Coconut oil and many other coconut products have been a staple food for many people for thousands of years. And although the oil is rich in saturated fat, it has helpful properties for human health. It is very easy to digest, regulates blood lipid levels, has an antimicrobial effect (both internally and externally), and does not lead to obesity as easily as other fats. How is it that some experts still regularly advise against coconut oil?
Coconut Oil: One of the Most Natural Oils
Coconut oil is one of the most natural oils available to humans. For example, the ripe coconut consists of about 35 percent coconut oil and can be eaten very easily in larger quantities once opened.
In comparison, imagine rapeseed. It is tiny and rock-hard. It is hardly possible to eat it, let alone get to its oil. Without monoculture and mechanical processing, rapeseed oil would not exist at all. Safflower oil or soybean oil are also not exactly oils that we have known since time immemorial.
Coconuts, however, are a staple food for the peoples of the South Seas—a staple food that has kept them productive and healthy for thousands of years without ever having to worry about diabetes, cholesterol levels, heart attacks, or strokes.
If you are familiar with the fatty acid composition of coconut oil, you may find this information surprising. This is because it consists to a large extent (on average, 90 percent) of saturated fatty acids. And saturated fatty acids are generally considered bad; they lead to elevated cholesterol levels and, sooner or later, to heart attacks and strokes, they say.
The fatty acids in coconut oil
The fatty acid composition is as follows:
Medium-chain saturated fatty acids:
- Lauric acid (44-52%), the most studied medium-chain fatty acid
- Capric acid (6–10%)
- Caprylic acid (5–9%)
Long-chain saturated fatty acids:
- Myristic acid (13–19%)
- Palmitic acid (8–11%)
- Stearic acid (1–3%)
Monounsaturated fatty acids:
- Oleic acid (5–8%)
- Palmitoleic acid less than 1%
Polyunsaturated fatty acids:
- Linoleic acid (omega-6-fatty acid) 0–2.5%
- Alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3 fatty acid) less than 1%
Rich in medium-chain fatty acids
Coconut oil is the only natural cooking oil with such a high content of medium-chain fatty acids. Medium-chain fatty acids are saturated fatty acids with a specific chain length. For example, while a long-chain fatty acid such as stearic acid consists of a chain with 18 carbon atoms (C stands for carbon), caprylic acid is made up of only 8 carbon atoms, capric acid of 10, and lauric acid of 12 carbon atoms.
Medium-chain fatty acids therefore consist of chains with 8 to 12 carbon atoms, and long-chain fatty acids consist of chains with 14 to 24 carbon atoms.
It is the medium-chain fatty acids that give coconut oil a large part of its special properties.
Easy to digest and fewer calories
Medium-chain fatty acids are, first of all, very easy to digest. Without the cooperation of the bile acids, they can be digested. They are water-soluble and therefore reach the liver without detours via the bloodstream.
Now, and this is the next advantage, they are often used by the body for energy production and are less readily stored in the fat deposits.
In addition, medium-chain fatty acids provide one calorie less per gram than other fatty acids.
These two properties of these fatty acids mean that coconut oil has a reputation for contributing less to weight gain than other fats and, on the contrary, even helping you lose weight (2).
This aspect was confirmed by a Japanese-controlled, double-blind study published in The Journal of Nutrition in 2001.
78 heavier persons but healthy participants (people with BMIs over 23) were divided into two groups. Both ate the same thing during the 12-week study period, only one group (M) received 60 grams of a fat made from medium-chain fatty acids daily, and the other group (L) received 60 grams of a fat made from long-chain fatty acids.
Both groups lost weight. However, group M lost significantly more weight than group L. And not only that.
As is well known, diets often reduce muscle mass in particular, while the body fat percentage can only be reduced hesitantly. Group M, however, experienced significantly higher body fat loss as well as a higher fat loss of the subcutaneous tissue than group L.
The researchers concluded at the time that medium-chain fatty acids can reduce body weight and body fat percentage better than a diet containing long-chain fatty acids.
Against viruses, bacteria, and fungi
The medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil have antimicrobial, antiviral, and antifungal effects – both when used internally and externally (15).
