Coconut And Weight Loss--What Are The Facts?

Tom Venuto is a fat-loss expert, nutrition researcher, and lifetime natural bodybuilder. Since 1989, Venuto has been involved in virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight-loss industry as a personal trainer, nutrition consultant, motivational coach, fitness model, health club manager, freelance writer, bestselling author of the popular e-book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, and designer of other digital programs such as MP3 teleseminars and weight-loss community websites including www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com. Tom's latest book, The Body Fat Solution (Avery/Penguin, 2009), focuses on finding and fixing the psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors that sabotage fat loss success, and teaches you how to maintain an ideal weight for life. Learn more at www.TheBodyFatSolution.com

Tom Venuto--

Q: Can you address all the buzz around about pure, virgin coconut oil and its
role in fat metabolism, and for health in general? I found a website with
research studies cited, but it also was selling coconut oil, so I was just
wondering what the 'official' (unbiased by sales pitch) BFFM view may be?

A: Saturated fats have been demonized for decades and the tropical oils have also been labelled fats to avoid because they are not only saturated, but also often hydrogenated and used in all kinds of convenience food products, (even so called "health food" or "protein" bars). These hydrogenated oils contain very dangerous and unhealthy trans fatty acids.

For years, coconut oil has been labeled as a fat to avoid for these very reasons. But like other saturated fats, the truth about coconut oil is not so simple as saying "saturated fats are bad... coconut oil is a saturated fat... therefore coconut oil is bad." Although hydrogenated tropical oils are certainly something to avoid, these processed and chemically-altered oils are not the same as pure virgin coconut oil, which is now being promoted as a health food and weight loss aid.

So what IS the truth? As of this writing, there really isn't enough data to make any definitive recommendations yet. However, I can give you a list of what we do know about coconut oil, given the current body of literature on the subject, along with my own "official BFFM view."

Below you will find 12 key points about coconut oil. After you take this information into consideration and discuss it with your physician or registered dietician, then you can more intelligently decide what to do in your own situation.

1. It's overly simplistic to say all saturated fats are bad Saying that coconut oil is "bad" only because it is saturated is probably too simplistic for the same reason that saying all saturated animal fats are "bad." However, it doesn't mean saturated fats are "good" either.

2. Take in the bigger picture rather than focus on one fat in isolation. Literature and opinions on saturated fats are mixed and conflicting, but it is becoming more and more clear that the effect of one's dietary saturated fat consumption on health depends on numerous other factors, including genetics, lifestyle and what else an individual is eating... Ie, is a person consuming saturated fats in a diet full of refined and processed food, or in a well balanced diet of natural foods with generous amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, with a good ratio of omega 3 to omega 6, and no intake of trans fatty acids? What does the rest of the diet look like? Is the person physically active? For example: Compare the Eskimo diet of fish and whale blubber with the Western diet of processed food, trans fats and saturated fats. Both diets are high in saturated fats, but the Eskimo may be healthy and the westerner sick. (Udo Erasmus once said that he believes that if you ate only good fats, your fat intake could be as high as 60% of your calories and you would never die of a fat-related disease and he mentioned the Inuit/Eskimos as an example.)

3. Trans fatty acids are hazardous to your health. Natural, unprocessed coconut oils should be considered separate and distinct from hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated coconut and tropical oils. Hydrogenated oils and trans fatty acids of any origin are unhealthy and dangerous and should be avoided as completely as possible. The tropical oils palm oil and palm kernel oil are very commonly used in their hydrogenated form in a wide variety of food products. Watch out for them on the labels and avoid them as completely as possible.

4. Health benefits of coconut oil?. Fresh natural coconut oil has some interesting and apparently legitimate (science supported) healthful attributes including antimicrobial, antiviral and antioxidant properties. Some sources also claim benefits for thyroid function.

5. The alternative health industry likes it, but the medical and dietetic community are not so certain yet. Many people in the traditional scientific community will not recommend the use of coconut oil until evidence is more conclusive. The alternative and natural health people love it. The rest are still straddling the fence. Regardless of which group you fall into or listen to the most, the claims and buzz for coconut oil as a health or weight loss "miracle" made by the "alternative health" sector are often a bit over the top and probably exceed the scientific evidence supporting it. Many claims are made for coconut oil. Some may be valid and some not. Advertising claims for coconut oil should be scrutinized scientifically and independently of each other.

