Re: What are the factors that affect body temperature? -- Fats

[Guest guest]

You raise an interesting question, Alobar. I, too, have heard that coconut oil was supposed to boost thyroid hormone production, but I've never understood how. I wonder if that is just a coconut/thyroid myth.

Coconut oil definitely seems to raise body temperature, like the other fats. Maybe people were just assuming that anything that affects body temperature must be affecting the thyroid hormone supply and therefore assumed that coconut oil increased thyroid hormone production.

I don't know enough physiology to understand exactly why metabolizing fats would increase body temperature. Fats do have more calories per gram than proteins and carbs, and "calorie" is a measure of heat generated. So, a gram of fat would generate more heat than a gram of something else. But that is the limit of my understanding.

Zoe

----- Original Message -----

From: Alobar

On the coconut oil open forum it has been said that adding coconut oilto diet can raise body temperature, and stop people from having nightsweats. People seem to believe that coconut oil can help boostthyroid production, but I have never seen referfences to scholarlyjournals to suppot that supposition.Alobar

[Guest guest]

>From: " Zoe & " <ZOEA@...>

>

>You raise an interesting question, Alobar. I, too, have heard that coconut

>oil was supposed to boost thyroid hormone production, but I've never

>understood how. I wonder if that is just a coconut/thyroid myth.

Ray Peat wrote a good article on coconut oil. He does tell how it helps the

adrenals, he doesn't come right out and say why it's beneficial for the

thyroid, but he talks about the damage the unsaturated oils we usually use

have an anti-thyroid effect. Here's an excerpt -t

http://www.coconutoil.com/ray_peat_coconutoil.htm

By l950, then, it was established that unsaturated fats suppress the

metabolic rate, apparently creating hypothyroidism. Over the next few

decades, the exact mechanisms of that metabolic damage were studied.

Unsaturated fats damage the mitochondria, partly by suppressing the

repiratory enzyme, and partly by causing generalized oxidative damage. The

more unsaturated the oils are, the more specifically they suppress tissue

response to thyroid hormone, and transport of the hormone on the thyroid

transport protein. "

Skipper

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