Is Coconut Oil Good or Bad?
Coconut oil has an excellent reputation for being healthy, natural, and even miraculous, although as far as we can tell, it never really helped earn that reputation. Now one professor in the headlines at a lecture in Germany called it “poison . “ What do you really need to know about coconut oil?
In truth, it’s butter. This is food. He’s not going to poison you all by himself, he’s not going to magically melt fat or teleport you to an Instagram-worthy beach. It’s just what you eat.
There is little research suggesting that it can help you lose weight if you substitute olive oil in your diet. On the other hand, the American Heart Association likes to remind us that it is still rich in saturated fatty acids, and they found no evidence that it is better for us than other foods containing saturated fatty acids (like butter).
Not enough research has been done on coconut oil to find out if it is better or worse for us in general than other oils, so at this point I would not buy claims that it is poison or that it is a natural miracle. If you’re trying to cut back on saturated fat in your diet, it might be worth avoiding coconut oil. If not, it is a sensible substitute for other oils that you can use in recipes.
But a spoonful of coconut oil alone will not do anything surprising to your health and will add significant calories to your diet. Maybe this will work for you! Maybe you feel full and satisfied when you have a few coconut oil-based keto fat bombs , and if that is keeping you from lighting up a box of donuts, it might be a worthwhile compromise. But this is not because of the magic of the coconuts; coconut oil is just oil.