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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the oil's-well-that-ends-well dept.

Submitted via IRC for takyon

Is Coconut Oil All It's Cracked Up To Be? Get The Facts On This Faddish Fat

In the past few years, coconut oil has been called a superfood that can help you blast belly fat and raise your good cholesterol. The sweet and nutty trendsetter has been featured in many cookbooks as a substitute for olive or canola oil — and it can cost a bundle at the store.

A recent survey found that 72 percent of Americans say coconut oil is a "healthy food," but many nutrition experts aren't convinced.

The problem is that coconut oil contains a lot of saturated fat — the kind that is a big risk factor for heart disease, which kills more than 17 million people a year worldwide.

[...] So why does the idea that coconut oil is somehow good for us persist? No one is really sure.

"Why things like coconut oil somehow slipped under the radar is a little bit unclear, but it's not consistent with any of the recommendations that have occurred over the past 30, 40, 50 years," says Lichtenstein.

While some research has linked the main type of saturated fatty acid in coconut oil — lauric acid — to increased levels of HDL, or "good" cholesterol, it still raises LDL cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, she notes in the advisory, citing multiple studies.

And while enthusiasts point out that coconut oil is rich in antioxidants, there is little evidence that once the oil is refined, which is how most of us buy it in the store, those properties are retained.

[...] But don't think of coconut oil as a health elixir. And remember that when it comes to good nutrition, including fats, it's all about balance, Lichtenstein says. And there's more solid evidence behind the healthfulness of other plant-based oils such as extra virgin olive oil.

With the rise in popularity of low-carb diets embracing more fat in recent years, it's no wonder consumers are confused about which fats are best. And most oils contain more than one variety of fat. Iowa State University has a handy chart to help you compare the percentages of fats found in common oils.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday January 02 2019, @09:21PM (5 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 02 2019, @09:21PM (#781192) Journal

    I think there are a more important questions to be concerned with.

    From the SN article . . .

    So why does the idea that coconut oil is somehow good for us persist? No one is really sure.

    Can any coconut industry executives please enlighten us about how . . .
    * Coconut Oil is good for us
    * Doctors should recommend it (and also recommend smoking!)
    * It does not affect the environment, nor any habitats
    * It creates more jobs (for robots)
    * It contributes to the economy through higher executive bonuses

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:18PM (4 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:18PM (#781216)

    The journalist didn't even try, which is funny, and straw dogs low carb.

    The low carb guys don't really care about coconut oil.

    The real fiends for coconut oil are people who substitute weird disgusting stuff instead of real paleo who "need" a paleo compatible oil for baking to substitute for the very naughty and unhealthy hyper-processed vegetable oil.

    A "real paleo" meal is like little steak and big caesar salad (light on croutons or skip...). A "fake paleo" meal is like freaky fake cake made with almond meal and mashed potatoes and cocoa and a weird ass greasy frosting made of honey and coconut oil mixed into a mayo-like froth and WTF is this disgusting stuff anyway?

    So I'm having a couple carrots for lunch tomorrow and thats vaguely paleo (actually probably too many carbs in the carrot to be low carb...) and that doesn't need weird oils, but if you're making "Fake wanna be paleo pizza" out of ground up almonds and baking it with coconut oil to crisp it.

    In summary, coconut oil is crazy popular for paleo people who refuse to eat paleo and will go to any effort to "Bend the rules" and eat subsitutes.

    Also this story is very old news and most of the paleo people have pretty well already debunked the whole story linked to in the original article. Its interesting that "saturated fats cause heart attacks" seems to be a religious belief not scientific, and a lot of the population confuses scientific data with "rando paid opinion of some scientific authority figure".

    The whole sat. fat is teh evil thing is basically "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV" commercial for non sat fat products, its kinda crazy.

    That said almost any single item diet will eventually kill you, humans being omnivores. I suppose a diet of nothing but bacon or nothing but steak would kill most people in a year or two from vit C deficiency aka scurvy, in that way there is a microscopic dot of truth to the whole "probably shouldn't eat red meat for EVERY meal" etc.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday January 03 2019, @03:34PM (3 children)

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 03 2019, @03:34PM (#781505) Homepage Journal

      So I'm having a couple carrots for lunch tomorrow and thats vaguely paleo (actually probably too many carbs in the carrot to be low carb...)

      It isn't total carbs that matter. It's glycemic index -- the ability of foods to increase your blood sugar level.
      Sugar seems to make it worse; fiber seems to make it better. There's a lot of fibre in carrots, so they're good. But fibre is a carbohydrate. Just one we can't metabolize, not having four stomachs.

      • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday January 03 2019, @03:36PM

        by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 03 2019, @03:36PM (#781507) Homepage Journal

        And carrots are likely the kind of food that paleolithic people actually ate.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:07PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:07PM (#781517)

        The carb count in carrots is more than half sugar. They are definitely not "low carb snacks."

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:17PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:17PM (#781700)

          Hmm serving size... google claims 2 servings in a can of Monster at about 30 grams carbs and about 3 grams carbs per carrot.

          I can easily slam a monster which is 20 carrots worth, but I ended up eating three carrots.