Re: Coconut oil contains a different type of saturated fat?

[Guest guest]

Haven't you answered your own question? If this " Director of the Coconut Research Center " won't back up his assertions, why would you consider it anything but nonsense? On what basis would you entertain it as believable?

If there is one thing that our members , and Dr Walford's readers should know, it's to question the validity of statements like this.

In our links section we link to a chart of the different fats. Coconut has 91% saturated fat. If you can find anything in Pubmed or any other credible source, (such as we use here), that claims coconut saturated fat is " healthy " , by all means post it.

And if you find other stuff like this on the web, with nothing to back it up, please refrain from posting it.

on 2/22/2007 6:27 PM, orb85750 at orb85750@... wrote:

Judging by some of the previous posts I found here, the general opinion

seems to be to avoid coconut due to its high saturated fat content.

However, I'm reading Better Nutrition magazine right now, and there is

an article touting the health benefits of coconut oil. According to

the article (which contains no references), research has shown that

coconuts and coconut oil may reduce the risk of heart disease, fight

viruses and bacteria, and promote strong bones and teeth. Furthermore,

Bruce Fife, CN, ND (director of the Coconut Research Center) is quoted

as saying, " There are a number of different saturated fats and the ones

found in coconut oil are actually quite healthy. " Is this nonsense or

not?

[Guest guest]

While it is being promoted in some circles and on the internet as a health food, I would not recommend the use of coconut oil. Coconut oil is over 90% saturated fat, and is almostly completely void of any essential nutrients. Ounce for ounce, coconut oil has more saturated fat than butter, beef tallow, and even lard. Therefore, coconut oil will raise LDL cholesterol as much – or more – than animal fats One of the claims for coconut oil is that it contins shorter chain saturated fatty acids (caproic, caprylic, and capric acids to be specific) that do not raise (or lower) LDL-C levels. While this is true, these medium chain triglycerides (MCT) make up a small minority of the saturated fatty acids in coconut oil. And, because there are medicinal uses to MCTs they are often removed from coconut oil by a fractionation leaving an even higher concentration of the LDL-C raising Lauric, myrisitc,

and palmitic acids (the long cain fatty acids proven to raise LDL-C levels). There are numerous studies proving coconut oil dramatically raises LDL-C in animals and people when it replaces other oils in the diet (all of which have less cholesterol-raising fatty acids than does coconut oil. Another claim is that some populations that consume coconut oil, have little heart disease. The human population that ate the highest amount of natural coconut fat and the most saturated fat live on the island of Tokelau. Their total cholesterol level is considerably higher than that of Americans the same age despite the fact that their diet is very low in cholesterol and has more fiber and plant sterols than the typical American diet. Back when coconuts were their largest source of calories the Tokelauans had an average total cholesterol level of 245mg/dl in the 55-64y age

group. Of course, few were overweight or obese, few had diabetes, their salt intake was low and few developed hypertension, and tobacco smoking was not possible so they may have had fewer deaths from heart attacks because they really only had one risk factor and that was a high total cholesterol (and no doubt LDL-C) because of their high intake of saturated fat from coconuts. There is no doubt that coconut oil will raise LDL-C and if it is added to a typical American diet would raise LDL-C and promote atherosclerosis and heart attacks. A recent study reported in the August 15, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology showed the harm from even one meal high in fat (where the fat came from coconut oil) Jeff