Is Eating Coconut Oil Really Like Consuming Poison?

Not too long ago, Harvard scientist (and HPV vaccine proponent) Karin Michels, Ph.D., called coconut oil “pure poison.”

By Lee Euler / January 13, 2019

That’s probably a big surprise to you, if you know much about healthy eating. Coconut oil is one of the most nutritious foods on earth. It’s become a popular treatment for dementia, among people in the know.

And there’s additional uninformed nonsense from the American Heart Association (AHA). They’ve once again repeated advice that I thought had been discredited once and for all: eat processed vegetables oils, they say, and shun natural oils like coconut oil and grass-fed butter…

Vegetable oils – corn oil, canola, sunflower, and others – are usually polyunsaturated fats created by heavy factory processing. Coconut oil, butter, nuts and avocado contain saturated fats found in nature.

For decades, establishment medicine has been advising people to eat the first and shun the second. The AHA practically touts polyunsaturated fats as a medicine. They claim these fats will slash your cholesterol (something you don’t need to do; keep reading) and reduce your heart disease risk.

The AHA’s advice is terrible. It’s dangerous. It’s contributed to record levels of heart disease and high mortality rates. Yes, there’s quite a good case that the American Heart Association’s food advice causes heart attacks.

So what’s the real story behind Dr. Michels’ all-out attack on coconut oil? Is there some new finding we need to know about?

Good science vs. bad science

In all scientific research it’s important to guard against the researcher’s biases. That’s why double-blind, placebo-controlled studies are so important – neither the researchers nor the participants know what’s in the pills they’re taking.

In evaluating saturated and polyunsaturated fats, the AHA fails the most basic tests of objectivity. It cherry-picks studies that support the conclusions it wants to reach, instead of taking into account all reasonably valid studies and letting the chips fall where they may… similar to a lawyer who builds a case by cherry-picking the most influential arguments – accentuating the positive and ignoring the negative.

In short, the AHA acts more like an advocate than a scientist.

AHA’s “acceptable” studies are a farce

The AHA claims that only four clinical studies have ever been done with sufficiently reliable methodology to tell us whether it’s a healthy move to replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). The AHA claims that doing so will reduce heart attacks by 30%.

They say the remaining studies were rejected for critical flaws, and that it would be far too expensive to do a large new trial. Never mind that such trials already exist. The AHA just doesn’t like the results.

Among the rejections are some of the largest studies ever done – the Minnesota Coronary Survey, the Sydney Heart Study, and most notably, the Women’s Health Initiative, which was the single largest and most expensive ($625 million) clinical trial ever done.

All of them refuted the AHA hypothesis. All were banned from consideration.

The four studies that support the AHA’s recommendations are all ancient by today’s standards. All involved considerable performance bias, often hidden in the fine print.

In the Oslo study, for example, Leren mentions in passing that in the intervention group sugar consumption was very low, probably less than half of what was normal in Norway at the time the study was conducted. The intervention group was the one that consumed polyunsaturated fats and avoided saturated ones.

In the trial, the defining variable was said to be the ratio of PUFA to saturated fat. But it turns out that the group eating PUFAs received intensive counseling on healthy eating, and apparently decided to eat a hell of a lot less sugar.¹

And this could explain why they had way fewer heart attacks. Excess sugar contributes to metabolic syndrome (prediabetes), weight gain and many other pathologies. Omitting sugar from the diet could easily cancel out the harmful effects of PUFAs.

The other studies were just as flawed. One of them changed the protocol midway through the trial. Yet it got published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

Let’s see…

Imagine a drug trial where “three years into the trial” they realize there’s a problem… they neglected to give the control group a placebo.

The trial would be invalid.

The AHA has actively ignored every study since 1973 – including newer, larger studies that fly in the face of their claims.

But even their carefully chosen data from the 1960s fails to uphold their recommendations.

Scientists re-analyzed that decades-old data and discovered that the original researchers left out reams of critical information.

What the revised analysis showed was shocking…

It’s actually a killer

Every 30-point drop in cholesterol coincided with a 22% increase in mortality rate.

