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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. Just a couple of short years ago,

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Speaker 1: it seemed that coconut oil could do no wrong practically

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Speaker 1: of nowhere. It was being touted incessantly as a super

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Speaker 1: food thanks to claims that it helps burn fat and

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Speaker 1: curbs hunger, among other impressive feats. Just recently, however, a

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Speaker 1: Harvard professor fired the metaphorical shot heard round the world

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Speaker 1: by saying that coconut oil is and I quote, pure poison.

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Speaker 1: This came not too long after the release of updated

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Speaker 1: guidelines by the American Heart Association, which urged people to

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Speaker 1: steer clear of saturated fatty acids, among them coconut oil.

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Speaker 1: The leap from super food to pure poison is pretty big,

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Speaker 1: like Grand Canyon big. So where does the truth lie?

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Speaker 1: Not surprisingly, it's somewhere in the middle, and could even

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Speaker 1: change again once more research is done. We spoke via

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Speaker 1: email with Melissa madjum Dar, a registered dietitian and spokesperson

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Speaker 1: for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She points out that,

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Speaker 1: despite popular and prevalent claims to the contrary, currently there

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Speaker 1: is insufficient evidence to rate the effectiveness of coconut oil

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Speaker 1: in helping with issues like diabetes, weight loss, crones disease,

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Speaker 1: irritable bale syndrome, and thyroid problems. She explained, many of

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Speaker 1: the health claims have been blown out of proportion and

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Speaker 1: are not yet validated. At the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: coconut oil may have some beneficial properties that were still exploring,

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Speaker 1: but it's still a fat and should still fit onto

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Speaker 1: our plate in moderation. Much of the confusion lies in

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Speaker 1: our scientific understanding of how coconut oil operates. A tablespoon

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Speaker 1: of coconut oil has the same number of calories as

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Speaker 1: other oils like olive and canola, that is about a

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty. However, it also has thirteen grams of

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Speaker 1: saturated fat, which is six of the recommended daily dietary

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Speaker 1: allowance of saturated fat in just a table spoon. That

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Speaker 1: was why people watching their cholesterol were advised to stay

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Speaker 1: away from it in the past. In the last decade

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Speaker 1: or so, some people began reclassify and coconut oil as healthy.

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Speaker 1: Here's why. The proponents said that coconut oil has medium

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Speaker 1: chain triglycerides or m c t s, unlike most other

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Speaker 1: oils which have long chain triclyas rides. Let's break that down.

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Speaker 1: Medium and short chain triclys rides are more quickly absorbed

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Speaker 1: and sent into circulation in the body than long chain

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Speaker 1: triclas rides. A two thousand three study has shown that

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Speaker 1: m c t s can speed up your metabolism, which

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Speaker 1: helps you lose weight, while another study showed that m

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Speaker 1: c t s prevent hardening of the arteries, which lowers

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Speaker 1: risk of heart attack and stroke. However, these studies were

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Speaker 1: done with oils that were pure m c t s

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Speaker 1: and not with coconut oil, which is only partially composed

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Speaker 1: of m c t s. According to mudgum Dar, there's

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Speaker 1: controversy over whether coconut oil behaves like a medium or

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Speaker 1: long chain triclys ride. This distinction could be something of

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Speaker 1: a moot point. However, since the body doesn't process coconut

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Speaker 1: oil the way it would other oils containing m c

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Speaker 1: t s, mudgum Dar said, what we do know is

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Speaker 1: coconut oil is majority composed of a fatty acid called

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Speaker 1: loric SID, which contributes to both elevated HDL the good cholesterol,

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Speaker 1: and elevated l d L the bad cholesterol, and is

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Speaker 1: therefore not a great idea for anyone battling high cholesterol

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Speaker 1: or the family history of heart disease. Most folks should

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Speaker 1: be aiming to get twenty five to thirty five percent

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Speaker 1: of their total calories every day from fat. Madjum Dar,

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Speaker 1: like most nutritionists, urges people to limit their daily saturated

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Speaker 1: fats to seven to of that. Not surprisingly, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: take much coconut oil to hit that marker. Madgum Dar

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Speaker 1: notes coconut oil is more like butter calorie and fat

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Speaker 1: wise than other oils. As a rule of thumb, the

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Speaker 1: healthy fats are the ones that are liquid at room temperature,

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Speaker 1: not solid. Instead of using coconut oil, looked to fats

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Speaker 1: like canola or olive oil. A tablespoon of canola oil

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Speaker 1: has one gram of saturated fat that's five percent of

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Speaker 1: your recommended dietary allowance, while a tablespoon of olive oil

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Speaker 1: has two grams that's nine percent off your recommended dietary allowance.

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Speaker 1: As to whether madgum Dar agrees with the Harvard professor

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Speaker 1: who vilified coke and oil, she said, I can't think

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Speaker 1: of a food I would call poison. There's no food

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Speaker 1: I'd want people to be afraid of. But I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: put coconut oil in the healthy corner. We will say, though,

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Speaker 1: that while it may not be a health food, coconut

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Speaker 1: oil is great for moisturizing your skin and soothing wounds

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Speaker 1: and irritations. Today's episode was written by Alia Hoyt and

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Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots

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Speaker 1: of other nutritive topics, visit our home planet has stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com