Liza Coker uses organic coconut oil produced by a Burleigh based company Picture: Kit de Guymer
Stephanie Bedo | July 8th, 2010 | Gold Coast Bulletin
**Australians are learning all about the plight of the Banabans and their plans to rehabilitate their homeland through Banaban Virgin Coconut Oil. Every product sold carries the Banaban story and a link to www.banaban.com . It has been very frustrating over the years to know that the Australian public has never heard of the Banabans, Banaba or even Ocean Island. Through Banaban Virgin Coconut Oil this is changing. Back on the farm in Fiji 54 Banabans and their families and now employed and provided with housing. The farm is totally self sufficient run on steam generated power fuelled from the coconut husks removed during processing. In the future we hope to have a commercial kitchen operating on Rabi just to manufacture traditional Kaimaimai.**
COCONUTS are becoming the hot new health craze and even cows and horses are benefiting.
Coconut water -- the clear liquid inside a young coconut -- has gained popularity as a health drink with Hollywood stars Madonna and Demi Moore while its oil can be used for cooking and on the skin and hair.
The water, which has been available fresh in Asia for years, has just made its Australian debut in local supermarkets and can even be found at yoga studios.
Burleigh Heads business Nature Pacific is benefiting from the global coconut craze, selling drums of Pure Banaban Virgin Coconut Oil as far away as Russia.
Husband and wife team Stacey King and Ken Sigrah are the brains behind the venture, which makes the oil from fresh, certified organic coconuts on a Pacific island farm.
The oil is brought to the Gold Coast, produced into its various offerings, packed and distributed.
Nature Pacific currently sells 16,000 litres of the oil a month.
Profits raised from the oil sales fund work to help the Banabans, indigenous people from a small Pacific Island called Banaba or Ocean Island.
For years Fijians have been using coconut oil in cooking and on the skin and hair, and Nature Pacific's extra virgin oil can be used in every possible healthy way.
It contains vitamin E, is full of antioxidants, easier to digest than other oils and does not contain cholesterol.
Mrs King said the oil did not store like normal fat in the body.
"We've got people who lose weight on it and body builders go on it because it makes your muscles hard," she said.
"Once people start using it they become really hooked on it."
Liza Coker swears by it, dabbing amounts under her eyes to reduce wrinkles and adding a tablespoon to her apple juice each morning.
Racehorses and prize cattle are eating it and as a result of demand the company now makes a pet range.
Readers interested in the products can visit http://www.naturepacific.com
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