Cacao Butter: Strong Anti-cortisol, Anti-anxiety Effects

[artemis]

this is where we differ, I never blamed sugar.

I never said I'm 100% sure it was the sugar. You're putting words in my mouth. In past posts, I've wondered if it was the A1 milk that I started drinking, among other things. I said I guess I'll never really know for sure what triggered it.

anti sugar, all veggies and meat, anti fun, anti life

Interesting that you equate a low-carb diet to anti-fun and anti-life. I don't see it that way at all. My life is so much more than the type of food I consume. I lead a very full life, and have fun regularly, even without sugar!

I think you had a problem with sugar/life.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. It sounds like you're suggesting that some sort of mental issue, or depression, caused my issues with sugar? If so, no, I'm not the type to get depressed. Or at least not stay depressed. And what about the hundreds of thousands of children who are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes every year? Do they all have problems with sugar/life, too?

Paleo for years, along with the reactive hypoglycemia

To be clear, I changed to a healthy, whole food diet (I hate the term "paleo!") about 10 years ago, and the reactive hypoglycemia became very rare. When I had lots of hypoglycemia episodes was all the years before that, including teenage years, when I ate a regular crap, processed food diet. I gradually learned that the less carbs I ate, the less hypoglycemia I would have.

denial was really the enemy, not the sugar

Denial of what? When I say I was in denial for over a year, I mean I refused to see that I was developing diabetes, despite all the classic signs: thirst, peeing a lot, losing weight rapidly, blurry vision, infections, etc. I just refused to believe it.

Blood sugar of 500? Those are amateur hour numbers. Get close to a 1000 and maybe you can get some respect.

What a strange thing to say. Yes, I am an amateur at diabetes. This isn't a contest, and I do not need, nor am I seeking, your respect.

Now I have a question for you. You are Type1, which means you must take exogenous insulin, either via a pump or injections. What happens if you stop taking your insulin? Your blood sugar goes up up up till you're in DKA and very sick, right? That's what happens to me -- I've tried to stop taking it a few times over the past couple of years since diagnosis. I guess what I'm getting at is that the only reason your body is able to "burn sugar/life" at all is because of the insulin you take, same as me. You're not burning it on your own. In my case, I hate taking insulin, I refuse to wear a pump, and I try to limit injections to one a day, so in order to achieve this, I eat very low carb. In your case, it seems like you're OK with taking larger amounts of short-acting insulin to cover the sugar you're taking in? Seems preferable to me to just not eat the carbs, & not have to worry about taking insulin to cover them.

Apologies for going off the thread topic here. Maybe we should move this?

 

[artemis]

When in the 5 mo progression toward T1D did you stop?

Stopping estrogen was the first thing I did, even before adopting the diet.

 

[Travis]

Stopping estrogen was the first thing I did, even before adopting the diet.

If you are looking for a molecular explanation for this, my first bet would be IGF-1. This can certainly cause insulin resistance, strongly, and you will have no difficulty in finding confirmation of this. Dairy has been shown to increase circulating IGF-1 levels; but since human and bovine IGF-1 is identical, the results are disputable. But what cannot be disputed is that the enzyme bromelain can be absorbed in whole and active form; this has been unambiguously detected in the blood after oral consumption (proof of which can be found published in more than one article). It could be argued that bromelain is intentionally made acid-resistant by the pineapple plant because it must reside in the pineapple stem; but likewise, you could imagine that bovine IGF-1 is meant to survive digestion and be absorbed by the calf. This is indeed what happens, yet it is argued that 'the intestinal crypts reduce in size upon maturity' and 'whole proteins aren't absorbed by adults.' Regardless of whether-or-not IGF-1 is actually absorbed, bromelain (23·kDa) is actually larger than IFG-1 (22·kDa) so it's certainly not excluded on the basis of size alone. The fact that dairy is known to increase IGF-1 in the circulation is often explained in other ways, but perhaps there is proof one-way-or-the-other buried deep somewhere on Google Scholar.. .

 

[Tarmander]

I never said I'm 100% sure it was the sugar. You're putting words in my mouth. In past posts, I've wondered if it was the A1 milk that I started drinking, among other things. I said I guess I'll never really know for sure what triggered it.

I am not trying to put words in your mouth. You said:

Sugar was not my friend.