The oil can therefore be used as a skin oil for fungal diseases. In the case of vaginal thrush or bacterial diseases of the vaginal mucosa, it can be used for intimate hygiene or as a lubricant and thus helps to fight the unpleasantly itchy microbes and fungi on the spot.
Why and how exactly does coconut oil work against bacteria and the like?
Lauric acid against herpes and other viruses
The medium-chain lauric acid alone accounts for about 50 percent of the fatty acids found in coconut oil. In the human or animal body, lauric acid first converts into monolaurin.
There are also studies that show that free lauric acid also has antimicrobial properties. However, it is mainly monolaurin – a so-called monoglyceride – that is ultimately effective against viruses and bacteria (5) (13).
Monolaurin wards off specially enveloped viruses (e.g. HI, herpes, cytomegaloviruses and flu viruses) in the human and animal organism. Enveloped viruses are surrounded by a lipid envelope.
Monolaurin is so dangerous for viruses because it can dissolve its very shell, which leads to the inactivation of the virus (8).
About six to ten percent of the fatty acids in coconut oil consist of capric acid – also a medium-chain fatty acid with a similar health-promoting effect as lauric acid (16).
Capric acid against chlamydia & Co.
Capric acid is also particularly effective when it is converted into its monoglyceride, monocaprin, in the human or animal organism. Monocaprin is currently being tested for both its antiviral activity against herpes simplex viruses and its antibacterial activity against chlamydia and other sexually transmitted bacteria.
However, older studies on this topic are already available, such as that of Thormar et al. (4), in which the inactivating effect of monocaprin on the viruses mentioned, including HIV, was demonstrated – at least in vitro (14).
How medium-chain fatty acids work against chlamydia was shown by the study by Bergsson et al. (4a).
Overall, lauric acid or monolaurin has a higher antiviral activity than the other medium-chain fatty acids or their monoglycerides.
Viruses that can be inactivated by medium-chain fatty acids include:
- HI virus
- the measles virus,
- the herpes simplex-1 virus (HSV-1),
- the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV),
- the Visna virus and the
- Cytomegalovirus.
However, the fatty acids in coconut oil are not only effective against viruses and bacteria, but – as already mentioned – also against fungi.
Against fungal infections
Medium-chain fatty acids reduce the activity of fungi, such as Candida albicans. One study showed an antifungal effect of capric acid on Candida colonizations in the mouth area of prosthesis wearers. In an in vitro study, three different strains of Candida were combated with both capric acid and lauric acid.
Coconut oil can be used internally for intestinal fungal infections, and externally for fungal infections of the skin or mucous membranes (34).
Medium-chain fatty acids harmless to intestinal bacteria
Could the fatty acids also harm the intestinal flora due to their antibacterial effect?
Medium-chain fatty acids or their monoglycerides, such as monolaurin, do not appear to have a harmful effect on beneficial intestinal bacteria, but only on potentially pathogenic microorganisms (6) (7).
Researchers led by Isaacs (9) (10) (11) (12), for example, did not demonstrate inactivation by monolaurin in the widespread microbes that frequently colonize the intestine, such as Escherichia coli (17) (18) (19) (20).
In pathogenic microbes such as Haemophilus influenza, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Gram-positive group B streptococcus, on the other hand, a very strong inactivation.
Linked to heart disease?
Four decades of research into the interactions between coconut oil as a dietary ingredient and heart disease came to much the same conclusion:
The oil is rather helpful in minimizing the risk factors for heart disease.
In their study, Blackburn et al. (25) looked at the published literature on the “effects of coconut oil on serum cholesterol and atherogenesis” and concluded that the oil “when supplemented with other fats or sufficiently with linoleic acid, is a neutral fat in terms of atherogenesis”. (Atherogenesis = origin/development of arteriosclerosis)
After studying the same literature in the late 1990s, Kurup & Rajmoran conducted a study of 64 volunteers and found “no statistically significant change in all cholesterol levels (total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, etc.) compared to baseline” with coconut oil consumption. They announced the results in 1995 in India at the Symposium on Coconut and Coconut Oil in Human Nutrition.