Does this indicate that cutting your cholesterol INCREASES your risk of death?

Yes, this indicates that cutting your cholesterol INCREASES your risk of death.

The very data the AHA uses in their hyped-up marketing campaigns shows that lowering your cholesterol can actually kill you.² Other recent research shows that those who adhered to the AHA guidelines to eat more PUFAs and less saturated fat did not improve.

In fact, they died.

PUFAs don’t protect you from heart disease, atherosclerosis, stroke, or overall mortality, despite what the AHA claims.³ So don’t be deceived.

It’s not exactly surprising. After all, it’s a well-known fact that PUFAs cause inflammation. Inflammation is a principal factor – perhaps even the main cause – of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, dementia and more.

Eating poison… or not

Dr. Michels’ claims that coconut oil is “one of the worst foods you can eat” and that it’s “pure poison” fall right smack in line with AHA guidance.

Not surprisingly, she has direct ties to Professor Frank Sacks at Harvard’s School of Public Health, who was the lead author of the 2017 AHA Presidential Advisory against saturated fats.

It’s particularly concerning because in 2013, the AHA released a report claiming to practice evidence-based medicine and to use the strongest possible evidence in preparing their advice.

Yet their preference for certain studies and their complete disregard for others that are larger and more recent tells a far different story.

Epidemiological evidence does not support their stance.

Worse, their advice has contributed to record levels of heart disease, cancer, and obesity – which they conveniently ignore.

Carefully orchestrated PR smear

Now, ahem, if I were cynical I might suspect the AHA’s anti-coconut oil guidelines are part of their orchestrated campaign aimed at get our eating habits to match the interests of their corporate sponsors. The research be damned.

I’d prefer to think they are well-meaning people who have merely bungled the science. But it’s hard to believe that.

The AHA executive who led the charge against coconut oil is the same guy who was previously head of marketing for Kentucky Fried Chicken and other fast food chains.⁴

This is also the same team that certified Chocolate Moose – a chocolate milk beverage containing more sugar than a can of soda – as “heart healthy.”

And the same group whose Heart Check Mark designates sugary cereals and salty soups as “heart healthy.”

Turns out food companies can obtain that “certification” for chump change of $1500-$7500 per product. The product just has to meet certain low standards, and the AHA will let the company market it as “healthy.”

Here’s another telling fact…

The AHA’s sponsors include a slew of Big Pharma companies, including Amarin, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Eli Lily, Esai, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Merck, Pfizer, Regeneron/Sanofi, and Takeda. Additional sponsors include Ag Canada, the Canola Oil Council, and more.

Saturated fat is not the cause of heart disease

In a compilation and review of data from various studies, a 2017 landmark study found no causal link between saturated fat and heart disease or diabetes.

Publishing in the British Medical Journal, they state they “found no association between saturated fat and coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, or type two diabetes.”

That study’s authors go so far as to suggest that the AHA selectively chooses its studies in order to give the appearance of credibility to their own prejudices.

Vegetable oils wreck your
mitochondria in four profound ways

Processed vegetable oils pummel your mitochondria, whereas good sources of saturated fat – e.g. nuts, coconut oil, avocado — help your mitochondria thrive.

Supporting your mitochondria reduces your risk of getting a vast range of diseases, including cancer and heart disease. There’s little doubt that the Canola Oil Council and other makers of crappy fake frankenfoods wield tremendous influence.

So what’s to hate about vegetable oils? Almost everything.

1. They’re unstable and oxidize easily during processing. Their molecular structure makes them prone to react with oxygen, which then disrupts cellular activity and drives inflammation. Oxidized oils damage your DNA, compromise your cell membranes, cause inflammation, and can even make you fat.
2. They contain solvents and pesticides. Most vegetable oils are derived from genetically modified plants sprayed with an abundance of glyphosate and other pesticides. What’s more, manufacturers use toxic solvents to aid with extraction, and those toxins also contribute to poor mitochondrial function and disease.⁵
3. They’re inflammatory. They contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which cause inflammation. Yes, you need some omega-6s, but most Americans consume 20 to 50 times the amount they should.
4. They’re toxic, and it’s difficult for your body to expel them. They settle in your liver, and can trigger multiple diseases and early death.^6,7,8

Coconut oil is not the demon they say it is

Coconut oil (and even butter, for that matter) is not the devil in liquid form.