I went off that. I also did not say that you said it was 100% sugar, that is why I was asking you whether you thought it could be blamed on sugar, and you said you weren't sure. If as you said, you have conjectured that it was possibly milk, or other factors...then I can assume Xisca was basically putting words in your mouth that you blamed sugar. That was what I was trying to drive at. This whole thing started with Xisca saying you got diabetes type 1 after introducing sugar. If that is not the case, I think we can move on.

The denial thing...well I was conjecturing and trying to drive at what might be beyond the sugar or what not. And yes I do think burning sugar is life, at least, that is what I have gathered from my reading of Peat. When we are young, we can burn it, as we age, we lose that ability while retaining the ability to burn fat. I agree with that.

Now I have a question for you. You are Type1, which means you must take exogenous insulin, either via a pump or injections. What happens if you stop taking your insulin? Your blood sugar goes up up up till you're in DKA and very sick, right? That's what happens to me -- I've tried to stop taking it a few times over the past couple of years since diagnosis. I guess what I'm getting at is that the only reason your body is able to "burn sugar/life" at all is because of the insulin you take, same as me. You're not burning it on your own. In my case, I hate taking insulin, I refuse to wear a pump, and I try to limit injections to one a day, so in order to achieve this, I eat very low carb. In your case, it seems like you're OK with taking larger amounts of short-acting insulin to cover the sugar you're taking in? Seems preferable to me to just not eat the carbs, & not have to worry about taking insulin to cover them.

I think this question is based on a misunderstanding of type 1 diabetes, and perhaps that is due to a later diagnosis. When you are diagnosed as a child, it is very apparent that you operate just fine when taking insulin. I have body builder friends who are diabetic, and there are Olympic athletes like Gary Hall Jr. who have successfully competed with type 1 diabetes for many many years. That is to say, with the addition of insulin, type 1 diabetics can do basically anything that normal people can do. Restricting insulin in these people would actually hurt their performance because they are replacing physiological doses...as if you had a thyroidectomy and now took thyroid hormone, or lost your testicles and now took testosterone.

So to answer your question, yes if I stop insulin, I die. But that is separate from insulin resistance. I am only taking physiological doses. For the type 2 diabetic, introducing insulin does not give them life and the ability to burn sugar. They do not uptake it. You will never see someone who is type 2 do any kind of Olympic feat...they have insulin resistance. Maybe some cortisol junkie marathon runner, but other then that, no.

Your method of only giving one shot a day in my opinon is foolish if you are truly a type 1 diabetic because being a type 1 is about replacing lost physiological doses. Your pancreas does not work, as if it was taken out of you. You can be a type 1 and a type 2, meaning type 1 with insulin resistance, in which case they are separate issues...there are many type 1s with no insulin resistance, as I said above.

So why do I not just take one shot a day and cut out the carbs? Because long term that will lead to insulin resistance, and then I will be a type 1 diabetic with insulin resistance...type 1 and 2. I will harm my body's ability to burn sugar, to have life, and then I will slowly degrade into type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease, insulin resistance, and all that fun. Lots of parents go the way of low carb for controlling their kid's blood sugar, and it works very well while destroying their metabolic future. But maybe if their control is bad enough it is worth it? I don't make that call.

 

[InChristAlone]

I am not trying to put words in your mouth. You said:



I went off that. I also did not say that you said it was 100% sugar, that is why I was asking you whether you thought it could be blamed on sugar, and you said you weren't sure. If as you said, you have conjectured that it was possibly milk, or other factors...then I can assume Xisca was basically putting words in your mouth that you blamed sugar. That was what I was trying to drive at. This whole thing started with Xisca saying you got diabetes type 1 after introducing sugar. If that is not the case, I think we can move on.

The denial thing...well I was conjecturing and trying to drive at what might be beyond the sugar or what not. And yes I do think burning sugar is life, at least, that is what I have gathered from my reading of Peat. When we are young, we can burn it, as we age, we lose that ability while retaining the ability to burn fat. I agree with that.



I think this question is based on a misunderstanding of type 1 diabetes, and perhaps that is due to a later diagnosis. When you are diagnosed as a child, it is very apparent that you operate just fine when taking insulin. I have body builder friends who are diabetic, and there are Olympic athletes like Gary Hall Jr. who have successfully competed with type 1 diabetes for many many years. That is to say, with the addition of insulin, type 1 diabetics can do basically anything that normal people can do. Restricting insulin in these people would actually hurt their performance because they are replacing physiological doses...as if you had a thyroidectomy and now took thyroid hormone, or lost your testicles and now took testosterone.