Kaunitz & Dayrit examined the epidemiological experimental data of groups that had eaten coconuts throughout their lives even earlier, namely as early as 1992, and wrote
“The available population studies show that coconut oil in the diet does not lead to high serum cholesterol or high mortality or morbidity from coronary heart disease.”
They further found that Mendis et al. (1989) had detected adverse lipid changes in young male adults from Sri Lanka after they changed their diet from ordinary coconut oil to corn oil.
Although serum cholesterol dropped by 18.7 percent and LDL cholesterol by 23.8 percent due to corn oil, HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) also fell by 41.4 percent, far below the lowest acceptable HDL level of 35 mg/dL, causing the LDL/HDL ratio to increase by 30 percent — which is an extremely bad sign (28).
Previously, Prior et al. (30) had already shown something similar, namely that in islanders who consume large amounts of coconut products (including oil), “no evidence was observed that the high intake of saturated fats has a harmful effect in these groups”.
However, when these groups migrated to New Zealand, where their coconut consumption decreased, their total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels increased and their HDL cholesterol levels decreased.
Mendis & Kumarasunderam (29) compared the effects of coconut and soybean oil in young men with normal blood lipid levels, and again the consumption of the former led to an increase in HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), whereas soybean oil lowered this desired lipoprotein ( 22 ).
Coconut oil against arteriosclerosis?
Further research has shown that herpes and cytomegaloviruses may play a role in the formation of atherosclerotic deposits in the blood vessels, as well as in the re-narrowing of the arteries after angioplasty (surgical dilation of a blood vessel, e.g. by inserting a stent) (article in the New York Times of 1984).
What is interesting about this is that the antimicrobial monolaurin – as we have seen above – can inhibit precisely this herpes and cytomegaloviruses, but monolaurin is only formed in the body if lauric acid is part of the diet. And lauric acid is contained in coconut oil ( 32 ) ( 33 ) ( 35 ) ( 36 ) ( 37 ) ( 38 ) ( 39 ) ( 40 ).
A review (41) by Lawrence (2013) summarizes the current state of knowledge as follows:
“Although previous studies have suggested that a saturated fat diet with a low intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids increases cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease, the evidence has always been weak. Over the years, it has been shown that saturated fats are not linked to heart disease or other health problems, but on the contrary – especially saturated fats from coconut oil – can improve health.”
Against dementia?
The brain affected by Alzheimer’s can only insufficiently use glucose as an energy source. However, so-called ketones can be produced from coconut oil to provide alternative energy to the brain.
The Alzheimer’s brain can use this to generate energy, the symptoms then decrease and the disease progresses more slowly or even improves.
In cancer
Coconut oil can also be integrated into the diet for cancer. It provides the often-emaciated body with easily digestible calories, relieves the immune system through its antimicrobial effects and also has an anti-inflammatory effect.
Yes, there is even a program ‘The Ketogenic Cleanse’ that is carried out over three to ten days and is designed to help starve cancer cells, while healthy body cells can use ketones as an energy source that the body can make from the oil.
Is coconut oil involved in the formation of fatty tumors?
So-called atheromas are benign fatty tumors that usually form on the hairy head area (e.g. on the neck or behind the ear) or the abdomen. These are benign cysts that fill with fat.
Now you might think that the cysts are certainly filled with the “bad” saturated fatty acids that the body tries to deposit somewhere. But far from it.
The chemical analysis of atheromas has shown that they consist of about 40 percent polyunsaturated and over 30 percent monounsaturated fatty acids, i.e. a total of 70 percent unsaturated fatty acids, but only just under 25 percent saturated fatty acids.
Furthermore, none of the saturated fatty acids were fatty acids from coconut oil, i.e. neither lauric nor myristic acid. ( 31 )
Coconut oil: Victim of the cooking oil industry
Interestingly, most of the listed positive properties and effects of coconut oil have been known for many decades – as the data of the listed studies shows, so they were merely dropped under the table to talk us into elaborately produced industrial oils from seeds such as rapeseed oil or soybean oil as particularly healthy, some of which have now been genetically modified.
