Monounsaturated Fats Decompose
Long Before Saturated Fats Do

Coconut Oil: The Superstar Saturated Fat

Monounsaturated fats or Mono-Unsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) decay much sooner than saturated fats. In fact, many unsaturated fats will have already substantially degraded long before highly saturated coconut oil even begins to.

Fat Basics

All fats are made of fatty acids. Saturated Fatty Acids (SaFA) are saturated or "full" of hydrogen atoms in their carbon atom chain.

MUFAs lack a pair of hydrogen atoms while PolyUnsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA) are missing two or more.

For more information or clarity on what makes a dietary fat saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, please visit types of fats.

Monounsaturated Weakness

Monounsaturates, particularly polyunsaturated fats like corn oil, are vulnerable to "oxidative damage." Simply put, they go rancid rather quickly. They don't have the durable molecular structure inherent to all saturated fats, most especially coconut oil.

92 percent of the fatty acids found in coconut oil are saturated. It's the main reason why it can stay fresh for a very long time.

Olive Oil

A staple in healthful Mediterranean-style diets, olive oil is a popular and good mono-unsaturated fat, well-known for its health benefits. But due to its large amount of MUFAs, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is not a good vegetable cooking oil.

Cooking with EVOO creates excessive amounts of harmful free radicals, causing injury to your heart and artery walls. Plus, it also raises blood pressure by promoting blood "stickiness."

Be that as it may, it's still one of the healthy oils you can consume for good health. Just don't cook with monounsaturated extra virgin olive oil. It's extremely perishable.

Coconut Oil Strength

Coconut oil is a healthy cooking oil capable of resisting oxidation (spoilage) better than any other cooking oil on the face of the earth.

Made up of 92 percent saturated fatty acids, it is extraordinarily protective against heat and free-radical formation. So stable that when heated, coconut oil is 12 times more resistant than canola oil, another monounsaturated fat.

Felton, C. V., et al. Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and composition of human aortic plaques. Lancet 1994;344:1195-1196.


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