Coconut oil has been an integral element of our daily food intake & an essential ingredient to making almost every cuisine we love to taste. Since ancient times, coconut and coconut oil-based products remain inseparable across all our food cultures in Sri Lanka. In the recent past, there has been a surge in popularity for coconut & coconut oil-based products especially in the beauty, cosmetics, and personal hygiene segments.

However, in relation to the tense situation evolving around many of the market-leading coconut brands allegedly carrying cancer-causing content, it is high time we get serious about understanding the nutritional value & health impact of the food we feed on.

Is consuming coconut oil bad for the heart? As a practicing cardiologist and based on the findings from the extensive research and medical knowledge around the world, I totally disagree with this notion to regard coconut oil to be negative for the heart as there is no adequate evidence in the world to come to this conclusion.

Even though there have been numerous researches conducted across the world on coconut oil and other types of oil, most of these studies have had one or more significant flaws.
Among these flaws are:

• Analyzing data across multiple faulty studies and drawing conclusions, which are also inherently faulty.
• Often conducting the study for less than a year, which is nearly not enough to come to a conclusion because cholesterol builds slowly.
• Having a sample size that is not big enough to be significant.
In a study that was conducted in Singapore over the course of two years and with relatively larger sample size, it was concluded that there is no difference in the health impacts of Sunflower oil and coconut oil usage.

As a practitioner in the field of cardiovascular medicine, I can practically see that the biggest reason for heart attacks in Sri Lanka is our dietary practice. As a rule of thumb, most Sri Lankans consume too much carbohydrate, sugar, as well as leading sedentary lifestyles while not getting enough physical exercise.

Coconut oil has a composition that is 95% saturated fat, which is considered to be risky for heart health relative to unsaturated fat. Unsaturated fat is found in olive, sunflower, corn, and sesame oils. The opinion of the public is that consuming unsaturated fats is not bad for the heart while consuming saturated fat (that is found in coconut oil) increases cholesterol levels and negatively affects the heart.

Saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil are somehow different from traditional saturated fatty acids and it has been found that while other saturated fats carry ‘long chain fatty acids’ the saturated fat in coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids. It has been suggested that this type of fatty acid is mostly used to create energy and only a small amount is used to create cholesterol. As coconut oil increases the good cholesterol (HDL) more than it increases the bad cholesterol (LDL), we can see how coconut oil can negate the effect of LDL cholesterol on the heart. However, if we live a mostly sedentary lifestyle and not burn off the excess energy created by consuming coconut oil, this energy will be deposited in the body as fat and ultimately lead to obesity, high blood pressure, and heart attacks. In contrast, this effect is caused by sugar as well as carbohydrates, so we cannot pinpoint coconut oil as the culprit for this issue.

Trans-fatty acids have been confirmed as one of the major causes of heart attacks as they increase LDL and decrease HDL cholesterol and damage the inner layer of blood vessels and accelerate cholesterol deposition. As such, trans-fatty acids have been banned by the FDA in the USA. Trans-fatty acids are created by heating all the oils except coconut oil to high temperatures. Coconut oil produces zero trans-fat acids since it contains no unsaturated fat. On the other hand, commonly used palm oil will increase LDL cholesterol and decrease HDL cholesterol and the direct effect of LDL cholesterol on the body is harmful.

It must be noted that no matter how good a certain food is to the body, over-consumption will always create a negative effect. However, there is no scientifically proven correlation between coconut oil and heart attacks, and it is a much healthier ingredient to be used in our food relative to most other alternatives.