By Joel Fuhrman MD on February 2, 2012
Eat Fat or Don’t Eat Fat, That is the Question
The major determinant of your long term health is the nutritional quality of the calories you eat. It is the quality of the fat you eat, the quality of the protein and the quality of the carbohydrate that influences your health.
Ask yourself, is the food I am about to eat a whole, natural plant source of calories? Is it packaged with fiber, antioxidants and phytochemicals? Does it contain not just discovered nutrients, but plenty of undiscovered nutrients too? Or were most of those fragile, but beneficial nutrients lost in the way the food was processed or prepared? These are the questions, to ask yourself, not whether it is a low fat or high fat food.
You may have heard that nuts, seeds and avocados are fatty and fattening and are foods to be shunned. However, recent evidence from many different studies showing a wide variety of health benefits from eating these foods has finally buried this myth. It is important to emphasize that the health problems associated with high fat diets are from consuming animal fats, processed oils and trans fats, not from the consumption of avocados, and raw nuts and seeds. There has never been a study that showed any negative health outcomes from consuming these natural, high fat, whole plant foods. In fact, the studies that have been done only show positive health benefits, and conclude that these foods should be an important part of a well-rounded, healthy diet.
Macronutrients are the three sources of calories—fat, carbohydrate and protein. Americans eat too much of all three and we need to reduce all of them. I intentionally do not give a preferred percentage of each macronutrient in the diet and I do not recommend fat be significantly limited. Trying to micromanage the precise amount of each caloric source misses the most critical issue in human nutrition. The real critical issue in human nutrition is meeting your macronutrient needs without excess, for all three macronutrients, and getting sufficient micronutrients in the process (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals—the parts of food that do not contain calories). There is a broad acceptable range in the macronutrient ratio as long as one is not overeating calories.
However, adhering to a diet that is less than 10 percent of calories from fat is not an appropriate recommendation for ideal health and often results in less than ideal health outcomes. One could be on a healthful diet that is 15 percent of calories from fat or a healthful diet that is 30 percent of calories from fat too. As long as the diet is rich in micronutrients and does not exceed our need for calories, the lower fat diet has no advantage in the prevention and treatment of disease. There is no evidence to suggest that a diet of equal calories that is much lower in fat is an advantage for prevention or treatment of heart disease or any other disease. Studies that compare dietary fat percentages suggest that it is not the fat level, but other more critical qualities that make the diet more or less beneficial.
To achieve an ideal level of phytonutrients and other micronutrients it necessitates eating a large amount of green vegetables each day. Any diet that does not recommend sufficient consumption of vegetables is lacking. When you eat lots of vegetables, especially green vegetables, you meet your body’s need for fiber and micronutrients with very little calories. Then to comprise the balance of the diet and fill our caloric needs we can choose an assortment of other foods, preferably ones that are of the highest nutrient quality. Unlike some other doctors and authors advocating a plant-based diet, I recommend more vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds and use less bread, potato, and rice. With the addition of nuts and seeds, which average about 175 calories an ounce, one or two ounces a day brings the diet up to the 15 – 30 percent of calories from fat range. My recommend diet is definitely not under 10 percent of calories from fat and because of the addition of seeds and nuts it is also considerably higher in protein too.
It might seem logical to restrict higher fat foods like nuts seeds and avocado because high fat foods are higher in calories and fat is 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories a gram for carbohydrates and protein. Of course one should take care not to eat too many calories and adjust the level of these foods to maintain a slim body and not to overeat on them or any other food. However, there are lots of good reasons to include at least some of these higher fat foods in one’s diet.
Evidence is accumulating that a diet as low as 10 percent of calories from fat Is too low, even for the overweight, diabetic or heart disease patient and that the judicious use of these higher fat foods is beneficial for not just heart disease, but for weight loss and diabetes too. The scientific literature corroborates my clinical experience over the last 15 years caring for thousands of patients with obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and provides evidence to show that for every calorie removed from the diet from rice, potato, bread or animal products and substituted with raw seeds and nuts you get many health benefits, such as:
• Lower blood sugar
• Lower cholesterol
• Lower triglycerides
• Better LDL/HDL ratio
• Better antioxidant status
• Better absorption of phytochemicals from vegetables
• Better diabetic control
• Lower weight
• More effective reversal of heart disease
• Prevention of cardiac arrhythmias in heart patients
• More weight loss, not weight gain
• Better nutritional diversity and satisfaction with less calories
• Increased protection against cancer
• Better muscle and bone mass with aging
With the growing awareness of the health properties of nuts and seeds, we must also realize that they must be eaten in moderation. Should we all sit in front of our TV’s, eat the entire bag of nuts in an hour, and complain when we gain weight? Of course not. Healthy eaters avoid excessive calories and do not eat for recreation. Eat only an ounce a day if you are significantly overweight, but if thin, physically active, pregnant or nursing eat 2 – 4 ounces according to your caloric needs.