So to answer your question, yes if I stop insulin, I die. But that is separate from insulin resistance. I am only taking physiological doses. For the type 2 diabetic, introducing insulin does not give them life and the ability to burn sugar. They do not uptake it. You will never see someone who is type 2 do any kind of Olympic feat...they have insulin resistance. Maybe some cortisol junkie marathon runner, but other then that, no.

Your method of only giving one shot a day in my opinon is foolish if you are truly a type 1 diabetic because being a type 1 is about replacing lost physiological doses. Your pancreas does not work, as if it was taken out of you. You can be a type 1 and a type 2, meaning type 1 with insulin resistance, in which case they are separate issues...there are many type 1s with no insulin resistance, as I said above.

So why do I not just take one shot a day and cut out the carbs? Because long term that will lead to insulin resistance, and then I will be a type 1 diabetic with insulin resistance...type 1 and 2. I will harm my body's ability to burn sugar, to have life, and then I will slowly degrade into type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease, insulin resistance, and all that fun. Lots of parents go the way of low carb for controlling their kid's blood sugar, and it works very well while destroying their metabolic future. But maybe if their control is bad enough it is worth it? I don't make that call.

Yeah I have been following a type 1 kid whose Mom posts about his highs and lows and they are following a severely restricted diet because they couldn't control his BG. I just have to wonder how sustainable that is for the long haul. I mean he still has lows that need to be tended to, but I guess they can guess how much insulin better with very low available carbs. I am just thankful for my pancreas! I can eat 100 grams of carbs and it does all the work for me.

Did you have wild highs and lows as a kid?

 

[artemis]

If you are looking for a molecular explanation for this, my first bet would be IGF-1. This can certainly cause insulin resistance, strongly, and you will have no difficulty in finding confirmation of this. Dairy has been shown to increase circulating IGF-1 levels; but since human and bovine IGF-1 is identical, the results are disputable. But what cannot be disputed is that the enzyme bromelain can be absorbed in whole and active form; this has been unambiguously detected in the blood after oral consumption (proof of which can be found published in more than one article). It could be argued that bromelain is intentionally made acid-resistant by the pineapple plant because it must reside in the pineapple stem; but likewise, you could imagine that bovine IGF-1 is meant to survive digestion and be absorbed by the calf. This is indeed what happens, yet it is argued that 'the intestinal crypts reduce in size upon maturity' and 'whole proteins aren't absorbed by adults.' Regardless of whether-or-not IGF-1 is actually absorbed, bromelain (23·kDa) is actually larger than IFG-1 (22·kDa) so it's certainly not excluded on the basis of size alone. The fact that dairy is known to increase IGF-1 in the circulation is often explained in other ways, but perhaps there is proof one-way-or-the-other buried deep somewhere on Google Scholar.. .

Oh, Travis, if only I had your brain, I would have it all figured out by now! Thank you for your input. I'm off to study up on IGF-1.

(I'm not insulin resistant, though, I'm actually very sensitive to insulin. I just don't make it anymore.)

 

[artemis]

You can be a type 1 and a type 2, meaning type 1 with insulin resistance, in which case they are separate issues...there are many type 1s with no insulin resistance, as I said above.

Yes, I don't have insulin resistance, I am very sensitive to insulin. When I do decide I want to eat some carbs, like a special occasion or something, I have to be very careful with the amount I take....the difference between 2 units and 3 units is huge for me.

So why do I not just take one shot a day and cut out the carbs? Because long term that will lead to insulin resistance

I wonder if this is always the case? It seems counter-intuitive. Seems like the more insulin you take, the sooner you'd become resistant to it.

You've given me some food for thought. Most stuff I've read suggests that the less insulin I have to take, the better, but maybe it isn't so.

I do have some other questions I'd like to ask you about your CGM and pump, but rather than hijack this thread further, I'll PM you if that's OK.

 

[Wagner83]

I wonder if this is always the case? It seems counter-intuitive. Seems like the more insulin you take, the sooner you'd become resistant to it.

This is often said in the keto crowd and paleo crowd (westcoaster on this forum). I do not understand the logic behind it yet.

 

[Tarmander]

Yes, I don't have insulin resistance, I am very sensitive to insulin. When I do decide I want to eat some carbs, like a special occasion or something, I have to be very careful with the amount I take....the difference between 2 units and 3 units is huge for me.


I wonder if this is always the case? It seems counter-intuitive. Seems like the more insulin you take, the sooner you'd become resistant to it.

