People with diabetes must think very well about what foods can be consumed. Do not eat the food that contains excessive carbohydrates and sugars. In addition to sugar, diabetics should also be careful with the fat consumed because it can threaten their health directly.
Heart disease and stroke are the number one killers for diabetics. And, the fat in the food consumed has a direct impact on your heart. There is bad and good fat, which can even help you further by preventing high blood pressure, and blocked blood circulation. In fact, it can help keep blood sugar under control. Usually, they can be found in some healthy foods, like health benefits of beetroot.
The oil you use for cooking contains some important fats in your diet. Perhaps, you’ve heard that coconut oil can be a good substitute. But, will coconut oil not affect diabetes? Is coconut oil better or even worse than regular cooking oil for people with type 2 diabetes?
The benefits of coconut oil are quite diverse, both for cooking and body care purposes. The benefits of coconut oil medically are still being studied, similar to the benefits of olive oil. Although claims about the benefits of coconut oil until now have not been proven 100 percent, its use is increasingly popular in the community.
Good coconut oil is pure or virgin coconut oil (VCO), not the refined one. VCO is extracted from fresh coconut without the use of additional chemicals and without high temperatures.
This is an important step so that its natural content, such as phenolic compounds, is not damaged. That’s why, only the pure coconut oil can serve as a good antioxidant.
In addition, compounds in coconut oil such as lauric acid, caprilate and caprate can support the growth of probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract and function against bad bacteria. That’s why, it’s safe to assume that coconut oil is pretty healthy, even for diabetics.
Coconut oil according to some research is thought to be useful for health and beauty. If you’re interested in trying this method, here are the best health benefits of coconut oil you can possibly have:
Health Benefits of Coconut Oil for Diabetes
1. Good for diet
You can use VCO as an oil when cooking or mixed in other stuff. If you’re not familiar with it, VCO is always believed to be a healthy oil, since it has many substances that can stimulate your metabolism. One of the effects that can be obtained on coconut oil is to keep your stomach feeling full longer, so that the urge to consume excess food or eat snacks will be significantly reduced.
Also, there are the medium chain fatty acids that can easily find their way to the liver cells. This advantage makes coconut oil as a fat that is quickly burned by the body into energy. Medium chain fatty acids are not easily converted into fat reserves, thus encouraging weight loss.
Although it is claimed to be good for those who want to lose weight, like the benefits of turmeric, so far data on the effectiveness of coconut oil for the diet is still limited, so more research is still needed.
When you want to lose weight, you can not just rely on VCO. You still need to exercise and live a healthy and balanced diet. VCO can be said to be a small part of a good diet. Its consumption is a maximum of one tablespoon in a day.
2. Reducing bad cholesterol
One of the benefits of coconut oil for diabetes that is claimed to be good for health is to reduce total cholesterol, bad fats (LDL), and triglycerides, as well as increase good fats (HDL). It’s important to maintain the heart’s health.
However, some research suggests that the consumption of coconut oil only increases levels of good fats, but does not have a significant impact on the decrease in total cholesterol and bad fats in the blood.
While you’re approaching coconut oil methods, it’s best to have the other natural remedies to help you. You can have the benefits of beet as well to reach the most optimum result.
3. Helps to naturally improve digestive function
The effects of diabetes affect almost all organs of the body, including the liver which plays a role in the production of bile fluids and other digestive enzymes. Poor liver function can limit the secretion of bile and enzymes that will later slow down the digestive process.
Foods that are high in fat take longer to digest and inhibition of metabolism can increase weight. Coconut oil, on the other hand, has medium chain triacylglycerols that can break down and digest food more easily.
4. Normalizes body weight
A study suggests that oils with medium chain triacylglycerol can help with weight management and regulation. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition tested 40 overweight men and women who were divided into two groups and asked to consume olive oil and medium chain triacylglycerol oil as their diet program.
As a result, those who consumed medium chain triacylglycerol oil lost weight faster than those who consumed olive oil. That is, medium chain triacylglycerol oil (i.e. coconut oil) can help in weight loss and fat loss in diabetics.
While regularly using the oil, you can also add another liquid to your diet, like benefits of aloe vera juice. Even though it tastes a bit weird, it can bring the other healthy benefits that are hard to miss.
5. Improves glucose tolerance
The final one in the benefits of coconut oil for diabetes is to improve glucose tolerance. The reason why this is possible is by the help of fatty acid chains that can be found within coconut oil. In the case of type 2 diabetes, coconut oil is also believed to improve insulin sensitivity, even though more research is still needed to prove this.