Recently I’ve been asked by my patients about coconut oil. Is it beneficial to our health or detrimental, because it is a saturated fat?
First, FAT has been redeemed recently in the largest epidemiological PURE study. It was an 18-country study that followed 135,335 individuals for 7 years to examine associations between diet and total mortality, cardiovascular mortality (death from a heart attack or stroke), cardiovascular events (number of heart attacks and strokes), and non-cardiovascular mortality.
Overall, the study found that diets very high in carbohydrates (>60%), and therefore low in fat, were associated with a statistically significantly higher risk of DEATH. There was also a significantly observed protective effect of total fat, both on total and non-cardiovascular deaths. As well as an interesting protective effect of total and saturated fat on the risk of stroke. [1]
I guess it’s time to reconsider our dietary recommendations!
Now let’s review the data on Coconut oil, which has the highest content of saturated fat among plants.
The known benefits of Coconut Oil include:
- Anti-inflammatory pain reliever, including in patients with arthritis [2]
- Anti-microbial effect [3]
- Anti-oxidant [4]
- Better improvements weight loss compared with olive oil [5]
- Lowers lipid levels in serum and tissues, LDL (bad cholesterol), oxidation (stickiness that causes cholesterol aggregation in the vessels), and helps with abdominal obesity [6]
- Can help to stimulate and improve the brain’s capacity to learn and categorize information. The omegas fatty acids can help reduce mental conditions like depression, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, and dementia [7,8]
- Protects liver from the toxins [9]
- Prevents bone loss in osteoporosis [10]
- And many more, in addition to the various uses skin products
Enjoy it!
If you would like to receive more advice on healthy living, please schedule an appointment with Dr. Koganski at 215-750-7000 or www.NewtownInternalMedicine.com
References:
[1] Dehghan M, et al. Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study. The Lancet August, 2017. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32252-3.
[2] Intahphuak S, et al. Anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antipyretic activities of virgin coconut oil. Pharmaceutical Biology Vol. 48 , Iss. 2,2010.
[3] Shilling M, et al. Antimicrobial effects of virgin coconut oil and its medium-chain fatty acids on Clostridium difficile. J Med Food. 2013 Dec;16(12):1079-85.
[4] Arunima S Effect of virgin coconut oil enriched diet on the antioxidant status and paraoxonase 1 activity in ameliorating the oxidative stress in rats – a comparative study. Food Funct. 2013 Sep;4(9):1402-9.
[5] St-Onge M-P et al. Weight-loss diet that includes consumption of medium-chain triacylglycerol oil leads to a greater rate of weight and fat mass loss than does olive oil. Am J Clin Nutr March 2008 vol. 87 no. 3 621-626.
[6] Assunção ML et al. Effects of dietary coconut oil on the biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women presenting abdominal obesity. Lipids. 2009 Jul;44(7):593-601.
[7] Fernando WM et al. The role of dietary coconut for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: potential mechanisms of action. Br J Nutr. 2015 Jul 14;114(1):1-14.
[8] James E. Galvin, et al. Optimizing diagnosis and management in mild-to-moderate Alzhemer disease. Neurodegener Dis Manag. 2012 Jun; 2(3): 291–304.
[9] Otuechere CA et al. Virgin coconut oil protects against liver damage in albino rats challenged with the anti-folate combination, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. J Basic Clin Physiol Pharmacol. 2014 May 1;25(2):249-53.
[10] Hayatullina Z et al. Virgin coconut oil supplementation prevents bone loss in osteoporosis rat model. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:237236. Epub 2012 Sep 16.
Tags:
saturated fat
coconut oil
lipids
cholesterol
liver
weight loss
liver dementia
memory
alzheimer’s
memory loss
bone loss
arthritis
