The Heart Healthy Oil: Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO)

Heart healthy oil is synonymous to Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO). No amount of slander and defamation in the name of the almighty dollar or out of honest ignorance can change that!

No study or research in the whole wide world proves that highly saturated coconut oil promotes heart disease. Nada, squat, nil, zilch, void, zip, zero, nothing!

Absolute Bad Fats!

What you will find are studies that used hydrogenated coconut oil. No wonder the results pointed to an increased heart problem risk! All hydrogenated vegetable oils (saturated or unsaturated) including soybean and corn oils are heart unhealthy.

It is well established that good and bad fats play a major role in heart health. Trans fats and Interesterified fats are absolutely harmful and have no place in your body.

Artery-Clogging Fats

Unsaturated corn oil and soybean oil, just to name a couple, are composed entirely of Long Chain Triglycerides (LCT). Coconut oil, on the other hand, is predominantly Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT).

To cut a long story short, LCTs are eventually packaged into little bundles of fat and protein called lipoproteins, which are then funneled into your bloodstream. During circulation, small particles of fat are unleashed.

This is the source of the fat that accumulates in your fat cells! And this is also the source of the fat that collects in and blocks your artery walls!

Felton and his associates analyzed arterial plaque (fatty deposit inside an arterial wall) and showed that 74 percent of the fatty acids in it are not saturated, but unsaturated (33% monounsaturated and 41% polyunsaturated). Not even a single fat molecule predominant in the heart healthy oil of the humble coconut was identified. None!

Coconut Oil is Pro-Energy

Unlike LCTs, coconut oil’s plentiful MCTs are not packaged into lipoproteins. MCTs digest so easily into Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA) and are sent straight to your liver to be used as a source of fuel to produce energy. For this reason, coconut oil rarely contributes to excess fat buildup.

MCFAs can energize your cells even without insulin which is central to the coconut oil and diabetes beneficial link.

Cholesterol-Raising?

Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern have shown that MCT oil raises LDL (bad) cholesterol. But MCT oil also known as fractionated coconut oil is not the same as natural coconut oil.

Like many others that criticize coconut oil as raising blood cholesterol levels or hypercholesterolemic, this study is “flawed!”

Excellent Cooking Oil

Cooking with coconut oil is one of the easiest and most effective ways to a healthy heart. Extraordinarily stable, it is very resistant to oxidation (spoilage) and free-radical formation.

Because of its incredible stability, MCFA-rich coconut oil doesn’t form trans fats under normal cooking temperatures. It does not cause heart disease, and actually even prevents it! Coconut oil is, truly, a heart healthy oil.

REFERENCES:

Ascherio, A., et al. Trans fatty acids and coronary heart disease. New England Journal Medicine 1999;340:1994-1998.

PLEASE SEE REFERENCE NUMBERS 3-6, 35, 36, 69-72, 106, 107, 109 FOR MORE.

Coconut Oil › Heart Healthy Oil