Just because you can find a product on the shelves of health food stores or hear it from a wellness influencer doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you. Case in point: Coconut oils have recently taken off in popularity, but heart health authorities have some reservations. Previous studies have highlighted the potential negative effects on your cholesterol, and doctors are also issuing a word of caution about switching over to this purportedly "healthy" food.
Mohammed Alo, MD, a cardiologist and medical content creator, recently took to TikTok to share his own take on coconut oil, which is a saturated fat and a tropical oil.
"Anything that’s solid at room temperature is saturated fat, and generally speaking, that does raise your LDL cholesterol," he says in his post, noting that it's best to avoid these oils that are high in saturated fat.
LDL stands for "low-density lipoprotein," which is sometimes referred to as "bad" cholesterol because it can cause a buildup of plaque in the arteries and ultimately lead to heart disease, including heart attack or stroke.
Alo points to substitution studies in which subjects were instructed to swap out olive oil or canola oil for coconut oil or butter to isolate the effects of different types of fats.
"People who consume butter or coconut oil did have higher LDL cholesterol," he notes. "The American Heart Association [and] the American College of Cardiology do not recommend tropical saturated fats, tropical oils, so we would recommend to avoid it, most likely."
Just how big is the difference? According to Harvard Health Publishing, coconut oil consists of about 90 percent saturated fat, “which is a higher percentage than butter (about 64 percent saturated fat), beef fat (40 percent), or even lard (also 40 percent),” their experts write.
According to the American Heart Association (AHA) coconut oil can actually have a damaging effect on your cardiovascular health by raising your LDL cholestorol.
To explore how coconut oil affects heart health, the AHA conducted a meta-analysis of 16 articles on various heart health markers such as blood lipids, body weight, body fat percentage, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, and C-reactive protein—a protein that indicates inflammation or infection in the body.
Though they learned that consuming coconut oil had no effect on body fat, blood sugar levels, and inflammatory markers, they found that it significantly increased LDL cholesterol compared to nontropical vegetable oils.
“Despite the rising popularity of coconut oil because of its purported health benefits, our results raise concerns about high coconut oil consumption," the AHA wrote in the study’s conclusion.
So, as you stock your pantry, remember that the types of dietary fats you use can significantly impact your health. Reach for olive oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, or safflower oil—all of which have lower levels of saturated fat compared with coconut oil.