It contains beneficial fats that aid gut and brain function and help you lose weight.

It’s true that some studies have shown less-than-stellar benefits from coconut oil. But it’s important to note that those studies used partially hydrogenated coconut oil, rather than unrefined virgin coconut oil.⁹

Saturated fats are very stable, don’t oxidize easily when heated, and don’t react with oxygen the way PUFAs do.

Coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), which can easily penetrate your cell membranes.

Researchers believe that these MCTs are easily converted into ketones and used as fuel, instead of being stored as fat on your waistline. Because of this, they may also help promote weight loss.

That said, coconut oil may not be perfect

But coconut oil may still pose a problem or two. Certain saturated fats found in coconut oil can escort toxins from your gut into your bloodstream. Those toxins are called lipopolysaccharides (LPS), and are linked to inflammation, heart disease, and cancer.

What you eat along with coconut oil affects the levels of LPS toxins in your gut. Sugar and antibiotic-loaded grain-fed meat lead to significantly higher levels of LPS toxins.

Current data suggests you should consume some coconut oil, but perhaps not massive amounts of it, unless you eat correspondingly large amounts of vegetables at the same time…

Vegetables ferment to create the short chain saturated fats — propionic acid and butyric acid – that are protective. These help prevent colon cancer, and also protect your brain.

But vegetable oil? If you want to live a long life and spare yourself cancer and heart and brain diseases, avoid it like the plague. It’s not food. Not even close.

You’d do well to avoid all recommendations from the AHA.

Best regards,

Lee Euler,
Publisher

References:

1. https://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/cardiobrief/66139
2. https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246
3. https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246
4. http://newsroom.heart.org/news/american-heart-association-enhances-communications-marketing-organization-to-adapt-to-changing-media-landscape-consumer-needs
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388198102003438
6. http://drcate.com/study-soy-oil-promotes-obesity-and-liver-damage/
7. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/diet/eightyear-study-finds-heavy-french-fry-eaters-have-double-the-chance-of-death/news-story/1a557be079d7947380c90924dc2f0d15
8. According to Frances Sladek, Ph.D., toxicologist and professor of cell biology at UC Riverside, and cited on Mercola.com article:
9. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/dining/02Appe.html?pagewanted=al

https://www.cancerdefeated.com/is-eating-coconut-oil-really-like-consuming-poison/

Curious Cook: Some observations for 2019

New Year’s day marked the first time I consciously began a year as a vegan. My daughter had entered the popular Veganuary Challenge and that meant we all had to eat vegan for the month of January. I did not mind it much, especially as wine is considered vegan, though I can see myself over the month gravitating from vegan to vegetarian to flexitarian, which would be my normal state. Overall, I still regard being flexitarian as probably the optimal nutritional strategy for humans, despite some overbearing pressure tactics (mostly by vegan zealots) to denounce/condemn anything to do with animals.

January 13, 2019

By CHRIS CHAN

Good News, Bad News

At least these are positive signs that people in 2019 are finally serious about cutting down on meat consumption. An informal supermarket survey indicated up to 12% of the UK population now claim to be vegan or vegetarian, with another 20% considering themselves flexitarians. This survey however contrasts starkly with the facts, which estimates that the world produced 335 million tonnes of meat in 2018, a new record – this means that on average, every person on Earth would have consumed 43.7 kilos of meat last year, despite a global population increase of 83 million. Unsurprisingly, the country with the highest subsidies for meat production also consumed the most meat, well over 100 kilos of meat each on average for all 326.8 million US citizens in 2018 (another record) – roughly translated, this is equivalent to over two hamburgers a day for each American.

Despite a growing shift towards veganism, meat consumption went up in 2018. Photo: Marius Boatka/Flickr

Experts are at a loss to explain the increase in global meat consumption, which is happening despite increasing environmental awareness and the growing popularity of veganism/vegetarianism in the US and around the world. Oddly, poverty and wealth may both be factors – in the US, it is often cheaper to eat meat due to the heavy subsidies and in other emerging countries, meat is preferred as a sign of affluence.

