Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today I've got another classic episode from our archives. In this one, we looked at the phenomenon of coconut oil as a dietary trend. In a pretty brief span of time. It was labeled healthy, a paragon of foods, and then unhealthy, a gastronomical evil. But nutrition is always more complicated than that, Hey brain stuff, Lauren Vogelbomb Here. Just a couple of short years ago,
it seems that coconut oil could do no wrong. Practically out of nowhere, it was being touted incessantly as a superfood, thanks to claims that it helps burn fat and curbs hunger, among other impressive feats. Just recently, however, a Harvard professor fired the metaphorical shot heard round the world by saying that coconut oil is and I quote, pure poison. This came not too long after the release of updated guidelines by the American Heart Association, which urged people to steer
clear of saturated fatty acids, among them coconut oil. The leap from superfood to pure poison is pretty big. Like Grand canyon big. So where does the truth lie. Not surprisingly, it's somewhere in the middle and could even change again once more research is done. We spoke by email with Melissa Majumdar, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy
of Nutrition and Dietetics. She points out that despite popular and prevalent claims to the contrary, currently there is insufficient evidence to rate the effectiveness of coconut oil in helping with issues like diabetes, weight loss, chrome's disease, irritable bale syndrome, and thyroid problems. She explained, many of the health claims have been blown out of proportion and are not yet validated.
At the end of the day, coconut oil may have some beneficial properties that were still exploring, but it's still a fat and should still fit onto our plate in moderation. Much of the confusion lies in our scientific understanding of how coconut oil operate. A tablespoon of coconut oil has the same number of calories as other oils like olive
and canola, that is about one hundred and twenty. However, it also has thirteen grams of saturated fat, which is sixty three percent of the recommended daily dietary allowance of saturated fat in just a tablespoon. That was why people watching their cholesterol were advised to stay away from it in the past. In the last decade or so, some people began reclassifying coconut oil as healthy. Here's why. The proponents said that coconut oil has medium chain triclysrides or mctas,
unlike most other oils which have long chain triclysrides. Let's break that down. Medium and short chain triclysrides are more quickly absorbed and sent into circulation in the body than long chain triclysrides. A two thousand three study had shown that mcts can speed up your metabolism, which helps you lose weight, while another study showed that mcts prevent hardening
of the arteries, which lowers risk of heart attack and stroke. However, these studies were done with oils that were pure mcts and not with coconut oil, which is only partially composed of mcts. According to Mudjumdar, there's controversy over whether coconut oil behaves like a medium or long chain triglyceride. This
distinction could be something of a moot point. However, since the body doesn't process coconut oil the way it would other oils containing mcts, Mudumdar said, what we do know is coconut oil is majority composed of a fatty acid called lauric acid, which contributes to both elevated HDL the good cholesterol, and elevated LDL, the bad cholesterol, and is therefore not a great idea for anyone battling high cholesterol
or the family history of heart disease. Most folks should be aiming to get twenty five to thirty five percent of their total calories every day from fat. Majumdar, like most nutritionists, urges people to limit their daily saturated fats to seven to ten percent of that. Not surprisingly, it doesn't take much coconut oil to hit that marker. Majumdar notes coconut oil is more like butter calorie and fat
wise than other oil. As a rule of thumb, the healthy fats are the ones that are liquid at room temperature, not solid. Instead of using coconut oil, looked fats like canola or olive oil. A tablespoon of conola oil has one gram of saturated fat. That's five percent of your recommended dietary allowance, while a tablespoon of olive oil has two grams, that's nine percent if you recommended dietary allowance.
As to whether Majumdar agrees with the Harvard professor who vilified coconut oil, she said, I can't think of a food I would call poison. There's no food I'd want people to be afraid of, but I wouldn't put coconut oil in the healthy corner. We will say though, that while it may not be a health food, coconut oil is great for moisturizing your skin and soothing wounds and irritations.
Today's episode is based on the article how Coconut oil Went from superfood to Pure Poison on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by A. Leo Hoyt. Brainstuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership withhoustuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.