Monounsaturated Fats Decompose Long Before Saturated Fats Do

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.

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.

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 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.

Monounsaturated olive oil is also 100 percent Long Chain Fatty Acids (LCFA) which combine with cholesterol and protein to form triglyceride-rich lipoproteins called chylomicrons. In the bloodstream, these chylomicrons eventually transform into Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) or bad cholesterol.

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.

Unlike olive oil, canola oil and other monounsaturated fats consisting entirely of LCFAs, coconut oil is mostly Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA). While LCFAs are circulating throughout your body, MCFAs are being transported straight to your liver to generate energy. Coconut oil is Pro-Energy, not Pro-Fat!

REFERENCES:

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

Coconut Oil › Monounsaturated Fats