The following information is provided by Sabina Zunguze at Basa Body and Coast Coconut Farms. Coast Coconut Farms Coconut Oil will now be included in our Quarterly Group Buy.
It began with a trip to Kenya organized by the Pope Foundation in 2005. We connected with wonderful, intelligent women who were working hard to feed their families with next to nothing in the way of resources.
We met with the women of Mombasa when we visited the first small-scale coconut oil plant, called Coast Coconut Farms, a project of the Pope Foundation. Women in this area had taken out small loans from Yehu Microfinancing to purchase the basic equipment needed to produce pure, organic coconut oil by hand from the coconuts growing wild along the beautiful east coast of Kenya. They sold this oil to Coast Coconut Farms for a fair price that allowed them to improve the living conditions of their families.
We saw an opportunity that could increase the market for their coconut oil and help them grow their business and aid them in their quest for self-reliance.
The women who produce this oil are using their new and constantly increasing income to purchase nutritional food for their families, to send their children to school, and to provide them with health care. The improvements in their living situations can also provide for their extended families as they employ other members of their villages to help reduce the coconut oil with them.
It is all about trade, not aid.
Personal Story
Mwanahawa is a mother of five. Her oldest is 16 and the two youngest are 5 year old twins. Previous to working at Coast Coconut Farms she described herself as having a “backwards life.” Her husband has not had work for some time and previously she used to sell roasted fish by the roadside. It hardly provided the means to support a family. Mwanahawa can now support her entire family with her income from Coast Coconut Farms, and has been able to send all of her children back to school. She hopes to someday send her oldest children to receive college educations. She is very grateful to have her job at Coast Coconut Farms and says she is very “happy.”
Currently, Coast Coconut Farms has created employment for over 100 Kenyan families, including farmer’s cooperatives who harvest the coconuts, to groups of Coast Coconut Farms microfranchisees who own and operate their own small-scale coconut oil presses in their village, to managers and workers in our larger facility on the coast of Kenya. Coast Coconut Farms believes in being earth-friendly and use a fully-sustainable production process with no waste.
Coast coconut oil is made on the beautiful coast of Kenya from wild organic coconuts, using a fully-sustainable, earth-friendly process.
1 gallon Organic, Raw Coconut Oil
Retail Price: $60.00
Group Buy Price: $48.00
5 gallon Organic, Raw Coconut Oil
Retail Price: $246.95
Group Buy Price: $222.00
Coconut Oil Benefits
Coconut oil has been shown to:
- Contain high levels of MCT’s (medium chain fatty acids)
- Easily convert to energy
- Speed up the metabolism
- Promote weight loss
- Contain zero trans fat
- Have a longer shelf life than other oils, 3-5 years
- Be a stable cooking oil
- Have very low amount of oxidation and free radical formation
- Be used over and over because of its stability
Provide an immediate source of energy for athletes - Support the immune system
- Supply fewer calories than other fats
- Promote healthy skin, hair, and keep skin smooth and wrinkle-free without being “oily”
- Function as an antioxidant
- Provide anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties
Coconut Oil Does Not:
- Increase blood cholesterol levels
- Contribute to heart disease or atherosclerosis
- Contribute to weight problems
Research
Nutritionists tell us that we need fats and oils to (1) lubricate our joints and intestines, (2) strengthen cell membranes, (3) nourish the skin, and (4) restore fat-soluble nutrients to the tissues. Food oil is made up of fatty acids-individual fat molecules whose length of carbon chain determine health properties. Shorter-chain fatty acids are more soluble and not stored as fats like long-chain fatty acids. Saturation of hydrogen atoms in fat molecules gives oil stability and shelf life. Oxygen, heat and light cause unsaturated fatty acids to (1) turn rancid, (2) form trans fats, (3) create free radicals.
A generation ago, imported food oil producers made us believe that all saturated fats were bad for the heart. But when it was found later that their highly processed polyunsaturated oils were causing cancer, they shifted to genetically altered mono-unsaturated.
Now, in an about-face, researchers are showing that the highly refined and hydrogenated canola, soybean, and corn oils were unhealthy, while finding coconut oil healthiest.
Coconut Oil Helps Prevent Heart Disease
In 2000 leading hormones researcher, Dr. Raymond Peat confirmed that a sufficient quantity of coconut oil added regularly to a balanced diet: (1) lowers cholesterol to normal by promoting the conversion of bad LDL cholesterol into the anti-oxidant pregnenolone, (2) tends to restore the heart-healthy processes inhibited by unsaturated fats, like metabolism, clot removal and immune function, (3) reduces the body’s need for the antioxidant vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids, (4) inhibits the liver’s formation of fat, allowing energy to be used, rather than stored, and (5) can kill major types of atherogenic bacteria and viruses in the blood.
** Recipes **
Research Links
Group buys look really good. What state are you in?
I’m in Utah. If you’re not close enough to pick up your order from me, you can order from Coast Coconut Farms directly. The price isn’t quite as good, but it’s much better than other places I’ve found. And with a mission like their’s I’m happy to send people their way. 🙂