Switching From Coconut Oil to Olive Oil Can Be Good for Your Heart

Coconut oil is as bad as beef fat and but­ter, accord­ing to new research by the American Heart Association.

Often sold as a health food prod­uct, coconut oil is pro­moted as hav­ing fat con­tent that’s bet­ter for peo­ple than other sat­u­rated fats. The AHA, how­ever, states there are no cred­i­ble stud­ies to sup­port such a claim. In fact, coconut oil is packed with sat­u­rated fat that can increase so-called ​“bad” cho­les­terol, accord­ing to the study.

The research showed 82 per­cent of the fat in coconut oil is sat­u­rated. That’s more than the amount in but­ter, 63 per­cent, and beef fat, 50 per­cent. Eating a diet high in sat­u­rated fats can raise the level of low-den­sity lipopro­tein cho­les­terol in the blood. This may result in clogged arter­ies and increased risk of heart-related con­di­tions.

“We want to set the record straight on why well-con­ducted sci­en­tific research over­whelm­ingly sup­ports lim­it­ing sat­u­rated fat in the diet to pre­vent dis­eases of the heart and blood ves­sels,” Frank Sacks, lead author of the report, said.

The AHA’s report also said replac­ing coconut oil with alter­na­tives such as olive oil and sun­flower oil, can help reduce cho­les­terol lev­els and risk of heart dis­ease as much as statin treat­ment.

Evidence from ran­dom­ized con­trolled tri­als sug­gested that swap­ping out sat­u­rated fat with unsat­u­rated veg­etable oil reduced the chance of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease by 30 per­cent. The effect was sim­i­lar to results achieved by cho­les­terol-low­er­ing med­ica­tion.

The orga­ni­za­tion rec­om­mends cut­ting down sat­u­rated fat intake as much as pos­si­ble.

“Saturated fats can increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other blood ves­sel dis­eases,” Sacks said.

Saturated fats are typ­i­cally found in meat, full-fat dairy prod­ucts and trop­i­cal oils such as coconut oil and palm oil.

Health advice in regards to what types of fats are good to eat can some­times be puz­zling. Animal fats, such as those found in but­ter and lard, are con­sid­ered bad, while plant-based oils, such as olive oil and sun­flower oil, are viewed as healthy options. This wis­dom is based on sat­u­rated fat con­tent and the idea that sat­u­rated fats are bad.

“To eat well for your heart health is not just about reduc­ing fat but reduc­ing spe­cific types of fat and tak­ing care over what these are replaced with, such as unsat­u­rated fats and whole grains, rather than sug­ars and refined car­bo­hy­drates,” Victoria Taylor of the British Heart Foundation told the BBC.

“Any change should be viewed in the con­text of a whole diet approach. The tra­di­tional Mediterranean diet has ben­e­fits for a range of risk fac­tors for heart dis­ease, not just cho­les­terol lev­els.

“We rec­om­mend replac­ing the sat­u­rated fats in the diet with unsat­u­rated fats, like using oils instead of but­ter and choos­ing foods like avo­cado, oily fish, nuts and seeds instead of foods high in sat­u­rated fats like cakes, cook­ies, choco­late and fatty meat.”

• American Heart Association


• BBC