Originally published September 30, 2009.
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By John Robbins on September 21, 2011
We can, as a society, be astoundingly cruel to people who are obese. They might be creative, caring and hopeful people, but we don’t see that. Far too often, we see only their weight.
What does it say about us that we act as though you can take the measure of a person by the size bathing suit they wear?
Maybe this partially explains why obese people are flocking to a restaurant outside Phoenix, Arizona, whose name, and I am not making this up, is the Heart Attack Grill. The restaurant, which seats 100, is often packed. It offers what owner Jon Basso calls, “an environment of acceptance to overweight customers who are typically demonized by society.”
But at this restaurant, it’s a little more than acceptance. The Heart Attack Grill literally celebrates obesity. Customers who are over 350 pounds eat for free. A scale is strategically placed at the center of the restaurant, so other diners can watch the weigh-ins. When customers exceed 350 pounds, says the restaurant’s owner, “Everybody applauds and cheers for them. A big smile comes over their face, and for once they are finally accepted. They are not picked on here.”
It’s all made to seem sexy, too. Waitresses, all of them young and slender, are dressed as scantily clad nurses, wearing high heels, thigh-high stockings, and skimpy outfits revealing lots of cleavage.
It sounds like fun.
Except when it isn’t.
Several months ago, the 575-pound spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill, a 29-year-old man named Blair River, died. It wasn’t a heart attack, it was pneumonia. He had been the public face of the restaurant and the star of its advertising. He was also the single father for a five-year-old girl.
At nearly 600 pounds. Blair River ate all his meals free at the restaurant.
Heart Attack Grill owner Jon Basso did not deny the link between the young man’s excessive weight and his tragically premature death. “I hired him to promote my food,” said Basso, “[but his] life was cut short because he carried extra weight.” Ironically, the restaurant’s motto is “Food Worth Dying For.”
Of course, no one is forcing anyone to eat at the Heart Attack Grill or to stuff themselves full of unhealthy food. It’s a free country, in theory anyway, and we’re free to eat ourselves to death if we want to do so.
Some would say that the Heart Attack Grill steps over a line, to the point of enabling dangerous food addictions. There is certainly nothing remotely resembling healthy on the menu. Customers can purchase cigarettes, but only the non-filtered type. On the wall are prominent displays advertising menu items such as “Quadruple Bypass Burgers” that carry 8,000 calories, and “Flatliner Fries” that are deep-fried in pure lard. Perhaps joking, owner Basso says, “We’re in the front lines of the battle against anorexia.”
But Blair River’s death is no joke. And it would be a mistake to make light of the medical consequences of obesity. The Centers for Disease Control tells us that obese people have a substantially higher risk not only for heart attacks, but also for diabetes, most cancers, and many other types of cardiovascular disease.
Heart Attack Grill owner Basso doesn’t plan any changes on account of the young man’s death. Scantily-clad waitresses will still regularly exhort customers to eat all they can. He’s making money, and thinks the restaurant is great fun.
But is it funny that we have become the most obese society in the history of the world? Two-thirds of the residents of the United States are now either overweight or obese. So many children are developing the most common type of diabetes that medical authorities have had to change the name of the disease. What was formerly called “adult-onset diabetes” is now called “type 2 diabetes.” It accounts for 90 percent of the diabetes in the country, and the incidence in children is skyrocketing.
It’s easy to point our fingers and pass judgment. We can blame fast food companies that aggressively market unhealthy foods to children, we can blame people who overeat for their lack of will power, and we can blame parents for feeding their kids poorly. We can blame harmful ingredients such as trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup, and we can blame the pressures of modern life that turn people into addicts of one kind or another.
