Coconut Oil: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!!

Recently, the AHA, or American Health Association, put out a statement that coconut oil raises your bad cholesterol and thus causes heart disease.  They say not to eat coconut oil!!

Are you kidding me?  I just HAVE to make my own statement about this to my tribe, you guys, so that we can be properly informed when it comes to information like this.  It saddens me that many of our so-called health associations are making statements based NOT on science, but on the money that they are receiving from the industries designed to keep you sick!  No wonder everyone is so confused when it comes to health information.  

So..I want to break things down for you a little here.

First off, the GOOD!!

Coconut oil is indeed high in saturated fat, and it can raise your LDL levels.  The good part about this is that the body uses LDL to make all of your steroid and sex hormones.  Everything from cortisol (adrenal hormone) to your estrogen, progesterone and testosterone are assimilated from LDL cholesterol.    Second, the MCT’s or medium chain triglycerides found in coconut oil have been shown to help increase your metabolism and burn fat.  Now..all LDL isn’t created equally.  It’s the size of the LDL particles that make the difference between healthy and unhealthy levels…which leads me to the bad

The BAD!!

It’s not fat or cholesterol that causes heart disease..it’s inflammation.  We KNOW this now.  Guess what causes inflammation?  It’s the sugars, processed foods and grains that cause inflammation.  This is what causes the increase in the bad particle size of the LDL cholesterol. Back in the day when our ancestors ate lots of fats and saturated fats with little or no sugar and grains, heart disease was unheard of.  After WWII, butter and other saturated fats were shifted to support troops and instead, margarine and processed foods were taunted as “healthy.”  Guess what?  Heart disease soon became the number one killer.  

The UGLY!!

Be careful what you read and what is behind the study.  Remember, our health system for the most part is not designed to “heal” anything.  It is designed to keep you sick and needing pharmaceutical drugs to fund their pockets. I’m wondering why the AHA would recommend margarine which causes inflammation and likely cancer and undermine healthy foods that could actually heal the root cause of disease.  The other vegetables oils that the AHA recommends also increase inflammation in the body.  I’m saddened that the AHA, a group that a LOT of Americans listen to, got it so wrong.

**Just know that I am here to support you!!  Medical literature and recommendations can be confusing, so feel free to shoot me your questions when confusing information surfaces.  Know that as a functional medicine expert whose passion it is to help people heal the root cause of disease, I will continue to eat coconut oil every day as well as use it for my family, friends and patients to help them heal as well.