Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start by saying that I am a firm believer in coconut products, and we use coconut oil, and have been using it for a while, for most of our cooking. We also use it as moisturizer, deodorant, shaving cream, hair and scalp treatment, etc. BUT, had I read this book without any knowledge of the properties of coconut, I would have been pretty disappointed and it would have probably made me think twice about actually using it. Why? Because while the message might seem good, the delivery is a mess, with unconvincing claims and examples, served in a very annoying style, which might in fact detract from the overall message of the book. I have been surrounded by books all my life. My parents encouraged reading, and my mother worked for a mail-order bookstore, so I started loving books early. I also read my share of books when conducting research during my graduate studies. And reading is a daily routine. This book? Oh boy… It actually prompted me to write my first book review on Amazon! First of all, the book is extremely repetitive. And when I say repetitive I mean it! Almost every sentence is restated at least 5 times, maybe more... As such, this entire could have been only 40 pages or so. It is so repetitive in fact, that it becomes annoying, too annoying. I understand that he is trying to make a point, but there is absolutely no need to duplicate sentences on the same page… I almost gave up on reading it after the first chapter… More, the author provides some references at the end of the book, but almost none are cited in the text. So if you need to see whether or not his statements are supported by research, you’d need to try and link them to the references listed at the end. But unless you actually do the entire lit review yourself, and search and read the abstracts for all his references, this will prove almost impossible… Also, some of the examples given in the book are a bit far-fetched. The author mentioned at one point that using coconut is a gradual healing process. But most of his examples suggest otherwise. In one of them he described how coconut oil healed dementia in a very short period of time, with drastic effects sees after mere hours of ingestion! Furthermore, the author goes onto mentioning that all that matters in a weight loss diet is calorie counting. Well, recent research and published literature disagrees, and suggests that not all calories are created equal or processed by your body in the same way. Try eating all your calories from processed carbs then, no? He does talk about the ketogenic diet (not necessarily a low calorie diet but proven by studies to promote weight loss), but only in relationship to its beneficial effects in epilepsy treatment and other neurodegenerative disorders - he suggests it is unsustainable and unhealthy. But what is very strange about this topic is that he makes the argument that such a diet is achievable only through fasting or only through using MCT oils! MCTs are indeed faster at stimulating a ketogenic state and coconut oil has been used since the 20's to induce ketosis in epilepsy treatments, but really, only MCTs? The author suggests various ways of incorporating coconut oil in one's diet. One method proposed is adding coconut oil to beverages. OK, that sounds good. But why he suggested adding it to V8 juice is beyond me… Is V8 his idea of a healthy drink? Not to say that book does not offer some humor as well: the author suggest using coconut oil for scalp treatment, and he provides a personal example of how he got rid of dandruff by using coconut oil (which I believe and have been using it for this purpose with great results). Well, if you turn the book over and see his picture printed on the back, you might think twice about the validity of his claim - he is pretty bald! But to top it all off, let me just read some of the ingredients from his Coconut Banana Bread recipe: 1/2 cup coconut oil, 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of flour, etc. 1 cup of sugar?!? 2 cups of flour?!? Is this his idea of healthy? If you promote coconut as the miracle food, why the heck not using coconut sugar? Why not coconut flour? I mean, who cares about glycemic index, or processed ingredients, no? But hey, this is his general idea and the message of this book - you will heal yourself and will become a healthy human being as long as you just replace vegetable oil with coconut oil… that's it... keep eating sugar and flour and all will be OK... I am almost sure this is not the case, but somehow this gives me the feeling that the author is just riding the "coconut wave". All-in-all this is a disappointing book, with info readily available with a quick search on the internet, with dubious claims and examples, all wrapped in a very, very annoying style. If you are unaware of the benefits of coconut, feel free to buy it and hopefully you will be inspired to use more coconut in your life. But if you are already using coconut and are aware of its many benefits, not much to see here - steer clear as you will learn nothing new, and might get pretty annoyed in the process.