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A New Look at Coconut Oil – Part 7

Thursday, March 21, 2024 12:02 PM

Article by MARY ENIG, PHD 
January 2, 2000
Photo by Tijana Dmdarski on unsplash.com 

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/a-new-look-at-coconut-oil/#gsc.tab=0 

Health and Nutritional Benefits from Coconut Oil: An Important Functional Food for the 21st Century

Presented at the AVOC Lauric Oils Symposium, Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, 25 April 1996

III. How about the studies where coconut oil is part of the normal diet of human beings?

Kaunitz and Dayrit (1992) have reviewed some of the epidemiological and experimental data regarding coconut-eating groups and noted that the available population studies show that dietary coconut oil does not lead to high serum cholesterol nor to high coronary heart disease mortality or morbidity. They noted that in 1989 Mendis et al reported undesirable lipid changes when young adult Sri Lankan males were changed from their normal diets by the substitution of corn oil for their customary coconut oil. Although the total serum cholesterol decreased 18.7% from 179.6 to 146.0 mg/dl and the LDL cholesterol decreased 23.8% from 131.6 to 100.3 mg/dl, the HDL cholesterol decreased 41.4% from 43.4 to 25.4 mg/dl (putting the HDL values below the acceptable lower limit) and the LDL/HDL ratio increased 30% from 3.0 to 3.9. These latter two changes would be considered quite undesirable. As noted above, Kurup and Rajmohan (1995) studied the addition of coconut oil alone to previously mixed fat diets and report no significant difference. 

Previously, Prior et al (1981) had shown that islanders with high intake of coconut oil showed no evidence of the high saturated fat intake having a harmful effect in these populations. When these groups migrated to New Zealand however, and lowered their intake of coconut oil, their total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol increased, and their HDL cholesterol decreased.


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