We can play the blame game ad infinitum, but who does that help? Does it help those with weight problems that leave them vulnerable to disease and prone to feelings of shame?
What if we were instead to learn from those people who have taken the arduous, difficult, and ultimately joyful journey from obesity to health?
I have had the wonderfully good fortune recently to become friends with a young woman named Natala Constantine and her husband Matt. They’ve been married for seven-and-a-half years. At their wedding, Natala was morbidly obese.
She knew something about the abuse endured by obese people in our society. By then, she had lost track of the number of times she had been humiliated in public, called ugly names by strangers, and been physically hurt by people who felt entitled to treat her as less than human because of her weight.
People constantly told Natala she was lucky Matt had fallen in love with her, and that he must be amazing to be able to look past her weight.
A week after the wedding, she was diagnosed with severe diabetes. Her blood had become so acidic that her organs were shutting down, and doctors seriously doubted whether she would survive. She was 25-years-old.
Five years later, Natala was taking up to 13 different medications and as much as 200 units of insulin a day. She ate what many people would call a healthy diet — lots of animal protein, and almost no carbohydrates. She had been told that a diet high in animal protein was the only way she could control her diabetes, but it wasn’t working. She was working out at a gym for two to three hours a day, but at 5’2? tall, she weighed close to 400 pounds.
When Natala developed an infection in her right calf, doctors told her that part of her lower right leg might need to be amputated. But then a friend, who Natala described to me as “a vegan and into yoga,” suggested that she consider a natural approach to her diabetes, and that she start to think of food as medicine. “I wanted to smash her,” Natala admits. “How dare she suggest something so simple! Didn’t she know that I had been to the best doctors, that I was on the best diet, that I was working out?”
But Natala did take her friend’s advice to heart, and decided to go on what she calls a “100-percent healthy plant-strong diet.”
“For the first three weeks,” she says, “I felt as though I was ridding myself of much more than animal products. Food had a hold on me that I could not even conceptualize prior to those three weeks. I would sit in my car and cry outside of sub shops, just wanting a tuna melt.”
It was very rough, but Natala stayed with it and the results were nothing short of miraculous. In 30 days, she was off all insulin.
The physicians she was seeing for her diabetes took a look at her numbers, were amazed, and wanted to know how she did it. “I told them I had adopted a completely plant-based diet. They didn’t seem surprised at all, and told me that plant-based diets were helping to reverse diabetes. When I asked why they had not suggested it, they told me because it isn’t practical.”
Aghast, she asked her doctor, “Do you think it’s practical to be 30 years old and lose a leg?”
She walked out of that doctor’s office and never went back. “Everything changed from that moment,” she recalls. “I slowly decreased all the other diabetes medicines I was on. I lowered my blood cholesterol without drugs. I lowered my blood pressure without drugs. I corrected my hormonal problems without drugs. Many diabetics go blind, but I reversed the nerve damage in my eyes. And that infection in my leg? It completely healed. The arthritis in my feet? It went away.”
Today, Natala Constantine has lost almost 200 pounds, is medicine-free, and continues to make great strides toward her ideal weight. Her diabetes is in complete remission. I’ve met her and I can attest that she is one of the happiest and most radiant people you could hope to meet. A concert violinist, she exudes joy.
And her husband, Matt? While Natala was dealing with diabetes, he was not only obese but also suffered from severe food allergies. Eating a few tomatoes would send him to the emergency room. His food allergies dominated his life. And now? His improvement, on a 100-percent healthy plant-strong diet, is almost as miraculous as his wife’s. A concert pianist, he has lost 90 pounds, is now a healthy weight, and his food allergies are entirely behind him.
It’s quite a world we live in it, isn’t it? On the one hand, we have the Heart Attack Grill, whose 570-pound spokesman died at the age of 29. On the other, we have people like Natala and Matt Constantine, who have taken a different path.
We live in a society that tends to cruelly stigmatize the obese. The Heart Attack Grill represents one form of response. It can feel empowering to turn shame into defiance. When society points its finger at you, blaming you and denying its own illness, there is a natural urge to send a message back to society with your middle finger.
But is there a healthier alternative? What about turning shame into a commitment to greater wellbeing and happiness? What about refusing to internalize society’s negative messages, and instead building a healthy life of joy, confidence, and beauty?
