My views regarding coconut fat....
The great coconut fat debate
A few times a year, alarming reports about coconut fat hit the media. Subsequently the camps all over each other. Some talk about its amazing health properties and others say it causes cardiovascular diseases.
I always chuckle a bit at this, because ultimately health and illness are determined by an overall lifestyle and, as usual, the arguments are again about details.
Both advantages and disadvantages
Actually, all foods have advantages and disadvantages. So you can look for properties and substances to extol it, or for other properties or substances to depreciate it. In fact, the overall diet determined whether everything is in balance and so there are very many roads to Rome.
Healthy substances
If you look at the healthy substances in coconut fat, you end up with lauric acid and caprylic acid, for example. One closes here anti-inflammatory (and antibacterial) properties to and there are quite a few practical experiences in this area. However, the science does not show a strong link. So does this mean it is not true? No, it has not been proven to be untrue either.
What I would venture to say myself from my common sense and experience is that the effect on low-grade inflammation will be less with total lifestyle improvement. So where you lose weight, reduce stress, exercise sensibly, eat minimally processed foods and don't let blood sugar rise too far.
In addition, coconut fat is promoted as heat-stable baking and frying agent, which does not release free radicals and toxins.
Bad substances
However, there are also those who vilify coconut fat altogether, because it is saturated fats contains and which would are bad for the cardiovascular system. In my opinion, this reasoning is laughably bad and I see it constantly echoed by dieticians, doctors and authorities.
Yes, elevated ldl cholesterol in the blood, which is also known as bad cholesterol, can be a sign of low-grade inflammation in the body, a sluggish thyroid gland or decreasing levels of sex hormones.
Indeed, the last three may mean that your cardiovascular system is malfunctioning and problems may arise in this area. However, you will not solve this by eating less saturated fat. Saturated fat can raise ldl cholesterol slightly. This does not automatically mean that it has a negative impact on the underlying causes of cardiovascular disease.
If a client comes to me with elevated ldl cholesterol, a coaching programme on total lifestyle can certainly bring it down. Then you're back to the same big lifestyle issues like yep, here they come again: losing weight, reducing stress, exercising sensibly eating minimally processed foods and not letting blood sugar rise too far. You're really not talking about such futilities as saturated fat.
My view is that coconut fat is definitely not a panacea, but an excellent heat-stable fat that you can nicely alternate with other fats like olive oil in a healthy diet and lifestyle.
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