You've given me some food for thought. Most stuff I've read suggests that the less insulin I have to take, the better, but maybe it isn't so.

I do have some other questions I'd like to ask you about your CGM and pump, but rather than hijack this thread further, I'll PM you if that's OK.

Be happy to chat with you in PM.

I will give you my insulin stats if that helps. When I started Peat, I was totally burned out, taking something like 25 units of lantus a day, along with maybe 25 units of short acting per day.

As I ate ice cream, orange juice, and milk, I gained weight steadily. I became more and more insulin resistant, and about a year ago I was at 50 units of lantus per day, split up morning and night, along with 50 units of short acting for breakfast alone...then probably 20-30 units per meal there after. So taking ridiculous amounts of insulin.

After getting on thyroid and making some digestion changes with carrot, charcoal...well a lot of things I detailed in my log, I take 42 units of Tresiba per day, and 15 units of short acting in the morning for breakfast, and maybe 5 units for lunch and dinner. If I avoid a lot of grain and stick with OJ and fruit, my blood sugar stays flat around 80-140 all day...that is while consuming 2 quarts of OJ per day. So in my experience, the metabolism is the root, sugar and insulin are periphery.

Yeah I have been following a type 1 kid whose Mom posts about his highs and lows and they are following a severely restricted diet because they couldn't control his BG. I just have to wonder how sustainable that is for the long haul. I mean he still has lows that need to be tended to, but I guess they can guess how much insulin better with very low available carbs. I am just thankful for my pancreas! I can eat 100 grams of carbs and it does all the work for me.

Did you have wild highs and lows as a kid?

Ha yeah, a working pancreas is sweet!

I was pretty good as a kid. I had a lot of lows, but thankfully I never cut carbs out. I think I had the philosophy that lows were better then running high because of the potential long term damage, so I increased the amount of long acting insulin I took over what I probably needed. I think many parents today think the same thing. In hindsight, it is actually the opposite. Highs are not good, but low blood sugars consistently will destroy you probably faster then running a bit higher. I had a friend die about a year ago. He was notorious for really bad lows. He was in shape, a runner, successful career. But he ran low blood sugars all the time. I am guessing the adrenaline and stress from that really affected him, because he turned to drugs and alcohol and died. There also seem to be memory issues associated with too many low blood sugars, like your brain dies or something from lack of carbs.

 

[managing]

I am not trying to put words in your mouth. You said:



I went off that. I also did not say that you said it was 100% sugar, that is why I was asking you whether you thought it could be blamed on sugar, and you said you weren't sure. If as you said, you have conjectured that it was possibly milk, or other factors...then I can assume Xisca was basically putting words in your mouth that you blamed sugar. That was what I was trying to drive at. This whole thing started with Xisca saying you got diabetes type 1 after introducing sugar. If that is not the case, I think we can move on.

The denial thing...well I was conjecturing and trying to drive at what might be beyond the sugar or what not. And yes I do think burning sugar is life, at least, that is what I have gathered from my reading of Peat. When we are young, we can burn it, as we age, we lose that ability while retaining the ability to burn fat. I agree with that.



I think this question is based on a misunderstanding of type 1 diabetes, and perhaps that is due to a later diagnosis. When you are diagnosed as a child, it is very apparent that you operate just fine when taking insulin. I have body builder friends who are diabetic, and there are Olympic athletes like Gary Hall Jr. who have successfully competed with type 1 diabetes for many many years. That is to say, with the addition of insulin, type 1 diabetics can do basically anything that normal people can do. Restricting insulin in these people would actually hurt their performance because they are replacing physiological doses...as if you had a thyroidectomy and now took thyroid hormone, or lost your testicles and now took testosterone.

So to answer your question, yes if I stop insulin, I die. But that is separate from insulin resistance. I am only taking physiological doses. For the type 2 diabetic, introducing insulin does not give them life and the ability to burn sugar. They do not uptake it. You will never see someone who is type 2 do any kind of Olympic feat...they have insulin resistance. Maybe some cortisol junkie marathon runner, but other then that, no.

Your method of only giving one shot a day in my opinon is foolish if you are truly a type 1 diabetic because being a type 1 is about replacing lost physiological doses. Your pancreas does not work, as if it was taken out of you. You can be a type 1 and a type 2, meaning type 1 with insulin resistance, in which case they are separate issues...there are many type 1s with no insulin resistance, as I said above.