Cutting back on heavily sweetened beverages like sodas and juice-like drinks is a good place to start. Eating less processed foods and more whole foods is another good step. Getting exercise helps a lot. And the more of your nutrients you can get from plant sources, the better.
Eat a healthy plant-strong diet, and your body will thank you for the rest of your life.
For more tools, resources and inspiration, visit http://www.johnrobbins.info/.
This article was originally published at HuffingtonPost.com.
Photo credit: Trina Alexander
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By Guest Blogger on September 16, 2011
One of the most amazing things that happened to our father’s male heart patients while on his Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease diet was not that their cholesterol numbers went down, or their blood pressure numbers plummeted, or their weight dropped effortlessly, or their type 2 diabetes went away — it was that another part of their body was doubling in size.
I could not believe this HUGE piece of evidence was not gaining more attention in the medical field. What a motivational kick in the pants. Seriously, some patients need the proverbial skillet to the head announcing, “Stop eating all that penile artery-clogging grease, meat and cheese, if you want to get it up past the age of 40!”
Sure this is a message for men. But I jumped at the chance to write this because I am a woman. A married woman. And we married women depend on our men for some things in our crazy sexy lives.
A current estimate of the number of men in the United States who experience erectile dysfunction is 30 million. And not all cases are reported, as you can imagine.
Causes of erectile dysfunction can vary from type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, to smoking, neurological damage, depression and even certain medications.
The plant-strong approach to eating can combat the symptoms of erectile dysfunction for the aforementioned disease states, as well as the disease states themselves.
Here is how.
First, a snapshot of a healthy anatomy and physiology.
Our vascular system is everywhere in our bodies and is made up of an intricate network of blood vessels (also known as arteries and veins) that carry our blood throughout our body. The innermost lining of every artery is called the endothelium – a smooth, slippery surface that is spectacular for a number of reasons. We are going to focus on the endothelium’s ability to release nitric oxide, which when released dilates arteries.
Did you catch that? Nitric oxide can cause the small round tubes that carry our blood to expand – get bigger.
Nitric oxide is a gas.
Nitric oxide dilates arteries.
Nitric oxide is amazing.
So, in a healthy body when the brain sends the blood vessels a neurological message of, say …
“There is a tiger, run!”
“Save that child who is heading into traffic!”
“What just went bump in the night?”
… this causes the arteries in the legs to release nitric oxide, which dilates arterial walls, provides an increase in blood flow and the power to sprint to safety.
The same goes for the penile arteries – the ones that provide blood flow to the penis. The brain sends a neurological message of … say …
“Oh, the mood is right.”
“Hey, the kids are all at sleepovers.”
“Hey, the kids are all at college.”
“Thanks, for doing the dishes, honey.”
This triggers the arteries of the penis to release nitric oxide, which dilates arterial walls and provides increased blood flow to the corpora cavernosa (engorge-able) tissue of the penis. The engorgement of this tissue does something essential – it presses up against, compromises, sort of cuts off the flow of blood in the penile vein. This blocks drainage of blood out of the penis creating a blood-filled erection, a boner, a stiffy, a hard-on, you name it.
Now a snapshot of the unhealthy physiology.
The Standard American Diet (otherwise referred to as SAD) hardens and thickens the lining of the arteries. The fact that this plaque-y build-up within the arteries comes from eating a meaty, greasy, cheesy diet is widely known. Yet, lesser known, is the injury to the endothelium – that smooth, slippery innermost layer of blood vessels that releases nitric oxide. This is where we are focusing once again.
Day after day, meal after meal, bite after bite of highly processed, fatty foods injure the endothelium’s ability to function correctly. This sort of diet compromises the endothelium’s ability to release nitric oxide (gasp).
Dr. Vogel, Director of Clinical Vascular Biology from the University of Maryland, performed a brilliant experiment that showed how quickly the endothelium loses the ability to release nitric oxide after a fatty, processed meal. The insult is almost immediate.
Any male eating the standard American diet, pay heed if you enjoy your erections: No nitric oxide means no dilation – which means no increased blood flow – which means no squashing of the penile veins – which means no blood build up in the penis – which means no erection! Which means no …
The uplifting news is that a plant-strong diet filled with whole grains, greens, fruits, veggies, beans and berries literally cleans out the plaque coating the endothelium of the vascular system and repairs the endothelial cell’s ability to release nitric oxide.
