Is Coconut Oil Healthy?
Afraid of what the news says about coconut oil or butter???
You agree that breast milk is the best food for babies right? Did you know that it is primarily made of up cholesterol and saturated fat??? IT IS! God did not have an agenda when he created breast milk. Breast milk is filled with cholesterol because cholesterol makes healthy hormones and builds bones! Something that you may not realize is that the cellular wall of bone is made up of FAT! And not just any fat… it is mainly made up of the demonized SATURATED FAT! (read more on bone health HERE).
Cholesterol is so important to the human body that nature has devised a backup plan in the event your diet falls short. When that happens, your liver steps in to make cholesterol to give your body a baseline level. The high levels of insulin that are released in a low-fat, high-carb diet also trigger the body to tap off leftover blood sugar into the liver to make cholesterol and triglycerides which are used for energy and fat storage.
In its natural, unstressed state your liver makes 75% of the cholesterol your body needs. The rest you have to eat, which is my favorite food group: butter, meat, whole-fat dairy products, shellfish and eggs.
If you deprive yourself of cholesterol, your liver overproduces cholesterol to make up the difference and stocks up. This overdrive state can’t shut off until you start eating cholesterol again. So, a low-cholesterol, high-carbohydrate diet can actually lead to heart disease!
Most importantly, the biggest contributor to heart disease risk is inflammation. A well formulated keto-adapted diet is very low in inflammation. Sugar and carbs are the big culprits when it comes to increased inflammation. Coronary Artery Disease occurs when an LDL particle (usually a small dense one) gets lodged in a lesion (caused by inflammation) in the artery wall. It then releases its cholesterol into the artery wall which starts the formation of plaque. So if you have very low inflammation and no arterial lesions for the LDL to get stuck in, your cholesterol numbers aren’t really relevant.
What causes inflammation??? Sugar and carbs.
Stop listening to ignorant media.
And to note…It was sponsored by the American Heart Association. They have an approved stamp on Slush Puppies which are nothing but food dye and sugar! They have no credibility nor integrity in my opinion.
TESTIMONY OF THE DAY
I received this message from a client yesterday and I couldn’t be more proud of her!
“That’s 1/2 of a blood pressure pill. Should be gone soon. I love it!” -Rebecca
Thank you for posting this. The news lately about the “dangers” of coconut oil made me so mad. There is no scientific evidence behind it. I eat coconut oil everyday and my “numbers” are just fine.
This information couldn’t have come at a better time for me! My PCP called me this morning insisting I get on a statin right away! Like today! And I outright shouted into the phone, NO! My HDL is in the 90s and my triglycerides in the 40s! I am not going to worry about this as it’s sad but true, traditional medicine practitioners have a long way to go in this area. Thank you Maria for keeping us all educated and informed!
Thank you for clarifying❣️👍🏻💜
I am so grateful for your very clear information. It makes me sad that people are being fooled and betrayed by institutions like the American Heart Association. It is all about the might dollar!
“mighty” dollar!
It is crazy. Thanks!
I have been on the Keto diet since January. I have lost 40 pounds, and am down to 1/2 a blood pressure pill each day. I just had my yearly checkup. My doctor did not even ask me how I had lost forty pounds since my last checkup, and gave me a sheet of paper with instructions to continue my “low-fat diet”! I am a registered nurse, and I am fed up with medical professionals who stubbornly stick to the “low-fat diet” lie. I thank God that He allowed me to discover the truth!
Good for you for taking control of your own health! 🙂
Thank You Maria. Your are absolutely correct. I just had my blood work done and evaluated by a Keto Diet Doctor in Colorado and every test was normal. I also think the AMA is off base. Fat is not the enemy. It is unfortunate that so many people will continue to follow advise from a source that has not worked and will not work. I’m thankful everyday that I found your website. I recommend your website and books to everyone.
Thanks!
Thanks Maria. I was waiting for a professional to reply to the erroneous article the AHA put out, claiming that coconut oil raises is bad cholesterol. As I recall, the article did not specify if the people screened were on low carb/low sugar diets. Wasn’t it Dr. David Perlmutter who wrote the book “Grain Brain” and said that the combination of saturated fats in combination with a high carb diet, is the culprit when LDL becomes destructive or sticky. I wonder which industry is behind the research – the seed oil industry? We eat plenty of good fats in our home and my husband is off of all medications related to type 2 diabetes – no more metformin, no statins and no high blood pressure medication. His doctor recently emailed a note after his last blood work was in, saying “keep up the good work and continue to take your meds. I think she forgot that he hasn’t been on meds for a few years now . I wonder when medical schools will catch up. Meanwhile, big pharma and the dairy industry are reaping fortunes on our poor health and misinformation. A nutritionist friend pointed out that he Dairy industry produces low-fat products that are costly and then uses the fat to make icecream. Thanks again for all you do. Before your books, I used to adapt my recipes thru trial and error. You have made it so easy for me now.
