The Consensus: Coconut Oil Is Not a Healthy Choice

Coconut oil is attracting a lot of attention for its many claimed health benefits. Fuelled by celebrity endorsements, this ‘superfood’ claims to help you lose weight, boost your immune system, prevent heart disease, and protect you against Alzheimer’s disease. Many of these health claims are marketing hype being well advanced of the science. Coconut oil is a pin-up food to showcase the power of the Internet to propagate any food to ‘superfood’ status.

A healthy saturated fat?

Coconut oil is very high in saturated fat, at around 90 percent. Some claim that the type of saturated fat found in it is healthier than other types of saturated fat so it doesn’t represent a risk to cardiovascular health. Is this true?

Populations that use coconut oil as part of their traditional lifestyles do appear to have lower rates of heart disease. So, this gives some credence to the heart-health claims. But of course, such observational studies can be heavily biased by all sorts of other lifestyle factors. There have been some clinical trials that appear to show that coconut oil may have less of an adverse effect on blood cholesterol than other types of saturated fat. But that doesn’t mean that it is healthier than other types of oils.

What’s the Evidence?

Looking at the observational and clinical trial evidence together, what sort of conclusions can be drawn? Combining 21 published studies, New Zealand researchers found that coconut oil did raise the less favourable LDL-cholesterol to a greater extent than other types of plant oils. Butter, however, was found to raise LDL-cholesterol even more.

When the observational evidence was looked at, it was almost impossible to claim that coconut oil was an explanation for any heart health benefits. Traditional dietary patterns and lifestyles are the main explanation for this. In such diets, coconut oil is eaten together with the fibre from the coconut along with plenty of omega-3 fats from fish. These traditional diets also are low in highly refined carbohydrates and sugar. Compare that to the popular coconut oil dessert-based dishes that abound in its promotion through social media.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials published in January 2020 also came to a similar conclusion that coconut oil does indeed raise the more harmful LDL-cholesterol. Then we have the American Heart Association (AHA) who issued a scientific advisory statement in 2017 to replace saturated fats (including coconut and other tropical oils) with unsaturated fats. ls. The AHA advised against the use of coconut oil and suggested limiting all saturated fat.

Experts say – there is too much hype

Dr Senthilkumar Sankararaman from Case Western Reserve University summarised well what we know about coconut oil. Coconut oil is stated to offer various health benefits including weight loss, enhancing immune functions, supporting cardiovascular health and improving memory. But the majority of these claims have no solid scientific to back them up.

Current evidence clearly demonstrates that ingestion of coconut oil increases LDL-cholesterol, the bad cholesterol which has been linked to adverse cardiovascular outcome. While a lower prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in some parts of the world where coconut products (such as coconut flesh, coconut oil etc.) are widely consumed, this cannot be generalised to the developed world as the dietary practices and lifestyle factors are way different. Also, coconut oil is often referred to as an excellent source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) due to its high concentration of lauric acid (~50%). Here researchers differ in opinion whether lauric acid can be considered a MCTs or not. However, the clinical benefits of commercially available MCTs (predominant mix of capric and caprylic acids) are different from coconut oil (predominantly lauric acid) and both are not interchangeable.

Professor Bart De Gest from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven noted that taken together, there is no simple answer to the question of whether coconut oil is healthy or unhealthy. It is, however, difficult to envisage that it is healthy. It is more the dietary context that coconut oil is consumed in that is just as important to look at.

There is merit though in using a variety of oils and fats in your cooking rather than relying on one ‘superfood’ to cure all your health problems. Coconut oil certainly has its place in the kitchen. So too does olive oil, and with a lot more favourable scientific evidence to support its use.

Takeaway : Coconut oil is not some miracle health elixir. On balance it should be viewed as not much different from other sources of dietary saturated fat. It has a place in cooking like any oil or fat, but it is better to consider using a variety of oils in cooking for the job at hand and the taste outcome a person wants.