My brother Rip ran a few pilot studies while writing The Engine 2 Diet. After eating a plant-strong Engine 2 Diet for 6 weeks, guys in the 30’s and 40’s reported back to Rip with exciting news:
“I am back to my high school blue-steel down there!”
“I have got the diamond-cutter back!”
“This diet has me gaining in other ways.”
These guys did not have any diagnosed diseases, but the self-assessed changes down there have convinced them of the power of plants.
So raise the flag!
Supply the blood-bank!
Keep it up!
Make that crouching tiger a hidden dragon!
Go plant-strong and be a pant–strong man so when your heart goes pitter-pat for your partner, you will not get angina, but vagina!
Jane Esselstyn RN is a nurse and a married mother of three. She loves presenting about disease prevention through nutrition and is a sex ed teacher to middle school boys and high school girls. They get the plant-strong message, respectfully: If you want a life filled with all those new erections you are experiencing, steer clear of a greasy, cheesy, meaty diet. And you will keep both your breasts at their best if you steer clear of cow’s breast milk.
Photo credit: norwichnuts
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By Dr. T. Colin Campbell on July 8, 2011
Finally, a long overdue scientific correction is happening. The human genome project is failing to advance the cause of human health, as promised. There is a fundamental but frustratingly and long overlooked reason why this is happening.
Working out the details of the human genome was worth doing, on several accounts: monitoring environmental pollutants, evaluating evolutionary lineages, identifying criminal suspects. But initially promising great advances in human health was not and should not have been one of these promises. Hypothesizing that knowledge of the associations of specific genes with serious diseases like cancer, heart disease and related diseases would lead to great health advances (through drug development) was a superficial and costly oversimplification of disease causation.
Although genes and/or their mutated forms are fundamental to the initiation of all disease events, it is not their mere presence or absence that determines disease outcomes. Genes may start the job but they do not finish it. The far more important question we should ask is: what controls the expression of genes (to produce products, mostly enzymes) that lead to health and disease events? Experimental and extensively published research from my laboratory over several decades has long convinced me that nutrition primarily provides this control. We have failed to acknowledge this question or sought its answer for far too long because we have failed to understand the scientific fundamentals of nutrition. Not one medical school in the nation adequately teaches this science, although a few give it lip service.
Still worse is the failure of federal funding agencies to recognize nutrition as a legitimate medical science. The National Institutes of Health, the most prominent biomedical research institution in the world, since its founding has kept nutrition well hidden. Not one of its 27 institutes and related centers is dedicated to nutrition! Some NIH administrators say nutrition is embedded in other programs but do not be fooled. First, dedicated nutrition funding is meager (less than five percent of the heart and cancer institutes–the two largest). Second, this small amount has been used primarily to study single nutrient effects in randomized clinical trials, a seriously flawed hypothesis.
Nutrition should not to be defined by the effects of isolated nutrients. That’s pharmacology, a strategy now known not to work, in spite of the $25 billion or so that we annually spend on nutrient supplements. Unequivocal evidence now exists to show that nutrition, when provided by the use of whole, plant-based foods, can control the expression of our mischievous genes that otherwise would lead to serious ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, certain autoimmune diseases and many lesser ailments. For many years, experimental findings from my laboratory have shown that genetic initiation of cancer (by a powerful chemical carcinogen) can be stalled even reversed by a modest nutritional modification that is consistent with this same whole, plant-based food effect. (This research was funded by NIH because of my interest in cancer but, eventually, we learned that it was the tail, nutrition, that wagged the dog — cancer.) Physician colleagues of mine, including Drs. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., Dean Ornish, Roy Swank and Neal Barnard have now published peer-reviewed findings showing this kind of nutrition not only to prevent serious diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and related ailments but to treat them into remission.
There is no other strategy in contemporary health science or medical practice that comes close to the breadth and depth of health benefits achievable by nutrition. We must begin to understand, communicate and apply this knowledge if we ever hope to reduce health care costs by reducing the burden of disease. We will never do this by depending on outmoded notions of what single (or even a few) genes, single nutrients or single chemicals (i.e., drugs) will do to create health. That thinking generates wealth for a few at the expense of health for the many. It is time to recognize the natural and harmonious biological complexity of health processes, and choose the lifestyle strategy that best maintains and restores that harmony. Nature has had eons of time to work this out. It’s also time to develop a professional science of nutrition that serves the biological health of the population, not the economic health of commerce.
