In the past, many people, including some of my family members and friends, often advised me not to consume coconut oil as they said that it is bad for our health because it contains high amount of fats that can raise our cholesterol levels and increase the risk of diseases related to high cholesterol level such as atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
What some of the people didn't know is that some fats are essential to maintain good health. Dietary fats are classified into two general categories: saturated fats and unsaturated fats. The most obvious difference between saturated fats and unsaturated fats are the presence of double bonds in their chemical structure.
Saturated fats mostly derived from animal products such as meat, dairy and eggs although some are also found in some plant-based sources such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils whereas unsaturated fats are derived from vegetables and plants. Another way to classified fats is based on the length of the carbon chain within each fatty acid, which either gives us a short chain, medium chain or long chain fatty acid. Short chain fatty acids have less than 6 carbons in the backbone of the chain, medium chain fatty acids have 6 to 12 carbons, whereas long chain fatty acids have 12 or more carbons in their chains, and are the most abundant form of fats in our food sources.
Most of the people would probably think that all saturated fats are bad for health whereas unsaturated fats are beneficial for health. What most people didn't know is that not all saturated fats are bad for health and not all unsaturated fats are good for health. Only those saturated fats that have long chain fatty acids are bad for health as we digest long chain fatty acids differently than the medium and short chain fatty acids.
Interesting facts and more information about how short, medium and long chain fatty acids are digested differently can be found by clicking at this link http://thirdplanetfood.com/tidbits/?p=1499
An interesting fact that I want to share from the above link is that short and medium chain fatty acids can be absorbed and sent directly to the liver, where they are digested in much the same way as carbohydrates which means they are very likely to be burned as fuel right away, instead of being stored as fat. In other words, they can be used as fuel as efficiently as a carbohydrate.
Thus, only long chain saturated fats raise cholesterol levels. Since most of the saturated fats found in coconut oil are medium chain fatty acids, hence coconut oil does not have a negative effect on cholesterol and instead, it helps to protect us against heart disease.
Other advantages of coconut oil include:
- Improving immune system health
- Promoting body's metabolism, leading to weight loss
- Promoting healthy skin
- Supporting the healthy functioning of the thyroid
- Promote normal platelet function
Thus, it is totally wrong to belief that coconut oil is unhealthy as it is indeed very beneficial to maintain good health. Many researches have been carried out to discover the true benefits of coconut oil and according to Coconut Research Center home page at http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/, coconut oil has now gained long overdue recognition as a nutritious health food and has been described as “the healthiest oil on earth”.