The bad news is meat production and consumption are still forecast to increase in 2019, though the degree of increase is expected to drop somewhat, especially with beef – however the estimates are far from reliable. Another study suggests meat consumption rates in half of the world’s largest 20 meat-eating countries are falling, and some rates are falling quickly. Meat consumption in many EU countries have dropped significantly over the last decade (and there are several initiatives to tax red and processed meats), so there is hope for longer-term and much needed environmental improvements.

The End Of Silly Proteins?

It seems the debate regarding the benefits or harm of high carbohydrate versus high protein/fat diets will continue into 2019. Regarding fats, there is a further sub-discussion regarding the health aspects of unsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated fats.

Investigating these points is interesting as there are a lot of over-simplifications of the issues, but not many genuine attempts at clarity in the media, which seems to enjoy setting up camps of viewpoints against each other.

However, the facts are straightforward and are readily available in scientific papers. Regarding carbohydrates, this is a wide classification of foods and a simple scientifically-based strategy is avoiding all processed carbs such as refined sugars, fibre-deficient modern flours, etc. Wherever possible, skip processed or tinned foods and eat natural plant foods instead (preferably uncooked) to help the intestines and gut bacteria. If this becomes standard practice, the health debate about carbohydrates will end instantly, provided you do not consume over 70 grams of fibre a day. In short, all the negative press about carbohydrates concern almost exclusively processed carbs and foods cooked or saturated with industrial oils.

Regarding the debate over the fats, it can be broadly broken down into (a) decomposition of oils and (b) Omega-3 content. Put simply, saturated fats do not decompose readily under heat whereas unsaturated and polyunsaturated oils readily break down into carcinogenic free radicals when heated to cooking temperatures. Hence saturated fats are generally safer or healthier, especially if used in cooking. There are often stories about how ratios of LDL and HDL in different oils affect cholesterol but this may be considered trivial relative to ingesting free radicals. For more information, see my article A Fat Lot Of Good.

Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid needed to balance the overabundance of Omega-6 fatty acids in modern diets and therefore we should consume more Omega-3. More information can be found in my previous article on the subject, A Fat Lot of Good – Part 3.

In 2019, it is feasible that people will finally acknowledge the waste and futility of over-eating proteins. It was one of the top fads last year, making lots of money for food manufacturers (as it allows them to re-package waste by-products as protein bars, drinks, snacks, etc) – and it is pointless.

And it is ridiculous because our bodies need so little protein on a daily basis – just 0.8 grams per kilo of body weight. This comment therefore also applies to ketogenic diets, where consumption of animal proteins and fats overrides all other classes of foods. After the focus on carbohydrates and fats over the years, perhaps 2019 will finally put the spotlight on feckless proteins. Some notes are in my article Food, Proteins & Googly Eyes on Fish.

If you are looking for a healthy, optimal diet for 2019, have a read about the optimal flexitarian diet in my article Anthropocene Diet – Part 2.

Pizzas Need Not Be Round

As the awfulness of the world’s largest economy being presided over by an orange man (who has somehow managed to bankrupt himself running casinos) starts to sink in deeper, there are expectations of financial turbulence this year. The silver lining is that people plan to cook more at home in 2019 rather than dine out – and this can be a significant improvement for human health as well as lowering the cost of living. In every country where fast food dominates nutrition, there are heavily-correlated increases in early mortality and diseases such as heart problems, diabetes, obesity, cancers, etc.

No, pizzas don’t have to be round. They can be rolled into rectangular shapes to fit baking trays. Photo: IA Hilltopper/Flickr

Home cooking means control over the quality of the ingredients in food. This usually means eating better meals instead of dining out where raw foods are normally bulk-purchased at the lowest prices, seasoned artificially and potentially cooked in overused oils.

