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This was published 6 years ago
Treat coconut oil like butter or beef fat, American Heart Association says
By Lucy Cormack
Some rub it on their hair and face, or cook their every meal in it. Others drink it in their coffee, swish it around their mouth daily, and even eat it straight from the jar.
Coconut oil has long been touted as a health "super food", with countless celebrities backing it.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie and Miranda Kerr all promote the benefits of coconut oil in their food and beauty routines.
"Builds muscles, moisturises skin, increases weight loss, improves brain function," are just some of the health benefits linked to coconut oil consumption.
Coconut oil's saturated fat raises cholesterol in the same way as butter and palm oil, the AHA says.Credit: Tom Woodward
But a paper from the American Heart Association has found the predominantly saturated fat raises cholesterol in the same way as other fats found in butter, beef fat and palm oil.
The paper, published in the association's journal Circulation, reviews all current evidence to better explain the framework behind the association's long-standing recommendation to limit foods high in saturated fats.
"We wanted to set the record straight ... saturated fat increases low-density lipoproteins (LDL) – bad cholesterol – which is a major cause of artery-clogging plaque and cardiovascular disease," said Frank Sacks, lead author and professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at Harvard University.
In our blood we have both good (high-density lipoproteins, or HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol.
Coconut oil has long been touted as a health "super food", with countless celebrities backing it.Credit: iStock
LDL is considered bad because it can increase fatty deposits in arteries, thus damaging blood vessel health. In contrast, HDL helps to prevent cholesterol from building up in the arteries.
The AHA paper referred to a recent review that found seven controlled trials in which there was no difference between coconut oils and others high-saturated fats (butter, beef fat, palm oil) when it came to raising LDL cholesterol.
It also pointed to a controlled experiment that found coconut oil significantly increased LDL cholesterol compared with olive oil.
"Because coconut oil increases LDL cholesterol, and has no known offsetting favourable effects, we advise against the use of coconut oil," it said.
Globally, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, accounting for 17.3 million deaths per year.
In Australia one person dies of cardiovascular disease on average every 12 minutes, while one in six Australians is affected by the disease.
Beth Meertans, senior policy adviser on nutrition at the Heart Foundation, said the AHA research was not new, but it offered a useful update to confirm "the science remains the same".
"Despite claims coconut oil is healthy, evidence shows it raises cholesterol in a similar way to other oils like palm oil and butter ... whereas healthier choices like olive and canola oil don't," she said.
"From a nutrition perspective, we've known for some time, it's not a healthy oil to choose. For me, the best use of coconut oil is as a moisturiser or make-up remover."
Ms Meertans said food trends such as "bullet-proof coffee" have played a role in the oil's increasing popularity in Australia. The organic coffee blended with grass-fed butter and coconut oil is said to "promote brain function, memory and energy levels".
Senior lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School Rohan Miller said there was almost nothing more powerful today than celebrity "e-word of mouth".
"Celebrities can be enormously influential, particularly if they are not seen to be paid spokespeople. In terms of digital media, they have millions of followers and those followers believe what these people say," he said.
"What we see is marketers saying, 'This product has X, Y, Z benefits,' and then a celebrity communicates those. Unfortunately, the compounding effect is that people have maladjusted diets because they selectively take that advice."
In April last year data from beverage research firm Canadean revealed coconut oil prices had soared nearly 20 per cent in a month, largely due to the growing popularity of specialty products such as coconut water.
The leading coconut producer nations are the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia.