The Health Benefits of Coconut Oil: Healthy Obsession or Hype?

Dietary fat is essential for survival. It provides energy, keeps that neuron-firing brain ticking and helps the body fight disease. Too little fat in the diet can be just as detrimental as too much.
For optimum health it’s imperative to ingest not only the correct ratio of that pleasurable macronutrient but also the right type.

Saturated fats, or those that remain solid at room temperature, have long been considered the unhealthiest of the fats, until now. Coconut oil (which is really a solid unless it’s heated — they just call it oil to further confuse us) is, by definition, a saturated fat.
So what gives? Why is everyone touting the health benefits of coconut these days?

It’s a little scientific but here it goes …
Coconut oil is made up of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). These MCT’s are significant in the way the body breaks them down. Most fats are digested in the intestine and then transported in the blood, where they are either used for energy or saved and stored (and we all know what fat storage on the body looks like). MCT’s bypass the intestines and go straight to the liver where they are used directly for energy, much like carbohydrates.
Woot! Bring on that coconut oil!
But wait, I did leave one part out.
… unless, of course, you over consume calories.
BAM! I knew it was too good to be true.
Don’t get me wrong. Coconut oil has its place, and there are certainly health benefits of coconut oil. Vegans can guiltlessly enjoy it as a butter replacement and Asian cuisine just wouldn’t be the same without it, but knocking back a couple of tablespoons with your already wholesome smoothie may not be the greatest idea if you’re not conscious of the effects.
In a side-by-side comparison, olive oil has 1.8 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, while butter has 7.2 and coconut oil has a whopping 11.8!
Most of us have no problem getting our daily requirement of fat into our diets. Be cautioned, at the end of the day, fat is still fat and should be limited to 20 to 35 percent of a healthy diet. And, according to most guidelines, only 10 percent of that should be of the saturated variety.
Don’t get carried away with all the health-benefits-of-coconut-oil hype. Keep a varied diet, and keep it in moderation. A little coconut oil here, a little olive oil there, and we will all stay healthy and happy.
What’s your take on the health benefits of coconut oil? —Karen