One example is pizza which can be cooked at home at a fraction of the dining-out cost. Pizza dough is just flour, yeast, olive oil, water plus some standard kitchen condiments – and can be prepared and left in the fridge overnight. When rolling out on a flour-coated surface, there is no need to make round pizzas as you can roll the dough into rectangular shapes to fit steel baking sheets. Spread on tomato paste, cover with grated cheese, then ingredients such as vegetables, salami, chopped onions, sausages, seafood, other cheeses, olives, etc. Then cook in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 25-35 minutes and serve with fresh salad leaves on top – that is enough for a family dinner. If making dough is too challenging, there are good frozen pizza doughs available, and you can even vary the tomato paste with Thai or Indian curry sauces.

Walkabout Dinners

At this point, I would like to suggest an old practice from Berlin – it might come back into fashion in 2019, or at least, it would be nice if it did.

Years ago, residents in my block of flats used to host “walkabout” dinner parties every few weeks. People living in different flats would get together and each flat would elect or draw lots to cook one dinner course — e.g. entrées, mains, desserts/cheeses. So we would all have starters at one flat, move on to the mains in another flat, march on for desserts at a final flat before staggering home happily. Courses would be switched around for the next walkabout dinner, and we ended up with more people wanting to join in than could fit on dinner tables – it was genuinely a lot of fun and variety.

The advantages were that we got different wines for each course, we only had the effort of preparing one course (properly), the ambiance changed for each dish and there was not much washing up. The downside was the evenings tended to run for a long time, due to food re-heating or final prep work, extended social drinking, etc. However, we each only had the ingredients cost for one dish but got to dine out on a full dinner carefully crafted by friends, complete with well-selected wines.

https://www.star2.com/food/2019/01/13/curious-cook-observations-2019/

Coconut Oil – Are You Coco-Nuts to Eat It?

Did you know that 50 percent of media headlines about medical studies are dead wrong? And that many of these headlines don’t accurately match the conclusions of the studies they cover?

Written byMARK HYMAN, MD

That’s from a review published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It makes me sad and furious at the same time that journalists don’t do their homework and create firestorms of confusion because of their negligent work.

That is exactly what happened when USA Today published their article, “Coconut Oil Isn’t Healthy. It’s Never Been Healthy.” Shame on you USA Today editors for doing such a sloppy job of journalism.

Why the American Heart Association Has Been and Still Is Wrong

First, there is not a single study showing that coconut oil causes heart disease. Not one. Second, the whole case against coconut oil is founded on a hypothesis that has been proven wrong. It’s the diet-heart hypothesis. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol causes heart disease. Anything that raises LDL cholesterol is bad. Only problem is that the data does not support this hypothesis.

If you are geeky and want to read more where I cover the science in detail, read my blog “Fat: What I Got Wrong, What I Got Right.” But just like it took 150 years after Copernicus recognized that the earth revolves around the sun before it was finally accepted, it will take a while for the world to catch up with the false idea that low-fat and low-cholesterol diets won’t save us from heart disease. In fact, low-fat diets cause heart disease. I have covered all this in my last book, Eat Fat, Get Thin with hundreds of references.

The USA Today article was based on a review by the American Heart Association (AHA). They published a review of fat and heart disease. The AHA has been at the vanguard of bad advice for decades since they first hooked onto the “fat is bad and will kill you” meme. They told us to eat very low fat, low cholesterol diets and to eat tons of starchy carbs. By the way, the AHA gets huge funding from cereal makers that put the AHA seal of approval on sugary (including cereal makers) cereals because they are “fat free” despite containing 75 percent sugar. Except now the overwhelming amount of research has proved that idea to be dead wrong. In fact, their recommendations have killed millions of people (no joke) from heart disease and diabetes. That’s why the very conservative 2015 USDA Dietary Guidelines removed any upper limits on dietary fat and eliminated any restrictions on dietary cholesterol. In fact, after decades of telling us to avoid eggs and shrimp they said, “Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

If you are interested in the corruption of the AHA, its funding is supported by the Pharma industry, industrial food giants (including sugary cereal makers) and industrial vegetable oil manufacturers, then read this recent blog on Medium entitled, Is the American Heart Association a terrorist organization? I’m not calling the AHA a terrorist organization, I just want you to read the article and question who’s really pulling the strings.

