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.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:11AM (1 child)
Real Soon Now I'm going to write an article with my personal take on Nutrition, which is largely informed by two friends with Nutrition degrees, one a BS the other an MS.
If you want to read mostly-reliable articles on Nutrition, read the the ones at the National Institutes Of Health website, such as the Iron Fact Sheet For Health Professionals [nih.gov], where I learned that "Nonheme Iron" - that from plant sources - is less Bioavailable then "Heme Iron", that from animal products.
But the Bioavailability of Nonheme Iron is increased by Vitamin C, so have a fresh orange whenever you eat Iron-Rich Plant Products.
Consider also that Dark Chocolate is rich in Iron, and that Chocolate and Oranges go really well together.
But I digress:
Among my most-specific recommendations is that unless you have a significant nutrient deficiency, don't get your nutrients from tablets, get them from real food. This because real food has lots of _other_ nutrients, quite likely some that science has yet to identify, as well as healthful stuff like antioxidants.
The movie Lorenzo's Oil [imdb.com] makes plain that just _some_ fats and oils are _vital_ nutrients: an inability to digest a certain specific fatty acid led Lorenzo's metabolism to overproduce a certain specific _different_ fatty acid, so much so that it dissolved away the Myelin lipid sheaths that electrically insulated his neurons from his blood. That "Most Cruel Disease" as Peter Ustinov's character described it at one time affected only young boys whose mother's side of the family tended to have red hair.
While not yet cured, a completely effective treatment provided one start eating it soon enough after the onset of symptoms is the _correct_ specific fatty acid that one cannot absorb. At the very end of the movie a whole bunch of young boys introduce themselves then say I take Lorenzo's Oil! [myelin.org].
While it is correct that we really _do_ need Complete Protein, that is, all the amino acids that human's require, we do _not_ need to eat them together in the same meal.
As well, a deficiency of any _one_ amino acid will result in a decreased Amino Acid Utilization of some or all of the others. Looking into this led me to conclude that I am _highly_ deficient in l-Tryptophan, however it's abundant in the chickpeas and sesame seeds from which hummus is made, as well as in soy, so now I eat lots of hummus and tofu.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:32PM
porkchop. try it.