Coconut Oil Is Not As Healthy As You Think And Here Is Why

It's hard to find someone who doesn’t like coconuts. After all, they are fury spheres of deliciousness. However, coconut water is pointless as it doesn’t have any clear health benefits; it’s actually just a saltier version of normal water.

And, then, there’s coconut oil. It is the latest cooking fad; people all over the Internet are constantly claiming that it is much healthier than any other oil that exists. Well, bad news, but according to the American Heart Association (AHA), coconut oil is just as unhealthy as butter and beef dripping.

Based on a key advisory notice published in the journal Circulation – which refers all kinds of fats as well as their links to cardiovascular disease – coconut oil is actually packed with saturated fats. In fact, 82% of coconut oil is comprised out of saturated fats, far more than in regular butter (63), peanut oil (17), olive oil (14), and sunflower oil (10).

Unlike others, saturated fat can increase the amount of bad cholesterol in our bloodstream, which raises our risk of contracting heart disease in the future. We find it in butter and lard, cakes, biscuits, fatty meats, cheese, and cream, among other things – including coconut oil.

“A recent survey reported that 72% of the American public rated coconut oil as a ‘healthy food’ compared with 37% of nutritionists,” notes the AHA’s review. “This disconnect between lay and expert opinion can be attributed to the marketing of coconut oil in the popular press.”

A meta-analysis of a suite of experiments has finally shown that butter and coconut oil, regarding increasing the amount of bad cholesterol in our bodies, are just as bad as each other.

The AHA advises against the use of coconut oil, since it raises bad cholesterol, which is a cause of cardiovascular disease, while having no known offsetting favorable effects. In reality, there is nothing to gain and everything to lose by consuming coconut oil.


STOP. Do not do this. Africa Studio/Shutterstock
In case you already have high bad cholesterol levels, that means coconut oil is potentially very dangerous for you to consume or use in cooking. Replacing it by olive oil, according to the AHA, will drop your cholesterol levels the same as cutting-edge, cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that a little bit of fat is absolutely good for you, since fatty acids are necessary for proper absorption of vitamins. Unsaturated fats are thought to be quite good for you in this regard. You'll find them in avocados, fish oil, nuts, and seeds.

[H/T: BBC News]