Does Coconut Oil Deserve Its Health Halo?

Dr. Greenland echoed that evaluation, stating that “the marketing of coconut oil is confusing. It’s trying to sell it as a healthy fat, but those who know its composition don’t think that at all.”

These and different consultants half firm with advertisers and advocates for coconut oil based mostly on its chemical make-up and the well-established organic exercise of various sorts of fatty acids.

“Fat can’t circulate by itself,” Dr. Greenland mentioned, explaining that long-chain fatty acids like these distinguished in beef tallow are absorbed into the bloodstream by fat-carrying particles referred to as chylomicrons that ship the fats to tissues all through the physique. Chylomicrons preserve LDL ldl cholesterol in circulation, giving it ample alternative to get caught in arteries. Fats which might be primarily medium-chain fatty acids, alternatively, are extra water-soluble; they are often absorbed into the bloodstream with out the help of chylomicrons and transported on to the liver, the place they’re used for power.

Although lauric acid is often known as a medium-chain fatty acid, Dr. Sacks mentioned, this label is basically arbitrary. “Classifying lauric acid as a medium-chain fatty acid is a misnomer,” he wrote. “Rather than the number of carbon atoms in a fat,” he mentioned, “what counts is how the fat is metabolized in the body. Lauric acid behaves like a long-chain fatty acid,” the type that promotes atherosclerosis. In addition, coconut oil has two different long-chain fatty acids — myristic and palmitic — and all three have an artery-damaging impact on levels of cholesterol within the blood.

One declare made for coconut oil is undisputed: It can elevate blood ranges of HDL ldl cholesterol, which has lengthy been thought to guard in opposition to coronary heart illness. However, a clear-cut well being good thing about HDL ldl cholesterol has but to be demonstrated in individuals. As Dr. Sacks reported, “Genetic studies and HDL-raising drugs have not so far supported a causal relationship between HDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. HDL is composed of a huge array of subparticles that may have adverse or beneficial actions. It is unknown which, if any, foods or nutrients that raise HDL cholesterol do so in a way that reduces atherosclerosis and coronary events.”

Ditto, mentioned Dr. Greenland. “Efforts to raise HDL have not led to beneficial clinical improvements.”

Proponents are additionally keen on citing the truth that various Indigenous populations — together with Polynesians, Melanesians, Sri Lankans and Indians — eat somewhat massive quantities of coconut merchandise with out struggling excessive charges of heart problems. However, most of those individuals have historically eaten coconut flesh or squeezed coconut cream as a part of a food plan that’s low in processed meals and wealthy in vegatables and fruits, with fish as the primary supply of protein. They are additionally much more energetic bodily than typical Westerners.

But even that’s now altering, a New Zealand analysis staff reported, with the “imports of unhealthy foods such as corned beef, fast food and processed ingredients, leading to huge increases in obesity and poor health.”