How could this happen you might wonder? How could the scientists have gotten it so wrong? It all comes down to how we do the research. Most nutrition research is based on what we call observational studies. You follow a group of people for a long time, you ask them once a year what they ate last week and you see if patterns emerged. Good luck if they can remember. And people aren’t always honest – if they think butter is bad, then they will underreport consumption. Problem is those types of studies do not prove cause and effect, just correlation. If I did a study on women over 55-years of age who have sex, I could conclude that sex RARELY leads to pregnancy. Pretty meaningless. The populations studied that ate saturated fats also were coincidentally smokers, didn’t exercise and ate otherwise unhealthy diets. Those who actually ate well, exercised and didn’t smoke (i.e. lead healthier lifestyles) also didn’t eat saturated fats because they were told not to. Studies prove that it was the well-rounded healthy habits that saved them, not less saturated fats.

Why Saturated Fats Are Not Bad and Are Essential for Health

This is exactly why multiple recent studies have shown no link between saturated fat and heart disease. You can read most of the important ones from the references, below, in my book and in the Fat: What I Got Wrong, What I Got Right article. In fact, there have been very few cause and effect studies in nutrition – they are hard to do, take a long time and cost a lot. But two of the largest ones every published show that fat and saturated fat are not the problem. The first was the PREDIMED studywhere researchers gave 7,000 participants olive oil (which contains 20% saturated fat) or nuts vs. a low-fat diet. PERDIMED had to stop the study because the people who were following the low-fat diet were dying. 

The next study was completed over 40 years ago, but it wasn’t published because the results contradicted the prevailing dogma that saturated fat was bad and that LDL cholesterol caused heart disease. This was a study that could not be conducted today because it would be considered unethical. They fed 9,000 people in mental hospitals butter and saturated fats or corn oil (polyunsaturated vegetable oil, which the AHA report says we should eat more of). And, guess what? Those who ate the corn oil had more heart attacks and deaths, despite lowering their LDL cholesterol. Really? Yes, it’s true. In fact, for every 30-point drop in LDL the risk of heart attack went up 22 percent. To top it off a recent review of all the science on big bad butter looking at 6.5 million patient years of butter eating, researchers found that butter eaters had no increased risk of heart disease, but they did have decreased risk of type 2 diabetes. You read that right. Butter = lower risk of type 2 diabetes. And if you still need to be convinced, here’s a review of 17 meta-analyses(reviews of all the best and relevant research) showing no link between saturated fat and heart disease.

The whole idea that LDL cholesterol causes heart disease is the reason we have a multi-billion dollar statin industry. One study of over 130,000people who had heart attacks over 5 years showed that 75 percent had normal LDL and 50 percent had optimal LDL cholesterol. But only 10 percent had normal HDL or the protective cholesterol. Guess what raises HDL? Saturated fat. And coconut oil raises it the most of any saturated fat. And what lowers it? A low-fat, high-starch, and high-sugar diet. We need cholesterol and saturated fat for the health of every cell membrane, for your brain cells, your sex hormones and more. Cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, it is the band-aid that tries to repair the arteries when damage occurs from a low-fat, high-starch, high sugar diet. This causes pre-diabetes and inflammation from a processed food diet, environmental toxins, a bad gut from a low fiber, processed diet or anything that causes inflammation.

Before we get off saturated fats, here’s one BIG warning. They ARE a problem if you eat them in the context of a high-sugar, high-starch, processed foods diet. It’s what I call sweet fat. Stay away. No bagels and butter. No donuts or French fries. Stick with butter and broccoli.

