Is Coconut Oil Healthy?

+ a recipe for Very Berry Coconut Crisp

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Is Coconut Oil Healthy?

When it comes to coconut oil, there’s a yawning gap between public perception and expert opinion. A survey done by The New York Times found that 72% of the American public considers coconut oil a healthy food, but only 37% of nutritionists agree. Why the huge disconnect? In a word: marketing. Coconut oil has been so hyped as a wellness ingredient one can easily be blinded by its health halo. But most nutrition professionals know there is strong scientific evidence debunking most of the health claims around it. It’s not that coconut oil is “bad’ or you should avoid it completely, it just needs to be put in perspective based on the research.   

Coconut oil has a lot going for it from a culinary point of view. It has a lovely, distinct flavor that gives dishes a sumptuous tropical taste, and it is central to many cultural dishes around the world. It is solid at room temperature, which makes it a great vegan alternative to butter for baked goods. However, like butter, coconut oil is mostly comprised of saturated fat, and study after study shows that coconut oil raises blood cholesterol, a cause of coronary heart disease, similar to the way butter does.

You may have heard that coconut oil is special because it contains MCTs (medium chain triglycerides), a type of fat that is processed differently by the body, so it is absorbed and metabolized more efficiently than other fats. But the research on MCTs cannot be extrapolated to coconut oil. The main issue: Lauric acid, a predominant fatty acid in coconut oil, is often cited as a medium chain fatty acid, but while chemically it could be defined as either medium or long chained, it behaves more like a long chain fatty acid in the body. Coconut oil actually has less than 3 percent true MCT, making it a poor source of these fatty acids.