Thanks!
My cholesterol was high at a recent physical. My doctor said coconut oil is the devil. He likes the weight is down (30# since March 1 going LCHF), but does not like the trade off of the bad cholesterol climbing. Good cholesterol is also up.
Cholesterol is not the enemy. Inflammation is. Watch this video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jZu52duIqno
If you really want to know your heard disease risk, look at CAC score. Calcium score is a cheap (usually $100) and easy test that measures the plaque buildup in your coronary arteries. The score given correlates to heart disease (and overall death risk) by orders of magnitude better that total cholesterol every does. Total cholesterol is only a couple percent correlation in the statin companies own tests. CAC score of 100 (vs. 0) correlates at 800% increase in death risk!!
http://www.thefatemperor.com/blog/2016/8/10/repeat-after-me-calcification-score-blows-away-risk-factors-always?rq=cac
Touche’
Thanks for the insight as always. I appreciate all of the information that you share as well as the tasty recipes… in the 6 months I have been on keto and using your resources, I have lost 30 lbs, reversed my pre-diabetic state and have not had a migraine after years of suffering with them on a regular basis. I am a believer!
There is one thing… And, I am not trying to discredit or minimize your point. I agree that the oversimplification of reporting on health studies and issues creates a ton of misinformation and confusion.
But, I would like to (for clarity sake) point out that the stamp you show on the slush puppies is the Heart and Stroke Foundation (Canadian), and not the AHA. (And no, I don’t work for the AHA. ) The fortified juice product under the Slush Puppies name satisfies the guidelines established by a foundation started by the AHA, but the AHA has not applied its seal.
Yes, but the AHA has put their stamp on equally as horrible options like Cocoa Puffs. Thanks!
Thanks Maria for clarifying. After reading the article from the American Heart association – I did begin to feel concerned. I have been following a Keto diet and have read your books. I feel great but my cholesterol has gone up, with readings of 6.2 for cholesterol , trig 0,3 , hdl 3.2, ldl 2.9- the Dr has said it may soon require Statins .
Find it very frustrating as the majority of Dr’s are against keto – and are giving conflicting advice. Reading your article gave me piece of mind.
Cholesterol is not the enemy. Inflammation is. Watch this video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jZu52duIqno
If you really want to know your heard disease risk, look at CAC score. Calcium score is a cheap (usually $100) and easy test that measures the plaque buildup in your coronary arteries. The score given correlates to heart disease (and overall death risk) by orders of magnitude better that total cholesterol every does. Total cholesterol is only a couple percent correlation in the statin companies own tests. CAC score of 100 (vs. 0) correlates at 800% increase in death risk!!
http://www.thefatemperor.com/blog/2016/8/10/repeat-after-me-calcification-score-blows-away-risk-factors-always?rq=cac
Hi Maria–I’m a long time reader and own all your books. Just a heads-up, though, the “Slush Puppies” advertisement doesn’t have an AHA approved stamp. It has a Heart and Stroke Foundation stamp, which is a Canadian organization. That organization’s problematic endorsement of junk food is covered in the marvelous documentary “Sugar Coated.” But it isn’t the same as the American Heart Association.
Yes, it is. But our AHA has put their stamp on cocoa puffs!
Great post; however, I wanted to point out one key element (and more information can be found at the following link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3586783/) Human breast milk has higher levels of lactose (sugar, carbohydrates) than both fat and protein. “The mean macronutrient composition of mature, term milk is estimated to be approximately 0.9 to 1.2 g/dL for protein, 3.2 to 3.6 g/dL for fat, and 6.7 to 7.8 g/dL for lactose.”
By calories breastmilk is about 60% fat.
I got on the coconut oil bandwagon several years ago and almost immediately gained 12 pounds back that I had just lost. I didn’t even know about Keto so I’m sure that I was not doing other things exactly right but was gluten, grain and sugar free. I am wondering if maybe some people don’t metabolze coconut oil as well as others. I am type A blood and I have heard that type A people don’t do well with coconut oil? I love coconut and would love to eat it but am concerned that I will have the same reaction. Wondering your thoughts on this?
Could be you were just adding too much fat. How were you adding coconut oil? If it was bullet proof coffees, fat bombs, etc than it just may have been too much fat added.
Maria, I was flying high, but after reading this I’m having doubts — help!
http://darwinian-medicine.com/the-evidence-the-saturated-fat-is-harmless-crowd-overlooks/
Don’t agree with that article at all. You can find studies to “prove” almost anything. The devil is always in the details. Many times they are useless observational studies (participants are given a questionnaire about what food they have eaten over the last YEAR!), or just flawed or skewed analysis of the results (see the china study).