This question often comes up, “Is coconut oil unhealthy because of the high amount of saturated fat it contains?”. The American Heart Association (AHA) recently issued a report advising against the use of coconut oil. “Coconut oil increases LDL cholesterol, a cause of Cardiovascular disease (CVD), and has no known offsetting favorable effects.”, claimed the authors. I disagree and present some of the research evidence to bust this myth.

While it is a fact that coconut oil contains a higher amount of saturated fat and it does raise cholesterol levels, the linkage between high cholesterol and CVD has been questioned. Dr Aseem Malhotra, an NHS cardiologist, claims in his article, “Saturated fat is not the major issue.”, in the British Medical Journal. He distinguishes between large, buoyant (type A) LDL particles vs. the small dense (type B) particles that are associated with CVD. The reduction in LDL from reducing saturated fat intake appears to be specific to large buoyant (Type A) particles, which are not implicated with CVD.

So the AHA believes coconut oil is unhealthy due to a misguided thesis: Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol causes heart disease, therefore, anything that raises LDL cholesterol is bad. The only problem is that the data and research do not support this hypothesis. In recent years, there have been a total of at least 17 meta-analyses and systematic reviews, plus 5 non-systematic reviews that have failed to find a clear link between saturated fats and heart disease.

Further, Coconut oil predicted a beneficial lipid profile-raising HDL, lowering triglycerides and small LDL cholesterol particles. Studies have shown that a diet rich in saturated fats lowered CVD risk factors due to improvement in HDL and triglycerides to HDL ratio. Indeed, the 2015 USDA Dietary Guidelines removed any upper limits on dietary fat and eliminated any restrictions on dietary cholesterol, “Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”, they say.