Coconut Oil

[greenhowt]

I'm a type 2 diabetic that controls it via diet and exercise. I've read about potential health benefits about organic virgin coconut oil, but some of what I've read appears to conflict. On the one hand I've read that because it is high in saturated fats its not good by a diabetic, whilst other information suggests it raises good HDL's and may also help turn the bad LDL cholesterol into a less harmful form.

I have reduced my blood glucose through diet and exercise from to 64 to 42mmol/mmol, whilst my cholesterol remains a little high at 4.7, which my doctor tells me I need to reduce it to below 4.0, consequently coconut oil sounds attractive, but is it really ?, does the high saturated fat content make it less attractive than rapeseed oil, can anyone help ??

 

[LouWilk059]

Welcome to the forum!

I have coconut oil regularly as a high fat chocolate treat. I also eat butter, lard, olive oil and avocados. Just had my bloods done and the doctor was quite impressed with my cholesterol, especialy my hdl, it was excessively good at 2.35

Here's some info on coconut oil

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/natural-therapies/coconuts.html

@daisy1 will also come along and provide some more information for you

 

[Mbaker]

Your cholesterol is beneath 5 which I believe is what the top end of the guidelines are. What counts is what your Trigs to HDL ratio is, you should ask for this (as well as your HDL, LDL), I am guessing the 4.7 is total cholesterol. It is not proven that high cholesterol causes strokes or heart attacks - this is the "theory" behind the outdated diet heart hypothesis which Ancel Keys pushed. Zoe Harcombe and Ivor Cummins are worth researching on YouTube to get a full understanding.

Specifically on your question, this was on only a few weeks ago:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05sn2lk

 

[Robbity]

I have coconut oil as part of the fat in my LCHF diet. In general I try to obtain it from as wide a variety of suitable sources as possible; so from meats and fish, dairy, and from fruit (e.g.olives ad avocados) and nuts in various forms. The only fats I'd avoid are artificially produced trans fats in highly processed vegetable oils and food.

We need cholesterol - it's vital to our whole existence, so most of it is actually produced by our bodies as required, and what is obtained from our food apparently comes purely from various animal sources (meat, fish, dairy, eggs) - see http://www.zoeharcombe.com/the-knowledge/we-have-got-cholesterol-completely-wrong/ - so coconut oil isn't (or shouldn't!) be a problem from this respect.

One of the main benefits of coconut oil is that it contains MCTs, and these are broken down by our bodies more rapidly than the longer chain triglycerides - so will act as a much faster / "instant" source of energy.

Robbity

 

[Guzzler]

I have just started using coconut oil and find that it is great for cooking with and adding to bullet proof coffee.

The result of 4.7 Total Cholesterol tells you absolutely nothing, it is the breakdown that is important only then can you judge if you are going in the right direction. Dietary cholesterol accounts for just 15% of the total amount of cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is vital for life, it is so vital that the body does not leave it to chance by depending on diet but makes it in the liver. Cut out every scap of it from your diet and the body will compensate by remedying the shortfall.