6. MCT's and thermogenesis? Coconut oil contains MCT's (medium chain triglycerides) which are not processed as other fats and may be more thermogenic. Proponents of MCT and coconut oil will cite the scientific literature showing that MCTs are more thermogenic and more readily oxidized in the liver and skeletal muscle than other fats. However, MCT oil as a supplement has been around a long time and never panned out in the real world as an effective weight loss aid. Nutrition expert Will Brink has commented on this very specifically before and has said that "MCT's are a classic example of what looks good on paper not panning out in the real world. It's not that MCT's are of no potential use to the dieter, but in healthy people, they just don't seem to have dramatic effects. In theory, MCT's should be helpful to a weight loss diet, but in practice they are neither needed nor all that effective in healthy people." My experiment with MCT oil many years ago led me to nothing but a very upset stomach (note: I did not try coconut oil, only straight MCT oil).

7. Mixed scientific support for weight loss, weak real world evidence. Weight loss claims for coconut oil are mostly anecdotal and often hyped. I've heard ridiculous claims made, such as "by adding 6 tablespoons of coconut oil to my diet and making no other changes, I started losing weight like crazy" etc., etc. Remember there is no such thing as "free calories". Fats are calorie dense and contribute to our daily energy requirement. Too much fat can put you into a surplus. Take everything in balance! Here's a quote from Glenn Rothfeld, MD,(Tufts university school of medicine) that says it well: "I think coconut oil is promising, but I wish it weren't promoted as "eat coconut oil and lose weight. The problem for me is the lack of research."

8. Coconut oil appears OK for cooking. Coconut oil is very heat stable, so it could be used as a cooking oil. (your other best choice for cooking oil is olive oil).

9. Focus on the essential fatty acids first. Unless you are taking coconut oil as a supplement for a specific health purpose, or as a cooking oil (which might enhance flavor of some dishes nicely), then as a dietary fat supplement, I am partial to focusing on the essential fatty acids first: Either (a) flaxseed oil or an oil blend that contains flaxseed oil, in a balanced diet of natural food that also contains fatty fish, or (b) fish oil, if fish are not consumed in the diet. I am not a proponent of using one specific oil as a supplement to the exclusion of others on a long term basis. for example, at this juncture, I don't recommend using flax exclusively, all the time.

10. Best idea: A variety of different healthful fats? I predict that more and more in the future, nutrition experts may be recommending balance and variety in fats just like in other foods like fruits and vegetables which each contain their own phytonutrients and micronutrients with unique benefits. With the fats, just keep in mind that although some fats are more thermogenic and aid in fat loss, they still contain calories that must be accounted for, so if you decided to use a variety of fats, its probably a good idea, but only up to the point where you are still obeying the laws of energy balance.

11. Keep an eye out for more research, and keep an open but discriminating mind I'm open to keeping an eye on future research findings about coconut oil. For more information on dietary fats in general, beyond the chapter in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, my personal recommendations are to read Udo Erasmus's book, Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill and I also found Artemis Simopoulos's book The Omega Diet a good and very objective read. Keep in mind every expert has his or her biases. Ask Udo, and he will say "oil blend"... Ask Will Brink and he will say "flax", ask Mary Enig or Doctor Mercola and they will say "coconut oil"... ask Barry Sears and he will say "fish oil"... ask the Mediterranean diet doctors and they will say "olive oil." We are unlikely to get definitive answers any time soon. What we know for sure is that omega-3 fatty acids are essential to our health and these are found in the largest amounts in flax and fish and that hydrogenated oils are extremely harmful to our health. After being certain to take care of these two points, then perhaps a balance of healthful oils would be beneficial.

12. Some oil blend supplements now contain coconut oil. On an interesting end point, Dr. Udo Erasmus, who has long promoted the use of essential oil blends, added a small amount of coconut oil to his oil blend quite some time ago.

One final note: In the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) program, we recommend that you choose natural, unrefined foods at least 90% of the time. Since the word "natural" is somewhat vague, we define natural by asking this question:

"Did this food come out of the ground or off the tree/plant this way?" If the answer is yes, then it's natural and it's an A grade food. To take it a step further and include protein foods, you could expand on this definition and say, "If it grew from the ground or off a tree, or if it walked, flew or swam, it's natural." (Vegetarians can use the first definition.)

On this basis, is pure coconut a natural food (as in fresh or shredded coconut, etc)? You bet.

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