Why We Shouldn’t Be Mainlining Omega-6 Vegetable Oils

The other recommendation from the AHA other than dramatically lower saturated fat intake is to increase omega-6 refined vegetable oils. Bad idea. Yes, some studies show a lower risk of heart disease with a higher intake of omega-6 oils (otherwise known as polyunsaturated fats or PUFAs which include soy, corn, safflower, canola oils). Again I cover this in detail in Eat Fat, Get Thin, but the take-home is this: If you eat saturated fat in the context of the typical American diet, it will cause problems and the people in omega-6 studies were eating exactly that. And to make it more confusing, the studies looking at PUFAs included both omega-3 (super protective) and omega-6 fats. The omega-3s made the omega-6 cousins look better. When you look at just the studies of the effects of omega-6 fats, you find actually increase the risk of heart attacks. And it is just common sense and evolutionary sense – our intake of these refined, heat processed, hexane treated, chemically deodorized oils (never consumed before in human history) have increase more than 1000 times (that’s 100,000 percent) in the last 100 years. Saturated fats make your cholesterol molecules stable and less likely to oxidize or go rancid. It is oxidized cholesterol that causes heart attacks. The PUFA’s are unstable and easily oxidized so when they are incorporated into cholesterol they make it unstable and go rancid – which is bad for your heart.

Is Coconut Oil Healthy?

We have had a coconut craze. What’s the deal? Broccoli is healthy but if that’s all you ate you would get sick. Coconut oil is healthy but only as part of an overall healthy diet not as the main course. Coconut oil has been consumed by populations in the South Pacific for thousands of years without ill effect. It has so many health benefits. You can read more in my article Is Coconut Oil Bad for My Cholesterol. But here’s the short list of benefits. It raises HDL, the good cholesterol. It improves the quality and size and type of cholesterol. It lowers the total cholesterol to HDL ratio – a far better predictor of heart disease than LDL. And cultures with 60 percent of their diet as coconut oil have no heart disease. It also contains a unique type of saturated fat called MCT oil that boosts metabolism, reverses insulin resistance, and improves cognitive function. Coconut oil is also anti-fungal and anti-microbial and it contains lauric acid that is great for immune function. The only other good source of lauric acid is breast milk, which contains 24 percent saturated fat – far higher than the 6 percent the AHA recommends.

Who would you trust, nature/God or the American Heart Association? So, I am sorry you have to be buffeted about by bad conclusions from insufficient outdated science and bad journalism. But hopefully reading this helps, and if you are so inclined check out the references below, my other blogs on this topic, and my book so you can come to your own conclusions. 

Wishing you health and happiness,

Mark Hyman, MD

References

Appel, L.J., Sacks, F.M., Carey, V.J., Obarzanek, E. Swain, J.F., Miller, E.R. 3rd,OmniHeart Collaborative Research Group. (2005). Effects of protein, monounsaturated fat, and carbohydrate intake on blood pressure and serum lipids: results of the OmniHeart randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 294(19):2455-2464.

Assunção, M.L., Ferreira, H.S., dos Santos, A.F., Cabral, C.R., & Florêncio, T.M.M.T. (2009). Effects of dietary coconut oil on the biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women presenting abdominal obesity. Lipids, 44(7), 593-601.

Barberger-Gateua, P., Samieri, C., Feart, C., & Plourde, M. (2012). Dietary omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and Alzheimer’s disease: interaction with apolipoprotein E genotype. Current Alzheimer’s Research, 8(5), 479-491.

Calder, P.C. (1998). Dietary fatty acids and the immune system. Nutritional Reviews, II, S70-S83.

Cardoso et al. (2015). A coconut extra virgin oil-rich diet increases HDL cholesterol and decreases waist circumference and body mass in coronary artery disease patients. Nutrition Hospitals, 32(5), 2144-2152. doi: 10.3305/nh.2015.32.5.9642.

Crawford, M.A., Broadhurst, C.L., Guest, M., Nagar, A., Wang, Y., Ghebremeskel, K., & Schmidt, W. (2013). A quantum theory for the irreplaceable role of docosahexaenoic acid in neural cell signaling throughout evolution. Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 88(1), 5-13.

Daley, C. A., Abbott, A., Doyle, P. S., Nader, G. A., & Larson, S. (2010). A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Nutrition Journal, 9(1), 10.

Das, U.N. (1994). Beneficial effect of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids in the management of systemic lupus erythematosus and its relationship to the cytokine network. Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 51(3), 207-213.

de Souza et al. (2015). Intake of saturated and trans unsaturated fatty acids and risk of all cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. British Medical Journal, 351.

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