Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is the most controversial vegetable oil. It is considered bad because of its high cholesterol content. About 92% of the coconut oil is saturated fatty acids. While it raises cholesterol, it gives a boost to HDL resulting in a small improvement in the ratio between HDL and LDL.

Coconut and coconut oil

 In the Dietary Guidelines launched in 1980 demonized coconut and other tropical oils and blamed them for heart attacks because of their saturated fat content. This led to the low-fat craze of the 2000s.

 The Dietary Guidelines recommend that fats make up 20% to 35% of total calories and saturated fats less than 10%. And even though coconut oil is liquid, the Dietary Guidelines consider it a solid fat that they recommend Americans reduce, along with added sugars. It recommends reducing cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg per day and for those at high risk of cardiovascular disease less than 200 mg per day.

Now coconut oil has gained shelf space in health food stores and supermarkets as health food.

What is the cause of this dramatic change in views? Scientific community seems to be divided on this issue.

 Dr. James J. Kenny, PhD, FACN, nutrition scientist at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami, Florida and Dr. Michael Greger, a Cornell physician who runs the informative site www.NutritionFacts.org are both critical of the claims that coconut oil is a super food or miracle food.

 It was known for a long time that coconut oil has anti-fungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. In many countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka, where coconut is grown abundantly, coconut oil has been traditionally used in native treatment of many illnesses. Skin care industry has widely used coconut oil in their products.

Shredded coconut

 Mary G. Enig, Ph.D and Sally Fallon Morrel of Weston A. Price Foundation argue that coconut oil is good for you.(See The Oiling of America  , The Skinny on Fats  ).

They are of the view that some saturated fat and cholesterol are necessary for proper bodily function. They argue that our body produces 2000 mg of cholesterol per day but the average American consumption amounts to only 100 mg per day which is only a fraction of what our body produces.

 Dr Mercola is another proponent of coconut oil. (Countless Uses for Coconut Oil – The Simple, the Strange, and the Downright Odd -  and The Truth About Coconut Oil:Why it Got a Bad Rep Actually Good)

 In Sri Lanka and Polynesia, where people consume lot of coconut, cholesterol levels tend to be healthy and rates of cardiovascular disease relatively low.

Coconut kernel and chips

 The strongest proponent of coconut oil is Dr. Bruce Fife. He maintains the website – Coconut Research Center

 

Dr. Fife has written many books, including The Coconut Oil Miracle,, The Palm Oil Miracle, Coconut Lover's Cookbook, and Eat Fat, and Look Thin. He also publishes the Healthy Ways Newsletter and distributes it free.

 In the home page Dr. Fife states that modern medical science acknowledges, through articles published in medical journals, the many health benefits of coconut oil. He cites no less than 51 benefits. To support his statement he cites no less than 46 pages of links of articles published in the medical journals. 

 

There must be some truths in these claims. Otherwise so many medical professionals would not have wasted their valuable time in writing these article.
 

Dr. Bruce Fife says that cholesterol ratio is a far more accurate indicator of heart disease risk than total cholesterol. A cholesterol ratio of 3.2 mg/dl is considered to be low risk and 5.0 mg/dl is average and anything above this ratio is harmful. Total cholesterol value of 240 mg/dl is considered high. The HDL and cholesterol ratio are said to improve with consumption of coconut oil and on balance coconut oil reduces the ratio favorably.

Coconut oil is promoted as a weight loss food. Dr. Mehmet Oz announced on his TV show that the main health benefits of coconuts was weight loss. Many weight watchers and body builders believe this. But there do not seem to be any human studies that support this claim.

 Alzheimer's is an age related disease which leads to memory loss. Mary T. Newport, MD published the book - Alzheimer's Disease: What If There Was a Cure? The Story of Ketones Second Edition. 

 

 Dr. Newport’s husband Steve was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 51. She searched for something to halt or reverse his decline. She found that ketones may help treat various neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s. She found that medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) would boost the ketones in the body. MCTs are converted in the liver into ketones, which can be used by the brain and other organs as fuel. They are not stored as body fats and therefore are readily available as a source of energy. In May 2008, she started giving Steve four teaspoons of coconut oil every day. His symptoms improved dramatically for the next two years. When his father died in 2010, his health declined and he suffered depression and hallucinations. He had seizures and was treated with Anticonvulsant.

 Although Newport’s story was not that of a success, the connection between Alzheimer's disease and coconut oil cannot be dismissed altogether. The University of South Florida’s Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute has begun a study with 65 people to explore connection between the coconut oil and Alzheimer’s disease and hopes to release its findings within a year.

 Here is a video in which 5 medical doctors and two nutritionists discuss the low carbohydrate, high fat diet and coconut oil for treating Alzheimer’s Disease.

 https://youtu.be/vxI1NPk1Nlg?t=139 

 Most oils consist entirely of long-chain triglycerides (LCT). Soybean oil is 100% LCT whereas coconut oil consists of 40% LCT and 60% MCT.  The most abundant MCT found in coconut oil is lauric acid. Coconut oil is about 50% lauric acid. It is nature’s richest source of lauric acid. Lauric acid increases total serum cholesterol more than many other fatty acids. But most of the increase is in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (the "good" blood cholesterol).

 It is clear that more research is necessary to ascertain the veracity of the claims of benefits of coconut oil as well as its impact on Alzheimer's disease, We hope the government and international health organizations will take this as a priority to further the research that is required.