Unfortunately, the advantages of coconut oil were not only ignored, they even did it downright badly, to draw as many people as possible to the side of the polyunsaturated vegetable oils, which, to make matters worse, were also offered for sale in a highly industrially processed way.
For more than three decades, coconut oil and its producers suffered from defamation that originated in the United States, coming from publications by the consumer advocacy organization Centers for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the American Soybean Association (ASA), and other representatives of the cooking oil industry.
At the same time, there were publications from the scientific and medical community, which in turn had received their misinformation from institutions such as the CSPI and the ASA.
But how did it all begin?
Coconut oil: victim of intrigue and disinformation
In the late 1950s, a researcher in Minnesota claimed that hydrogenated vegetable fats were the cause of the rise in heart disease.
The edible oil industry feared a loss of sales and claimed that it was not the hardening that was the problem, but the saturated fatty acids present in the hydrogenated fats.
At the same time, a researcher from Philadelphia reported that the consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids led to a reduction in cholesterol levels.
The edible oil industry reacted to this scientific publication and the general recognition of it by focusing more and more on replacing the “saturated fats” found in food with “polyunsaturated fats”.
In the industrial processing of unsaturated fats, however, there is an enormous risk that harmful degradation products and, of course, especially the dangerous trans fats can develop due to the instability of these fats. However, no one was interested in that at the time.
Then, in August 1986, the above-mentioned consumer protection organization CSPI published a “press release” in which it described “palm, coconut and palm kernel oil” as “rich in artery-clogging saturated fats”.
The CSPI also demanded the mandatory labelling addition “saturated fat” if coconut oil or palm oil were contained in a product.
In 1988, the CSPI published a brochure entitled “Saturated Fat Attack”. This brochure included lists of products containing “undesirable tropical oils” so that the consumer could avoid these products.
The brochure had a number of serious errors: for example, it provided an incorrect description of the biochemistry of fats and oils and made false statements about the fat and oil composition of many products.
All this was incidental. The main thing was that consumers avoided tropical fats such as coconut oil in the future and only bought domestic oils and fats or products made from them.
Coconut oil in the focus of the soybean oil industry
At the same time, the American Soybean Association (ASA) also launched a campaign against coconut oil and other tropical oils, such as sending anti-coconut oil letters to soybean farmers or placing advertisements with a “Guide to Combating (Tropical) Fats.”
Another ASA project was to hire a “nutritionist” to monitor supermarkets in Washington to check the foods for their content of coconut oil and other tropical oils.
At the beginning of 1987, the ASA called on the FDA to introduce the labelling requirement “contains tropical fats” – and thus blew the same horn as the CSPI before it (21).
In mid-1987, the ASA campaign against coconut oil continued. On June 3, 1987, the New York Times published the editorial “The Truth About Vegetable Oil” (24), which described coconut oil and other tropical oils as “the cheaper, artery-clogging oils from Malaysia and Indonesia” and claimed that tropical oils did not comply with American dietary guidelines, although this was by no means settled. The term “arterial blockage” came directly from the CSPI.
ASA magazine Media Alert also announced that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Research Council “advised consumers to avoid palm, palm kernel, and coconut oil” (26).
Attacks on coconut oil distracted from the real culprit
And so it went on and on, until even today, many people, even doctors and nutritionists, advise against coconut oil because of the fatty acids saturated in it.
Because what was the result of these campaigns? People now focused on avoiding coconut oil and other tropical fats. They bought and ate local, but mostly industrially processed vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oil and also made sure that they did not contain coconut oil when buying ready-made products.
However, no one paid attention to the real culprits, namely the omega-6 excess from many vegetable oils and the trans fats in hydrogenated oils and fats – trans fats that are produced only from unsaturated fatty acids, never from saturated fatty acids. .
Therefore, enjoy the delicious coconut oil – of course in cold-pressed organic quality and not in excess – and rather avoid processed fats (in ready-made products) from unsaturated fatty acids.
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