Ideal Health Services is delighted to bring you the world of the Pacific – the world of Cloud Nine Coconut Oil.

Over the past few months Ideal Health Services has joined forces with Genesis Health Products and two of the world’s most respected producers of organic coconut oils for the Pacific region. The result is Cloud Nine Coconut Oil

The Cloud Nine Coconut Oil family or products consists of a great range of both edible and cosmetic oils and creams. Whether for cooking or simply for eating by the spoonful Cloud Nine serves up the best tasting and highest quality certified organic coconut oil available.

And if you don’t happen to like the taste of coconut oil, Cloud Nine provides a great Coconut cooking oil naturally purified of flavor and taste!

If you’re not hungry for coconuts, one smell of the luscious moisturizers will get you in the mood. Made from certified organic coconut oil, essential oils for fragrance and other natural products Cloud Nine Coconut Oil Moisturizers add a whole new meaning to indulgent body care.

Together with the Organic Body Oils and soaps, Cloud Nine Coconut Oils will provide you with a standard of health and luxury you may have only rarely experienced.

Enjoy them in good health.

THE FRUIT OF PARADISE

“Fruit” I hear you say? Yes! That’s right. Despite the name and common opinion, coconuts are actually the fruit of the coco palm

Coconuts come from one of the world’s most versatile trees, with virtually all parts being useful. The leaves are used for making fans, baskets and thatch. The husk fiber is great for mats, stuffing and rope. Coconut timber is highly regarded for its fine grain and high polish finish. The nutshells make great containers and even the root can be chewed as a narcotic.

And of course you can eat and drink from it too.

The edible parts of the coconut are well known for their great taste and nutritious benefits. The flesh from a coconut can be eaten either ripe or unripe, raw or cooked and is a staple food in the tropics.

Coconut milk is commonly drunk the world over but is not the only part of the coconut that may be drunk. The sweet liquid from the flower buds can be made into an alcoholic beverage called arrack and can also be boiled down to produce palm sugar.

Then there is the oil. Coconut oil is typically extracted from the dried flesh of the harvested coconuts. The traditional method of extracting the oil is pounding the copra (dried coconut flesh) with a mortar and pestle. (Coconut oil may have been the first vegetable oil in history to be utilized by man.)

A greater yield can now be achieved through mechanical extraction, but the method remains essentially the same.

Coconut trees are prolific manufacturers. A health tree can commonly yield 200 nuts per year. This quantity of nuts can produce 18kg of oil, along with 34kg of coconut milk and 14kg of flour. Residue from the extraction process is highly regarded as a meal for livestock.

The world’s largest producer of coconuts is The Philippines with an estimated 324 million coconut trees under cultivation. The Philippines represent 59% of the world’s coconut exports with more than 1 in 4 of all Filipinas being in some way dependent on the coconut industry for their livelihood.

The long term future of coconut product and their availability seems bright. Good news indeed for the growing number of people re-discovering coconuts as the healthier alternative to vegetable-based unsaturated oils.

THE WORLD’S SKINNIEST FAT

Coconuts get a lot of bad press. There is a widely held misconception that their saturated fat content raises cholesterol and piles on the kilos. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Modern research has found that coconuts are in fact quite the reverse. Saturated fats are now recognized as essential to health, with no automatic negative impact on bad cholesterol or retention of fat. (The villains of the fat story are actually Trans Fatty Acids of which naturally harvested coconut oil contains none.)

Saturated fats come from animal sources, as well as coconut and palm oils. Unsaturated fats come from other plant oils. So what makes the saturated fat from coconuts so special? It is the size of the fat molecule.

Regardless of whether they are saturated or unsaturated, most animal and plant fats are Long-Chain Fatty Acids. Fats from coconut oil however are Medium-Chain Fatty Acids (MCFAa)

MCFAs are more readily digested and utilized by the body for energy. The fast metabolism of coconut fats sees a quick conversion of fats to energy without taxing the digestive system.

This is great news for diabetics as well as those wishing to lose fat. Coconut oil helps regulate insulin levels in the blood, increasing the sensitivity of the cells to insulin and speeding up metabolism (insulin resistance of the cells is one of the underlying causes of obesity and diabetes) Positive outcomes can include appetite suppression and burning of stored fat from within the cells.

As coconut oil has greater solubility in biological fluids than other fats, digestion of coconut oil places less of a burden on the liver, pancreas and digestive system as a whole. In fact coconut fats are known to have a soothing effect on the intestinal system. Great for sufferers of IBS or Crohn’s disease!

Unlike their Long-Chain Fatty Acid cousins, the MCFAs in coconut oil have demonstrated a healthy action on thyroid function. Take that Soya bean!!

And what of the calorie content of coconut oil? Coconut fats offer one of the lowest calorie counts of all fats, virtually no cholesterol, and better yet, no trans-fats common in commercially produced vegetable oils.

Coconut oil can help reduce “bad’ cholesterol (LDL), assist with weight loss, help increase energy levels, boost the body’s healing mechanisms and provide a great tasting alternative to highly processed hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Not just the world’s skinniest fat. Also the world’s healthiest.

COCONUT OIL AND THE SKIN

Coconut oil excels as a cosmetic lotion. Not just a patch-up cosmetic that leaves the skin without any real long-term benefit. Coconut oil assists the body to heal and repair.

Cosmetic creams and lotions based on refined vegetable oils are themselves prone to oxidization, leaving behind free radicals in the skin to cause permanent damage to connective tissue.

Not so with coconut oil. It aids in removing dead skin cells on the outer layers, penetrates the deeper layers and underling tissue and provides protection against free-radical damage in the skin. (this damage is often evidenced by the “liver spots”)

While coconut oil penetrates the very cell structure of the skin helping to protect against damage from excessive exposure to the elements, it does not clog the pores. Good news indeed for acne sufferers, many of whom report remarkable results from coconut oil’s natural antibacterial properties.

The protection offered from free radical damage in the skin may also explain why populations in tropical climates suffer low rates of skin cancer despite year round exposure to the sun.

Eating polyunsaturated oils with trans fatty acids deposits oxidized fats right into the skin – great preparation for deep frying flesh in the sun! On the other hand, eating or applying coconut oil with its antioxidant properties may actually help protect skin tissue against the effects of sun exposure.

The many protective properties of coconut oil also include antifungal and antibacterial action. Consuming and applying coconut oil this offers a wonderful natural defense against yeast related rashes and bacterial infections.

As the natural oils are washed out of the skin during bathing, applying coconut oil after a shower or bath helps boost the body’s defenses to such infection. Coconut oil does not leave the skin greasy but soft and can help heal and soothe dry skin and inflammation.

Coconut oil also has great applications for the hair and scalp. Unlike mineral oils used in conditioners, coconut oil’s low molecular weight and straight linear chain allows it to penetrate the hair fiber.

It softens the hair and conditions the scalp, offering an effective protection against dandruff.