[John4216]

I wanted to post some information here but first I wanted to say that I am not against the use of coconut oil. I do worry about the "claims" made by people that sell it. Since I can't post the entire letter I will post pieces of it from the Harvard Medical School letters.

"Q. I’ve read that organic coconut oil has health benefits. Could coconut oil improve lipid profiles if consumed every day?
A. I doubt that coconut oil has health benefits, especially beneficial effects on lipids, and I wouldn’t recommend that you consume it regularly.
For years, fat was portrayed as unhealthful. That’s not true. “Bad fats,” such as saturated and trans fats, are bad for you, but “good fats” — monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — actually have health benefits."

The black-hat fats are a problem because they tend to increase LDL cholesterol levels, which in turn raises the risk of developing atherosclerosis and the heart disease and strokes that follow. True, they also tend to increase HDL (“good”) cholesterol, but not enough to compensate for the bad effects.
Dietary oils — canola, corn oil, and so on — are all forms of fat. But unlike most other oils made from plants, coconut oil, as well as palm oil, are high in saturated fat. Saturated fat comes in several varieties; coconut oil is rich in one called lauric acid. Some groups and self-proclaimed experts are hawking lauric acid as a wonder food that will boost your immune system, help you lose weight, fight cancer — you name it. Needless to say, the evidence is weak to nonexistent. A respected nutrition textbook on our shelves does refer to the possibility of it having modest cavity-fighting properties. By contrast, there’s a great deal of evidence that, like other saturated fats, lauric acid increases LDL levels.


There is more but I do not want to do any copyright problems here. they also have an article in their September 2007 newsletter that discusses FATS and coconnut oil is one of the ones listed. One of the comments from the doctor their about tropical oils is this:

"Dr. Walter Willett, chair of the Harvard School of Public Health’s nutrition department, has been a leading proponent of a more fat-friendly approach to eating. His research also helped expose the harm caused by trans fat.

The tropical oils in small amounts are okay, and they’re certainly an improvement over trans fat. Americans were scared away from them because of their saturated fat content. But remarkably, coconut oil and olive oil have similar effects on the ratio of LDL to HDL."

So while science may not know everything, it never claims to. It just makes the statement that you have to have verifiable proof to claims you make.

So what does this mean to me? To me it means that in small amounts it probably will not be hurtful but it could be harmful if not understood and used correctly.


As a side note here is one example of what I mean by flawed "proof":

Heart Healthy
Population studies show that coconut oil lowers cholesterol, and
reduces risk of heart disease. Americans consistently have higher
cholesterol levels than coconut eating cultures.

This implies that coconut oil is the only reason why. Fallacy. As any vegetarian knows it is not just oil. It is the entire diet period as well as other lifestyle activities. You could subsitute olive oil in place of coconut and the result would be the same in the above sentence.


I am happy for those of you it is working for and hope it is beneficial to others as well. But I also hope people will be careful when approaching something potentially life altering as this can be.