The truth about coconut oil
FOR a number of years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the use of coconut oil and its good or bad cholesterol content.
The latest includes a report recently released by the American Heart Association saying that coconut oil will raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase your risk of heart disease.
In the report, lead author Frank Sacks posits arguments that coconut oil is almost 100 per cent fat and that its popularity now may be due to past studies that praised its benefits in relation to weight loss.
Sacks added that individuals might want to opt for vegetable oils or olive oil, but said coconut oil can still be an effective moisturiser or hair conditioner.
But general practitioner Dr Orlando Thomas disagrees. He said a case study can be done on the population of the Polynesian Islands, where large quantities of coconut oil are consumed, yet heart disease rates are basically non-existent.
Instead, Dr Thomas told All Woman of the many benefits of coconut oil, and regarding the report he wants to address two issues.
1. Coconut oil raises LDL
Dr Thomas said to the undiscerning patient or doctor this immediately spells trouble, but there are different types of LDL. “There are small-particle LDL (related to arterial plaque) and large-particle LDL which has no relationship to heart disease. The good news is coconut oil does not raise your small-particle LDL; instead, sugar, soy oil, canola oil, trans fats and long-chain fatty acids do.” He added that on the flip side, coconut oil raises HDL (good cholesterol), reducing LDL and striking a balance between the two.
2. Cholesterol levels and your risk of a heart attack.
“The reality is that 50 per cent of heart attack victims have perfectly normal cholesterol levels, so high cholesterol levels, in fact, do not cause a heart attack,” Dr Thomas said. He explained that you get a heart attack when you have inflamed unstable plaque that ruptures and triggers a clot in your arteries. “And what causes this inflammation and plaque to rupture? Lots of things — stress, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, trans fats, poor diet, etc. The good news is you can have lots of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, good stress management techniques, and avoid sugar and high carb foods as part of your fight against heart disease, instead of relying solely on statins and aspirin.”
Other benefits include:
•Improvement to immune function. Dr Thomas said coconut oil improves the body’s ability to fight against certain diseases and has shown improvement in brain function of Alzheimer’s patients.
•Digestion. “It improves overall digestion and is more tolerable in persons with stomach issues such as ulcers and Crohn’s disease,” he said.
• Composition remains the same when heated. Dr Thomas said that coconut oil is the only oil whose chemical composition remains the same when heated to certain temperatures. “Olive oil is good on salads, but not to cook with. When olive oil is heated past its smoke point, the fats can become carcinogenic. Other oils like this include canola, corn, sunflower, peanut and soy bean oils,” he said.