As for health professionals who claim they cannot convince patients to change their dietary practices, this is not surprising when the professionals themselves are not educated in this field and are vested in a strategy that is the antithesis of good nutrition. It is time we recognize what nutrition can do and a good place to start is to establish an NIH Institute of Nutrition dedicated for this purpose.
Originally posted in HuffingtonPost.com
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By Brenda Davis RD on June 29, 2011
There are few foods that have been at once maligned and acclaimed as much as coconut oil. Some view it as a notorious health villain because it’s the most concentrated source of saturated fat in the diet – even higher than butter or lard. Not surprisingly, it rests at the very top of the list of foods that must be strictly avoided in many heart-healthy diet programs. At the other end of the spectrum are people who view coconut oil as a fountain of youth and the greatest health discovery in decades. These advocates claim that coconut oil can provide therapeutic benefits for cancer, diabetes, digestive disturbances, heart disease, high blood pressure, HIV, kidney disease, osteoporosis and overweight. So what is the truth? Is coconut oil a menace or a miracle where health is concerned?
The primary criticism of coconut oil is that over 90 percent of its fat is saturated. Saturated fat is known to increase blood cholesterol levels. When coconut oil is blacklisted, it’s almost exclusively because of this extreme saturated-fat content. While many people imagine saturated fat as a single tyrant that clogs arteries, there are actually several different types of saturated fats. These fats contain between four and 28 carbons. Depending on the length of their carbon chain, they have very different effects on blood cholesterol levels. These saturated fats, listed with foods that include them, are most plentiful in the diet:
- Lauric acid (12 carbons): coconut, coconut oil, palm kernel oil
- Myristic acid (14 carbons): coconut, dairy products, nutmeg oil, palm kernel oil, palm oil
- Palmitic acid (16 carbons): animal fats, palm oil
- Stearic acid (18 carbons): beef, butter, cocoa butter, lard, mutton
Saturated fatty acids with 12–16 carbons increase blood cholesterol levels, while stearic acid does not. When stearic acid reaches the liver, it’s converted to oleic acid (an 18-carbon monounsaturated fat), which may help explain why it doesn’t raise cholesterol. As a result, consumers are often advised not to be concerned about their intake of stearic acid. However, cholesterol is not the only marker for heart disease, and adverse effects of stearic acid have been reported. In one large study, stearic acid increased coronary artery disease risk more than lauric, myristic or palmitic acid.1 Stearic acid may reduce good HDL cholesterol, increase Lp(a), which is another risk factor for heart disease, increase certain blood-clotting factors and result in lipemia (excess fat in the blood) after eating.2, 3 In a critical review of dietary fats and coronary artery disease, the authors advised that stearic acid not be distinguished from other saturated fats when providing dietary advice to reduce coronary artery disease.2
Coconut oil is about 50 percent lauric acid, 18 percent myristic acid and 8 percent palmitic acid. This adds up to 76 percent of the fat in coconut oil being the kind that raises cholesterol. Case closed? Not exactly. The predominant fat, lauric acid, does raise total cholesterol, but it appears to raise good HDL cholesterol to an even greater extent than bad LDL cholesterol. The effect on the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol is consistently favorable.4, 5, 6 Myristic and palmitic acid do not have this effect. Does the 50 percent lauric acid in coconut oil cancel out the 26 percent myristic and palmitic acids? We don’t know.
Fats rich in lauric acid, such as coconut oil, result in more favorable blood cholesterol levels than hydrogenated vegetable oils laden with trans fats.4 Trans fatty acids raise bad LDL cholesterol and decrease good HDL cholesterol. Coronary artery disease risk is reduced most effectively when trans fatty acids and saturated fatty acids are replaced with unsaturated fatty acids.2 The effect of coconut oil, rich in lauric acid, remains somewhat uncertain. However, in many parts of the world where coconut and coconut oil are staples in indigenous diets, rates of chronic disease, including coronary artery disease, are low.7, 8, 9 There is one major caveat. The benefits apply only when coconut products are consumed along with a diet that is unprocessed and rich in high-fiber plant foods. When the indigenous diet gives way to a more processed, Western-style diet laden with white flour, sugar and fatty animal products, disease rates escalate even when coconut continues to be consumed.
