even though I was eating little, I had gained a few extra kilos. My skin was breaking out with eczema worse than ever before. Brain fog, headaches, depression and mood swings kicked in. I saw naturopaths, reflexologists and nutritionists. Strict diets were advised and I struggled with that. Nothing was helping. I went to see a doctor about a serious bout of thrush, which confirmed what the naturopath had said. I had a chronic yeast infection in my digestive tract – candida gone out of control.

Tell me I can’t have something and I have to have it – so of course my attempts at dieting were failing. And then one day a local advised me to take some coconut oil. A few days later I received a group email from another friend selling coconut oil. At the foot of the email were some links referencing the health benefits of coconut oil. I started clicking and I started reading – and from that moment, I was hooked. Something so amazing was happening and I knew that life was never going to be the same again.

A few days later I jumped on my scooter to pick up my litre of coconut oil. By this stage I was super excited. I told my friend about my digestive problems, in fact I showed him my bloated stomach and told him about the pain I was experiencing. He gave me my litre of oil and a copy of Dr Bruce Fife’s book, Coconut Cures. He said: ‘Just do what the book says.’

Dr Fife’s book talks extensively about the effectiveness of coconut oil in healing many ailments. He recommends a coconut oil detox for chronic digestive issues, in particular yeast, fungal and bacterial infections. His book contains many real-life success stories – some described seeing lumps of candida leaving their body while on the program! The detox is intense – a regimen of between 10 and 15 tablespoons of coconut oil each day, water, and a lemon saltwater mix.

I gave myself two weeks to prepare for the detox, eating mostly raw food and taking the therapeutic dose of three tablespoons per day of coconut oil. As soon as I started to take the coconut oil, its anti-bacterial properties started fighting with my infection and I felt sick. The book described this as a healing crisis, so I expected it – but it was still hard. Thankfully, it lasted only a few days. I applied coconut oil to my skin daily, and three to four times per day to the site of my eczema and dermatitis.

Within two weeks of applying coconut oil to my skin, my rashes, dermatitis and eczema had cleared up. After seven days on the coconut oil detox, taking 10-15 tablespoons of coconut oil per day, I felt that my entire digestion was cleansed and back in balance. I spent the next few weeks slowly introducing all the good foods back into my diet again.

There has not been a day in my life that I have not eaten coconut oil since (even when I attended an ashram in India!). I feel good and I no longer experience the digestive and skin ailments I was once so familiar with.

The mission and the business

I fell in love with coconut oil… coconut everything. I continued to research the benefits, and started to share my experiences. I even phoned my friends and family in Melbourne and told them to start using coconut oil.

Local expats had seen my recovery and were enthused by my passion, which was contagious! They too wanted this ‘magic’ oil. I started ordering five, 10 and 15 litres at a time for my new ‘clients’. I found a mission and a purpose and I loved it. The friend who sold me my first jars declared that something magic had happened…and so my business had a new name: Coconut Magic.

A few weeks later my sister called me from Melbourne. She and her family were not enjoying their coconut oil, and no-one would eat her cooking – the food and the house stank. I couldn’t understand how this was happening. She had tried several brands and although they differed, the smell and taste was still just too overpowering to enjoy in their meals.

Together we researched and discovered that each type of coconut oil is made using different processes. My sister came to Thailand and was amazed at the difference in my oil – she could eat this straight from the jar. It was then that I decided it was time to come home to Australia and start importing Coconut Magic.

When I landed back in Australia the only possessions I had were four boxes of books and a couple of bags of clothes – just a few sentimental items that I couldn’t bring myself to sell or donate when I’d packed up my life one year earlier. And then there was Mocha, my beautiful six-year-old German Shepherd, who had spent the year with a friend while I was in Thailand. I had missed her so much!

My belongings had been stored in a cupboard in the spare bedroom of my ex-boyfriend’s house in West End, Brisbane. Luckily the room was still available and for only $50 per week rent, it became my home for the next 12 months. This, together with the assistance of an investor and the NEISS start-up program, gave me some grounding and potential to focus and start building Coconut Magic.

I had only two litres of coconut oil with me, so I knew I had to get working fast to bring in new business. Not only did I need to fulfill my mission, I also needed an income. Most of all, though, I needed some more of this amazing coconut oil before I ran out!

I didn’t start the business with little money. I started the business with no money, no car and just one room to live and work in. I did everything I had to in that one room. I worked countless hours each day and night to fulfill my dream. In a way I think I was so blinded by my own passion and motivation that I kept jumping through the many obstacles that confronted me, ignoring the fears that haunted me.

I knew there was something incredibly special in that 500 ml dark amber glass jar – I knew it each time I looked at it, tasted it and put it on my body.

It took a few months to make a deal with an investor to assist me with the cash to create product labels, a basic website and to make payment for the first import. I still remember how scared I was when I sent that payment over to Thailand. What if something went wrong, what if they didn’t send me the oil, or if it arrived and it was all bad, broken, lost, it didn’t get through quarantine? What if I sent the money and never heard from them again? What if no one wanted to buy my coconut oil? I remember many sleepless nights, thinking about the risks I had taken on borrowed money.

‘My goal is to encourage more plant-based food into your chosen diet, to make this transition easy, and to inspire you to look to nature for health, vitality and happiness!’

I started attending as many