So why do I not just take one shot a day and cut out the carbs? Because long term that will lead to insulin resistance, and then I will be a type 1 diabetic with insulin resistance...type 1 and 2. I will harm my body's ability to burn sugar, to have life, and then I will slowly degrade into type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease, insulin resistance, and all that fun. Lots of parents go the way of low carb for controlling their kid's blood sugar, and it works very well while destroying their metabolic future. But maybe if their control is bad enough it is worth it? I don't make that call.

Are you familiar with "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Diet"? I've always thought he would make a great foil for RP. Unlike most lo-carb advocates, his science is sound and he is intelligent and credible. He just takes the entirely opposite tack--accept the insulin resistance and work around it. Not endorsing it at all, but I've always been surprised he seems to never come up here.

http://www.diabetes-book.com/

 

[Tarmander]

Are you familiar with "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Diet"? I've always thought he would make a great foil for RP. Unlike most lo-carb advocates, his science is sound and he is intelligent and credible. He just takes the entirely opposite tack--accept the insulin resistance and work around it. Not endorsing it at all, but I've always been surprised he seems to never come up here.

http://www.diabetes-book.com/

Yeah I have read about him and his methods. What I got from it, and I have not read his book, is basically low carbish with lots of exercise. I somewhat followed his method, without really knowing it was him, through my teenage years. I was not super low carb, but regularly swam at least an hour per day. When I got sick in my mid twenties, I could not exercise at all without extreme insomnia, and that in part was brought on by exercising after a 9 hour day of stocking shelves and running around. So I guess if you are healthy his method can work. Can say the same about Keto and all that jazz too.

 

[artemis]

Are you familiar with "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Diet"? I've always thought he would make a great foil for RP.

Yes, he does indeed make a great foil for RP! I keep up with him, belong to his facebook page. Never got his book either, but I've gleaned enough info that I feel I pretty much know what he recommends. His whole concept is "the law of small numbers," low numbers of carbs and low numbers of insulin, less chance of anything going wrong. He has a youtube channel, too, and I listen to his videos sometimes. Very no-nonsense, here's-what-you-gotta-do. He basically invented at-home glucose monitors -- used to be you had to go to the doctor's office just to get your blood glucose measured!

No wonder I'm such a mess. I've got him in one ear and Peat in the other! About as opposite as you can get. I do like getting all sides of an issue, though.

 

[managing]

Yes, he does indeed make a great foil for RP! I keep up with him, belong to his facebook page. Never got his book either, but I've gleaned enough info that I feel I pretty much know what he recommends. His whole concept is "the law of small numbers," low numbers of carbs and low numbers of insulin, less chance of anything going wrong. He has a youtube channel, too, and I listen to his videos sometimes. Very no-nonsense, here's-what-you-gotta-do. He basically invented at-home glucose monitors -- used to be you had to go to the doctor's office just to get your blood glucose measured!

No wonder I'm such a mess. I've got him in one ear and Peat in the other! About as opposite as you can get. I do like getting all sides of an issue, though.

I'd love to hear RP's take on Bernstein directly. Bernstein is almost exactly the same age as Ray and has been doing his approach for ~50 years. They couldn't be a better contrast. I think Bernstein's approach works, but is not optimal. But again, I'd love to hear Ray respond directly to it and learn what the defining issues are that he selects.

 

[raypeatclips]

I'd love to hear RP's take on Bernstein directly. Bernstein is almost exactly the same age as Ray and has been doing his approach for ~50 years. They couldn't be a better contrast. I think Bernstein's approach works, but is not optimal. But again, I'd love to hear Ray respond directly to it and learn what the defining issues are that he selects.

Why not ask him yourself?

 

[managing]

Why not ask him yourself?

I could. The kind of answer I am thinking of is not his typical email reply (which in my experience are short and simple). More like a newsletter article. But I could suggest that. Still, it might be hard to come off as something other than "marketing" (choose me over this other guy) which I think he would shun.

 

[Anabolic]

Are you familiar with "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Diet"? I've always thought he would make a great foil for RP. Unlike most lo-carb advocates, his science is sound and he is intelligent and credible. He just takes the entirely opposite tack--accept the insulin resistance and work around it. Not endorsing it at all, but I've always been surprised he seems to never come up here.

http://www.diabetes-book.com/

I always thought it was Dr. Bernstain's diabetes diet

 

[Mito]

It seems counter-intuitive. Seems like the more insulin you take, the sooner you'd become resistant to it.

