WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Is Coconut Oil a 'Superfood' or 'Pure Poison'?

0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.600
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today I've got another classic episode

0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.440
<v Speaker 1>from our archives. In this one, we looked at the

0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.320
<v Speaker 1>phenomenon of coconut oil as a dietary trend. In a

0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.439
<v Speaker 1>pretty brief span of time. It was labeled healthy, a

0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:25.479
<v Speaker 1>paragon of foods, and then unhealthy, a gastronomical evil. But

0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:31.240
<v Speaker 1>nutrition is always more complicated than that, Hey brain stuff,

0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.160
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbomb Here. Just a couple of short years ago,

0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.559
<v Speaker 1>it seems that coconut oil could do no wrong. Practically

0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.960
<v Speaker 1>out of nowhere, it was being touted incessantly as a superfood,

0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.960
<v Speaker 1>thanks to claims that it helps burn fat and curbs hunger,

0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:48.519
<v Speaker 1>among other impressive feats. Just recently, however, a Harvard professor

0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.760
<v Speaker 1>fired the metaphorical shot heard round the world by saying

0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:56.480
<v Speaker 1>that coconut oil is and I quote, pure poison. This

0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.160
<v Speaker 1>came not too long after the release of updated guidelines

0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.200
<v Speaker 1>by the American Heart Association, which urged people to steer

0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.600
<v Speaker 1>clear of saturated fatty acids, among them coconut oil. The

0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.959
<v Speaker 1>leap from superfood to pure poison is pretty big. Like

0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:15.360
<v Speaker 1>Grand canyon big. So where does the truth lie. Not surprisingly,

0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.720
<v Speaker 1>it's somewhere in the middle and could even change again

0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.840
<v Speaker 1>once more research is done. We spoke by email with

0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.679
<v Speaker 1>Melissa Majumdar, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy

0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.200
<v Speaker 1>of Nutrition and Dietetics. She points out that despite popular

0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.720
<v Speaker 1>and prevalent claims to the contrary, currently there is insufficient

0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.479
<v Speaker 1>evidence to rate the effectiveness of coconut oil in helping

0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.840
<v Speaker 1>with issues like diabetes, weight loss, chrome's disease, irritable bale syndrome,

0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.880
<v Speaker 1>and thyroid problems. She explained, many of the health claims

0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.600
<v Speaker 1>have been blown out of proportion and are not yet validated.

0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.240
<v Speaker 1>At the end of the day, coconut oil may have

0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.520
<v Speaker 1>some beneficial properties that were still exploring, but it's still

0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.240
<v Speaker 1>a fat and should still fit onto our plate in moderation.

0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 1>Much of the confusion lies in our scientific understanding of

0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.080
<v Speaker 1>how coconut oil operate. A tablespoon of coconut oil has

0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.800
<v Speaker 1>the same number of calories as other oils like olive

0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.800
<v Speaker 1>and canola, that is about one hundred and twenty. However,

0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.760
<v Speaker 1>it also has thirteen grams of saturated fat, which is

0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.880
<v Speaker 1>sixty three percent of the recommended daily dietary allowance of

0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.520
<v Speaker 1>saturated fat in just a tablespoon. That was why people

0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.760
<v Speaker 1>watching their cholesterol were advised to stay away from it

0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.840
<v Speaker 1>in the past. In the last decade or so, some

0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.320
<v Speaker 1>people began reclassifying coconut oil as healthy. Here's why. The

0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.800
<v Speaker 1>proponents said that coconut oil has medium chain triclysrides or mctas,

0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.880
<v Speaker 1>unlike most other oils which have long chain triclysrides. Let's

0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.160
<v Speaker 1>break that down. Medium and short chain triclysrides are more

0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.760
<v Speaker 1>quickly absorbed and sent into circulation in the body than

0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.280
<v Speaker 1>long chain triclysrides. A two thousand three study had shown

0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.720
<v Speaker 1>that mcts can speed up your metabolism, which helps you

0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.200
<v Speaker 1>lose weight, while another study showed that mcts prevent hardening

0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.320
<v Speaker 1>of the arteries, which lowers risk of heart attack and stroke. However,

0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.280
<v Speaker 1>these studies were done with oils that were pure mcts

0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.240
<v Speaker 1>and not with coconut oil, which is only partially composed

0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.880
<v Speaker 1>of mcts. According to Mudjumdar, there's controversy over whether coconut

0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:10.600
<v Speaker 1>oil behaves like a medium or long chain triglyceride. This

0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.400
<v Speaker 1>distinction could be something of a moot point. However, since

0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.720
<v Speaker 1>the body doesn't process coconut oil the way it would

0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.240
<v Speaker 1>other oils containing mcts, Mudumdar said, what we do know

0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.320
<v Speaker 1>is coconut oil is majority composed of a fatty acid

0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.280
<v Speaker 1>called lauric acid, which contributes to both elevated HDL the

0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.880
<v Speaker 1>good cholesterol, and elevated LDL, the bad cholesterol, and is

0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.920
<v Speaker 1>therefore not a great idea for anyone battling high cholesterol

0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.080
<v Speaker 1>or the family history of heart disease. Most folks should

0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.360
<v Speaker 1>be aiming to get twenty five to thirty five percent

0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.040
<v Speaker 1>of their total calories every day from fat. Majumdar, like

0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.760
<v Speaker 1>most nutritionists, urges people to limit their daily saturated fats

0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.280
<v Speaker 1>to seven to ten percent of that. Not surprisingly, it

0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.880
<v Speaker 1>doesn't take much coconut oil to hit that marker. Majumdar

0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.800
<v Speaker 1>notes coconut oil is more like butter calorie and fat

0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.640
<v Speaker 1>wise than other oil. As a rule of thumb, the

0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.160
<v Speaker 1>healthy fats are the ones that are liquid at room temperature,

0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.360
<v Speaker 1>not solid. Instead of using coconut oil, looked fats like

0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.440
<v Speaker 1>canola or olive oil. A tablespoon of conola oil has

0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.840
<v Speaker 1>one gram of saturated fat. That's five percent of your

0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.000
<v Speaker 1>recommended dietary allowance, while a tablespoon of olive oil has

0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.160
<v Speaker 1>two grams, that's nine percent if you recommended dietary allowance.

0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.600
<v Speaker 1>As to whether Majumdar agrees with the Harvard professor who

0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.800
<v Speaker 1>vilified coconut oil, she said, I can't think of a

0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.800
<v Speaker 1>food I would call poison. There's no food I'd want

0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.320
<v Speaker 1>people to be afraid of, but I wouldn't put coconut

0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.159
<v Speaker 1>oil in the healthy corner. We will say though, that

0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.440
<v Speaker 1>while it may not be a health food, coconut oil

0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.440
<v Speaker 1>is great for moisturizing your skin and soothing wounds and irritations.

0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.640
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article how Coconut oil

0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.799
<v Speaker 1>Went from superfood to Pure Poison on HowStuffWorks dot com,

0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.360
<v Speaker 1>written by A. Leo Hoyt. Brainstuff is production of I

0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.240
<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio in partnership withhoustuffworks dot Com and is produced

0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.159
<v Speaker 1>by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,

0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.400
<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:02.440
<v Speaker 1>to your favorite shows.