Everything you need to know about coconut oil
Coconut oil is one of the most popular health trends at the moment, with 72 percent of the American public rating it as a ”healthy food”. Nevertheless, only 37 percent of the nutritionists thought the same, and here it is why.
A recent study conducted by the American Heart Association (AHA) saw that even though coconut oil has been heavily marketed in the media as promoting weight loss, boosting the metabolism and helping with digestion, the product contains 82 percent saturated fat. This means that coconut oil can easily be classified as a ”bad fat”.
“The reason we’re advised to avoid saturated fats is to do with blood cholesterol, the waxy stuff that can build up in your arteries. All cholesterol is not the same, though – there’s a distinction between ‘good’ high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
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Standard advice goes that if your diet has too much saturated fat – think junk food, cakes, processed foods, chips – LDL cholesterol can build up and increase your risk of heart disease,” stated a team of British cardiologists, including controversial doctor Aseem Malhotra.
The AHA paper shows that coconut oil increases both LDL and HDL cholesterol, and even though the scientists claim that “changes in HDL cholesterol caused by diet or drug treatments can no longer be directly linked to changes in cardiovascular disease”, and that coconut oil may not directly increase the risk of heart disease, it is advisable to avoid consuming it.
“Researchers culled hundreds of research papers published since the 1950s, finding evidence supporting the AHA’s recommendation that saturated fat should make up less than 10 percent of daily calories for healthy Americans,” AHA says in a press statement.
“Evidence has accumulated during the past several years that strengthens long-standing AHA recommendations to replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat to lower the incidence of cardiovascular disease,” the review adds.
It is therefore recommended to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, while avoiding processed foods and saturated fats. Coconut oil is best left for cosmetic use, such as hair conditioner.
The review has been published in American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
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