You might find this podcast interesting https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/2016/08/24/insulin-resistance-isnt-all-about-carbs-and-insulin/. I thought he did a good job of explaining why exposure to insulin is not what makes you insulin resistant rather it’s the regulatory mechanisms of cellular energy metabolism.

 

[managing]

Getting this back on to the topic of cacao butter and stearic acid.

Haidut (citing RP) suggests that cacao butter has advantages beyond just its stearic acid content:

Some of the effects could be due to the protein in cocoa. Peat said it is uniquely anabolic, which usually means anti-catabolic - i.e. anti-cortisol.
Anyways, glad you get good results from it so please keep us posted.

Travis says the shorter chained ones are better for metabolism:

The shorter chained ones will metabolize quicker, and don't need carnitine transport. I'd read a study where they'd given ¹⁴C radio-labeled fatty acids to people and then had measured the rate of ¹⁴CO₂ liberation from their breath. It sounds almost unbelievable, but the authors had actually said that for every two carbon elongation metabolism oxidation was slowed 10²-fold. Since there is only a 20% increase in carbon length between lauric and capric acids, the difference must lie diffusion kinetics, solubility, membrane permeability, and other factors. Perhaps the short chained fatty acids would be better for breakfast, saving the stearic acid foods for the p.m. [?]

I can attest to the fact that you can burn through 3000+ Calories per day as coconut, fruit, and coffee. I think longer chains would slow the metabolism a bit, perhaps leading to a slower metabolism (which could be good depending on the circumstance).

Note that caprylic acid is the shortest SFA (8:0).

Travis also explains why stearic is special:

The shorter ones cannot occupy the sn-2 position of the phospholipid, and hence will not displace arachidonic acid without prior elongation. While it's true that palmitic acid is a membrane lipid, it is found exclusively in the sn-1 position. These positions aren't interchangeable, as the enzymes which act on them have specificity which is position-dependent. Phospholipase A₂, for example, is induced by cytokines such as interferon-γ and cleaves membrane phospholipids exclusively from the sn-2 position. Since this position is enriched in arachidonic acid—in most Americans—the release of interferon-γ after immunogenic stimulation (i.e. infection, gluten pep-
tide) leads to prostaglandin formation, a product ensured by the concomitant induction of cyclooxygenase-2 by cytokines which generally accompany the interferon-γ. There is nothing wrong with myristic and palmitic acids, yet they simply aren't found consistently 'protective' nearly to the extent that stearic acid is. I think this could best be explained by its lone ability to occupy the phospholipid sn-2 position among the common saturated fatty acids (the mysterious C∶20 lipid is rare, yet does exist.)

So, would it make sense to make a fatty acid supplement that is equal parts cacao butter, caprylic acid, and stearic acid?

I believe this would be as simple as melting all three of them (at very low heat) together in a pan, stirring well, and allowing it to set up at a cool temp. Yes?

 

[ddjd]

Getting this back on to the topic of cacao butter and stearic acid.

Haidut (citing RP) suggests that cacao butter has advantages beyond just its stearic acid content:



Travis says the shorter chained ones are better for metabolism:


Note that caprylic acid is the shortest SFA (8:0).

Travis also explains why stearic is special:


So, would it make sense to make a fatty acid supplement that is equal parts cacao butter, caprylic acid, and stearic acid?

interestingly caprylic acid is known for causing digestive pain. i use it all the time and am quite used to it now. as it happens, cacao butter is the only thing that relieves the stomach pain. i think theyre a great combo!

one a different point, why would you need cacao butter AND stearic acid? the cacao butter is providing stearic acid

 

[managing]

interestingly caprylic acid is known for causing digestive pain. i use it all the time and am quite used to it now. as it happens, cacao butter is the only thing that relieves the stomach pain. i think theyre a great combo!

one a different point, why would you need cacao butter AND stearic acid? the cacao butter is providing stearic acid

Caprylic bothers me too. I am contemplating topical application, but also read your statement about stearic mitigating that.

As for adding stearic to the cacao butter, simply to reap the benefits even more. Higher ratio of stearic to oleic and linoleic. Of course, if Haidut/RP are right about other (non FA presumably) components of CB being beneficial, you would dilute those. Also, an equal amount of caprylic may not be necessary? Maybe 20% would be sufficient? In fact, maybe 60% CB; 20% stearic; 20% caprylic would be better? Maybe the extra stearic is unnecessary if you are including CB?

Maybe @Travis has an opinion about that.