Is coconut oil good for you?
Some people reckon it’s a miracle remedy, but Stephen Heard finds out if it’s all it’s cracked up to be.
The basics
There are several uses for your average brown drupe. Its fibrous husk can be purposed into rope or a doormat and the hard shell can be slow-cooked into activated charcoal. Using boiling water, a multi-purpose oil can also be extracted from its white flesh.
Coconut oil has been used for more than 5000 years. Before the bandwagon started adding it to their morning coffee, coconut oil was used as lamp oil and to suffocate head lice. It’s famously high in saturated fat – at around 80 to 90 per cent – which makes the liquid become solid at room temperature, and offers a high melting point during cooking.
Why it’s so popular
Where were you during the coconut resurgence?
The rise of the caveman paleo diet and its emphasis on highquality fats put coconut oil and affiliated products in the spotlight. Obliterate belly fat, prevent heart disease, curb your appetite, they said.
Recommendations to swallow it by the spoonful came in thick and fast – the oily mouthfeel is still lingering.
More than just a way to introduce natural calories and supposedly benefit heart health, coconut oil also has the reported benefits of seasoning your cast iron skillet, making your hair soft, repelling pesky beasties and removing crayon from timber.
Some will also have you believe that the oil will protect you from the sun’s ultra-violet rays.
The concept of oil-pulling is another big one in the handbook. This dental hygiene practice, which draws from ancient Indian medicine, involves swirling oil around your mouth in an effort to draw toxins.
What the experts say
In most cases, further controlled clinical trials are required to confirm the claims of coconut oil as an all-purpose miracle remedy.
There’s limited evidence to suggest that oil-pulling extracts toxins from the mouth, or that the coconut can be used to ward off the sun’s cancer-causing radiation.
On the former, one clinical trial involving 29 participants found coconut oil-pulling to have similar plaque inhibition activity as a chemical mouth rinse. A 2009 lab study suggested that coconut oil has the ability to act as natural sun protection, although, at SPF 7, that’s an inadequate sun protection rating and highly unrecommended.
Several clinical trials support that virgin coconut oil is an efficient and safe skin moisturiser, especially for those suffering atopic dermatitis. The application of coconut oil to hair has also been found to reduce the protein loss when used as a preand post-wash grooming product.
Despite epidemiological studies finding coconut-eating populations with low rates of cardiovascular disease, the main concern with coconut oil is its high saturated fat content, particularly when paired with the Western diet.
The medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil are often praised for being accessible energy sources and having health benefits like weight loss. One of the most prevalent, lauric acid, is believed to have the properties of both medium- and long-chain fatty acids – the latter of which can increase the bad cholesterol.
A 2016 New Zealand literature review says there is no convincing evidence to support claims that coconut oil is healthy in terms of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. It states that coconut oil raises total cholesterol, although not as much as butter. Further, a review published this year found coconut oil consumption significantly increased lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL) – the bad cholesterol – compared to non-tropical vegetable oils like avocado and olive.
Coconut oil is good for what?
Use it on your hair and skin all you want – just not as a form of sun protection. One tablespoon of coconut oil contains around 120 calories and 14 grams of fat.
There’s nothing wrong with it as part of a balanced diet, but all signs point to consuming healthier fats from plants, seafood, nuts and seeds to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Given its high melting point, coconut oil is useful for cooking and can be used as a flavour enhancer. Consult a registered medical professional for serious health issues.