The following article is an excerpt from The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil by Bruce Fife, N.D. Since approximately 64% of coconut oil consists of medium chain triglycerides (MCT's) this article leads to an understanding of why coconut oil is so beneficial for our health and why it has rightly been called the healthiest dietary oil.

The Health Benefits of Medium
Chain Fatty Triglycerides

Bruce Fife, N.D.

Have you or someone you know ever been in a serious car accident? I mean serious enough that you had to be rushed to the hospital and spend time in the intensive care unit. Or maybe you've come down with a life-threatening illness. Or perhaps due to age you've been hospitalized to treat some degenerative condition. In any of these situations, whether you lived or died depended on the care you received in the hospital. Often this required you to be fed intravenously or through a tube. In the intensive care unit there would be others, some suffering from complications from genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis or epilepsy and perhaps even premature infants struggling to survive their first few weeks of life. In each of these cases you and these other patients can give some of the credit for your recovery to coconut oil. Yes, in one form or another, coconut oil was part of your treatment.

Regardless of the condition, recovery requires good nutrition. Food scientists have long noted the nutritional benefits of MCFA. (Note: in this article MCFA - medium chain fatty acids - and MCT - medium chain triglycerides - are used interchangeably.) Coconut oil, or some derivative of it, is used in hospital formulas to feed the very young, the critically ill, and those who have digestive problems. It makes up a vital part of the solutions fed to patients intravenously or through a tube inserted down the throat.*

* In emergencies when commercial IV solutions are not available, doctors in tropical climates will use coconut water instead. Often referred to as "coconut milk", fresh coconut water is naturally free from germs and has many mineral salts, sugars, and medium-chain fatty acids that are capable of nourishing a patient who is incapable of consuming or digesting ordinary food. Coconut water has helped save the lives of hundreds of seriously sick and injured people. Its greatest use has been to combat dehydration and electrolyte depletion in wounded soldiers. During WWII the Japanese used coconut water as an emergency IV solution. Later during the Vietnam conflict North Vietnamese doctors did the same thing.