Coconut Oil & Heart Disease

[Michael569]

Interesting systemic analysis from 2016 looking at 24 papers studying the topic of "coconut in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD)" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4892314/

KEY FINDINGS

• Alarming & statistically significant increase in LDL (bad cholesterol) for butter & coconut oil equally. Note that cholesterol itself is not "evil" but raised LDL usually indicates a progressive dysfunction in the arterial system usually including a lot of inflammation & oxidative damage. 
• An overall increase in Total Cholesterol (LDL + HDL) 
• HDL (good cholesterol) slightly increased but not enough to offset the harmful effect of high LDL (in most studies) 
• Increase in Apoliprotein E (some but not all) - this is a marker of progressive arterial dysfunction. 
• coconut oil seems to be as dangerous as butter in its impact on cardiovascular health 

LIMITATIONS: 

• most of these studies were relatively short (up to 6 weeks) 
• most of them had very small samples
• not all of them had a control group 
• we do not have long term (years) data on coconut oil and risk of CVD
• we don't know anything about participants and their overall health markers or their state of blood sugar balance

TAKEAWAY

Maybe we should start questioning the proponents of the health benefits of coconut fats. Just because it is plant does not mean it is good. Despite what we hear evidence shows that extra virgin olive oil is the best oil to use for cooking. This is because of its extreme content of antioxidants that protects from development of lipid peroxides. EVOO consistently scores the highest when tested against other plant and animal oils. 

Or just don't use any oils whatsoever and cook on water. Seems like that is the safest way to navigate and to spare your cardiovascular system of unnecessary shock

[Average Investor]

5 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Or just don't use any oils whatsoever and cook on water.

It is surprisingly not hard to cut out all oils after awhile. From what I have gathered on oils I just decided to not use any. Even cooking some stuff in the oven is not that big of a deal. I don't really cook much out of a pan though, so I can see how that would be difficult. Most of what I eat now is uncooked. I think it has been well worth making the change. 

I have used the coconut oil for dry hands on occasion, but I would like to just switch that to liquid aloe vera. 

[Red-White-Light]

@Michael569 Coconut oil is 90% saturated fat and it raises bad LDL cholesterol, which can lead to a heart attack.

[Michael569]

30 minutes ago, Average Investor said:

I have used the coconut oil for dry hands on occasion, but I would like to just switch that to liquid aloe vera. 

I think this is the most useful application for coconut. Apparently it also works well as a lube 

@Red-White-Light pretty much 

[Username]

I'm not an expert, so I will only paste this video

 

[Michael569]

@Username Eric Berg is highly biased. He seels an entire range of keto supplements and so naturally will be looking for evidence to support his bias. He listed 3 studies. The above has included 21 and we are talking about the systematic analysis here, the highest link in the pyramid of the evidence hierarchy. 

There are health benefits such as MCT absolutely but if anything has been proven to (across all studies) raise risk of heart disease I'm gonna say it should probably be looked at with a lot of scepticism. Saturated fats are no doubt one of the greatest contributors of heart disease but they are not the full picture and for some reason the results of cholesterol & saturated fats studies are incredibly different. Like across the board....and the raising suspicion is that this is because people's microbiome differs so much. There is something in our guts that seems to be making difference why some people get massive spike of cholesterol & triglycerides after just few fat heavy meals and others don't. So I'd say we'll know more ion years to come. 

Edited July 15, 2020 by Michael569

[latina25]

10 hours ago, Michael569 said:

 

Or just don't use any oils whatsoever and cook on water. Seems like that is the safest way to navigate and to spare your cardiovascular system of unnecessary shock

I would recommend you not remove oils from your diet.   Healthy fats are needed for the body to function properly. Is like lubrication for the body. 
Olive oil is a good source of fats, avocado oil, flax seed, Chia seeds, fish oil and a tiny amount of saturated fat is ok too.  I don’t include coconut oil in my diet because I think there is healthier options like I mention avove. 
 I hope this helps. 

 

[commie]

8 hours ago, Average Investor said:

Even cooking some stuff in the oven is not that big of a deal.

I have no oven and typically cook without oil... only I add oil afterwards. Olive (doesn't need to be EVOO), flax seed and rapeseed of course (the other healthy oils are too expensive).

[Osaid]

Most people don't know how to take care of their bodies and heart disease has been the number 1 cause of death in the USA for a while now. I don't see why coconut oil would be exempt from being seen as something that can cause high-cholesterol, it is high in fat after all. You just gotta consume this stuff in moderation and know what you're doing.

[Michael569]

7 hours ago, Osaid said:

Most people don't know how to take care of their bodies and heart disease has been the number 1 cause of death in the USA for a while now. I don't see why coconut oil would be exempt from being seen as something that can cause high-cholesterol, it is high in fat after all. You just gotta consume this stuff in moderation and know what you're doing.

I'm merely pointing out to the myth that coconut is NOT healthy. At least not the fat part. The water is great but it is not worth exporting over the entire world...but that's for another topic. Most people know that butter is horrible so many will avoid it yet coconut is still seen as some sort of miracle superfood which needs to change. Too much unhealthy garbage out there already

[Toby]

@Michael569 assuming I'm on keto, what oils should I use in your opinion?

Edit: and is Ghee also "bad"?

Edited July 16, 2020 by Toby

[Michael569]

16 hours ago, Toby said:

assuming I'm on keto, what oils should I use in your opinion?

Extra virgin olive oil for cooking has the best results when compared to others on cooking. Or don't use oils for cooking at all. I've stopped a long time ago.