Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren vocal bomb here. Just a couple of short years ago, it seemed that coconut oil could do no wrong practically of nowhere. It was being touted incessantly as a super food 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 super food 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 via email with Melissa madjum Dar, 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, crones 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 operates. A tablespoon of coconut oil has the same number of calories as other oils like olive and canola, that is about a
hundred and twenty. However, it also has thirteen grams of saturated fat, which is six of the recommended daily dietary allowance of saturated fat in just a table spoon. 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 reclassify and coconut oil as healthy. Here's why. The proponents said that coconut oil has medium chain triglycerides or m c t s, unlike most other
oils which have long chain triclyas rides. Let's break that down. Medium and short chain triclys rides are more quickly absorbed and sent into circulation in the body than long chain triclas rides. A two thousand three study has shown that m c t s can speed up your metabolism, which helps you lose weight, while another study showed that m c t s prevent hardening of the arteries, which lowers
risk of heart attack and stroke. However, these studies were done with oils that were pure m c t s and not with coconut oil, which is only partially composed of m c t s. According to mudgum Dar, there's controversy over whether coconut oil behaves like a medium or long chain triclys ride. 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 m c t s, mudgum Dar said, what we do know is coconut oil is majority composed of a fatty acid called loric SID, which contributes to both elevated HDL the good cholesterol, and elevated l d L 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. Madjum Dar, like most nutritionists, urges people to limit their daily saturated fats to seven to of that. Not surprisingly, it doesn't take much coconut oil to hit that marker. Madgum Dar notes coconut oil is more like butter calorie and fat wise than other oils. 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 to fats
like canola or olive oil. A tablespoon of canola 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 off your recommended dietary allowance. As to whether madgum Dar agrees with the Harvard professor who vilified coke and 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 was written by Alia Hoyt and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other nutritive topics, visit our home planet has stuff works dot com