Is coconut oil a healthy oil. Does it raise your cholesterol level?

Answer 1

Coconut oil raises your cholesterol level more than most other plant based oils. It is high in saturated fat and could not be considered healthy for anyone with elevated cholesterol.

Unfortunately the coconut industry has spread a lot of misleading information about coconut oil which has been picked up on many web sites. This is one case where it is critical to determine the source of the information you read on the web.

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I see since I first responded a second response strongly disagreed with what I said.

Let me give you some more sources:

"Keep your daily intake of saturated fat to no more than 10 percent of your total calories by limiting use of meat, butter, cheese, whole milk, cream and eggs in your diet, along with foods made from lard, solid shortenings, and palm and coconut oils."

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dash-diet/HI00047

Avoid "Coconut, palm and palm-kernel oils"

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-healthy-diet/NU00196

"SATURATED FATS

These are the biggest dietary cause of high LDL levels ("bad cholesterol"). When looking at a food label, pay very close attention to the percentage of saturated fat and avoid or limit any foods that are high. Saturated fat should be limited to 10% of calories. Saturated fats are found in animal products such as butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, cream, and fatty meats. They are also found in some vegetable oils -- coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils. (Note: Most other vegetable oils contain unsaturated fat and are healthy.)"

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002468.htm

"Avoid foods with excess fat in them such as meat (especially liver and fatty meat), egg yolks, whole milk, cream, butter, shortening, lard, pastries, cakes, cookies, gravy, peanut butter, chocolate, olives, potato chips, coconut, cheese (other than cottage cheese), coconut oil, palm oil, and fried foods."

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a692030.html

So I guess you have your choice. You can believe articles I supplied from Harvard, the Mayo Clinic, and the National Institute for Health (U.S. Government) or you can believe the other answer which gave no sources to support his view.

Answer 2

Does Coconut Oil Raise Cholesterol

Answer 3

NUMEROUS cultures eat a diet rich in coconut oil and have VERY LOW rates of coronary artery disease. The Tokeluans of the Pacific Islands have coconut making up over 50 % of their diet and have average cholesterol levels of 240mg/dl -300mg/dl and are VIRTUALLY CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE FREE.

Coconut oil is VERY healthy and the Cholesterol Hypothesis of coronary artery diosease has NO scientific basis. Do the research. Look up the FULL TEXT of the ORIGINAL data of the ORIGINAL study.

You will see that many times they are at odds. See my post on the FAILURE of the MRFIT Trial to supoort the sham that is the Cholesterol Hypothesis of coronary artery disease .

Dr. Jerimiah Stamler MANIPULATED NUMBERS in the ABSTRACT to make it SOUND impressive when in reality the ACTUAL NUMBERS SHOW NO SUPORT AT ALL TO THE FALSE CHOLESTEROL HYPOTHESIS .