Is Coconut Oil Really Healthy?

We've got an addiction to oil in this country. Coconut oil. It's good for your hair, foryour skin, for cooking, for mental health, for … FOR EVERYTHING. But is this real?Or just another fad. Is it just Facebook, Twitter and everyone I know or are people are actually coo-coofor coconut oil? In the 1980s, coconut oil was considered terrible cholesterol-causingjunk. Yet in 2002, the New Statesman published, "People who eat coconut oil in place of othervegetable oils" are free of degenerative diseases, have a healthier BMI, and live longer. Andthere's a rumor it can even cure Alzheimers. Lucky for us, science has spent some timelooking into it. A coconut isn't a nut (or fruit, or seed), it's a drupe, like a peach or apricot. Coconutson trees are fleshy bits, each containing a single brown pit or stone, which is whatwe call the coconut. Coconut oil is exactly what you think it is, a result of processingthe white meat of a coconut, the endosperm, to extract its oil. There are a handful ofways people accomplish it, but they all end up drying, boiling, or pressing its flesh. The change from the 1970s and 80s to today, is coconut oil production has gotten better. Virgin coconut oil wasn't available then, and instead it was a highly processed oilproduct. But is today's product really better?Processed coconut oil contains 92 percent saturated fat; butter is only 64 percent,and both beef and pure LARD are only 40 percent. Unlike animal fats, coconut oil doesn't containcholesterol. Instead, it influences cholesterol in the body -- which is manufactured by theliver. Saturated fat causes inflammation in the blood vessels, so we should keep an eyeon it because consuming a little coconut oil is going to have a large impact on saturatedfat intake. Coconut oil ALSO contains medium-chain triglycerides, or MCTs -- which are ALSO processed by theliver, the main MCT in coconut oil is called lauric acid, which is associated with increasesin HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and is associated with decreased body fat, but italso raises LDL cholesterol (the bad kind which causes heart problems). According to Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, "overall effectson health can’t be predicted just by the changes in LDL and HDL. " And there just hasn'tbeen enough time to do long-term studies to figure out the true benefits or drawbacksof the oil. In 2011 a molecular biologist from University of California Davis told theNew York Times, "there is no concrete scientific data yet to support" the health benefits ofcoconut oil. So far this new coconut oil fad seems to be driven by hype more than actual information. People hear the media spout its health benefits and throw it on ALL their foods; but moderationis more important. Chances are too much is going to cause more harm than good. Sure,the HDL boost is nice, but both soybean and olive oils lower LDL and raise HDL; and thereare other compounds in the dregs of this drupe which may affect the body in other, as yetunknown, ways. With regard to Alzheimer's, coconut oil has no scientific evidence tosupport it, only a book written by a pediatrician about her husband's experience with Alzheimer's. What we DO know, is coconut oil works for baking as a substitute for butter, veganshave tested that for us, but while coconut oil might be better than the saturated fatsin meats and butter, its benefits are not as proven as all-mighty olive oil.