How Coconut Oil Got Its Reputation for Being Healthy in the First Place

A state­ment from the American Heart Association in June had health food fanat­ics in a tizzy by bad-mouthing coconut oil for its high sat­u­rated fat con­tent, deliv­er­ing a blow to the highly-touted trop­i­cal prod­uct. But how exactly did coconut oil get its rep­u­ta­tion for being healthy in the first place?

The ori­gin of coconut oil’s rise to fame is partly based on a pair of stud­ies by Columbia University nutri­tion pro­fes­sor Marie-Pierre St. Onge. The results of this research, pub­lished in 2003, are often cited in arti­cles that sup­port the use of coconut oil as a healthy food option.

“My research has been focused on medium-chain triglyc­eride oil,” St. Onge told Olive Oil Times. ​“When I’m asked about which food sources this could be found in, it’s in the largest quan­ti­ties in coconut oil. It’s also found in palm ker­nel oil and but­ter. Those are spe­cific fatty acids that are not found in most veg­etable oils, other than those trop­i­cal oils.”

The stud­ies com­pared the use of medium-chain triglyc­eride oil and olive oil. Consumption of medium-chain triglyc­eride oil resulted in greater weight loss. It also did­n’t increase the risk of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease.

There’s just one prob­lem when apply­ing St. Onge’s research to the use of coconut oil.

“Those fatty acids make up about 13 – 14 per­cent of the total fatty acids found in coconut oil. The research I’ve done was with 100 per­cent medium-chain triglyc­eride oil,” she said. ​“So what we found is that when you eat medium-chain triglyc­eride oil at a level of 20 – 25 grams per day, par­tic­i­pants lost more weight and they did­n’t have an adverse car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease risk pro­file, at least in terms of their lipid pro­file, glu­cose and insulin lev­els, com­pared to olive oil.”

Despite the fact a cus­tom-made oil was used dur­ing the stud­ies, many have seized upon on St. Onge’s research to pro­mote coconut oil as a healthy food choice.

“I always find it sur­pris­ing, because I haven’t done research on coconut oil per se,” she said. ​“So I can’t really say whether coconut oil itself would have the same ben­e­fit for weight man­age­ment as medium-chain triglyc­eride oil.”

St. Onge stressed her research focused solely on medium-chain triglyc­eride oil and that she does­n’t want her pub­lished work to make it seem she endorses coconut oil.

“I don’t want to make it seem like I think that coconut oil has this health ben­e­fit because of my research. I know that some­times I see my research being quoted sup­port­ing the health ben­e­fits of coconut oil. I haven’t done coconut oil research so I can’t myself speak to the effects of it, only to the spe­cific fatty acids that are found in largest amounts in coconut oil.”

• Obesity Research Journal


• PubMed