Most of the fatty acids in coconut, particularly lauric acid, have significant antimicrobial properties.10, 11, 12, 13 Virgin coconut oil also contains a variety of protective phytochemicals, including phenolic acids, which are largely eliminated through the refining process.14, 15
Another important attribute of coconut fat is its stability. It is so highly saturated that it is not easily oxidized or otherwise damaged.16 Plant foods that grow close to the equator have a higher quantity of saturated fatty acids to protect themselves from the ravages of oxidation that occurs in warm temperatures. Foods that grow in cold climates generally contain higher amounts of unsaturated fats such as omega-3 fatty acids. This is necessary for the survival of the plant and its seeds; certain fluids in the plant need to remain liquid, even in very cold temperatures. The saturated fat that comes from whole plant foods, such as coconut, may be of benefit for vegans. Vegan diets sometimes contain excessive amounts of unsaturated fats, which are more prone to oxidation, while the saturated fats in coconut are stable fats with a low risk of oxidation. While we want to keep our total intake of saturated fat low, we don’t want to completely eliminate it (impossible on any diet).
Coconut oil is neither a menace nor a miracle food. Coconut should be treated the same as other high-fat plant foods: enjoyed primarily as a whole food. It is loaded with fiber, vitamin E and phytochemicals and has powerful antimicrobial properties. However, it should be viewed like other concentrated oils: a food that provides a lot of calories with few nutrients. When your diet is high in concentrated fats, it can be difficult to meet your needs for other nutrients. Use some coconut oil when preparing special-occasion treats, but don’t rely on it daily. Base your diet on whole plant foods, and when you do use coconut oil, make sure it is organic and virgin.
Adapted from “Becoming Raw” by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina (Book Publishing Company, 2010)
Photo credit: SingChan
References:
1. Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, et al. Dietary saturated fats and their food sources in relation to the risk of coronary heart disease in women. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70:1001–8.
2. Hu FB, Manson JE, WillettWC. Types of dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease: a critical review. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001;20:5–19.
3. Connor WE. Harbingers of coronary heart disease: dietary saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. Is chocolate benign because of its stearic acid content? Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70:951-2.
4. de Roos NM, Schouten EG, Katan MB. Consumption of a solid fat rich in lauric acid results in a more favorable serum lipid profile in healthy men and women than consumption of a solid fat rich in trans-fatty acids. J Nutr. 2001;131:242-5.
5. Mensink RP, Zock PL, Kester AD, Katan MB. Effects of dietary fatty acids and carbohydrates on the ratio of serum total to HDL cholesterol and on serum lipids and apolipoproteins: a meta-analysis of 60 controlled trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003;77:1146-55.
6. Ng TK, Hassan K, Lim JB, Lye MS, Ishak R. Nonhypercholesterolemic effects of a palm-oil diet in Malaysian volunteers. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991;53(4 Suppl):1015S-1020S.
7. Prior IA, Davidson F, Salmond CE, Czochanska Z. Cholesterol, coconuts, and diet on Polynesian atolls: a natural experiment: the Pukapuka and Tokelau island studies. Am J Clin Nutr. 1981;34:1552-61.
8. Lipoeto NI, Mmedsci, Agus Z, Oenzil F, Masrul M, Wattanapenpaiboon N. Contemporary Minangkabau food culture in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2001;10:10-6.
9. Lipoeto NI, Agus Z, Oenzil F, Wahlqvist M, Wattanapenpaiboon N. Dietary intake and the risk of coronary heart disease among the coconut-consuming Minangkabau in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004;13:377-84.
10. Ogbolu DO, Oni AA, Daini OA, Oloko AP. In vitro antimicrobial properties of coconut oil on Candida species in Ibadan, Nigeria. J Med Food. 2007;10:384-7.
11. Erguiza GS, Jiao AG, Reley M, Ragaza S. The effect of virgin coconut oil supplementation for community-acquired pneumonia in children aged 3 to 60 months admitted at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center: a single blinded randomized controlled trial. Chest. 2008;134:139001.
12. Hierholzer JC, Kabara JJ. In vitro effects of monolaurin compounds on enveloped RNA and DNA viruses. J Food Safety. 1982;4:1-12.
13. Carpo BG, Verallo-Rowell VM, Kabara J. Novel antibacterial activity of monolaurin compared with conventional antibiotics against organisms from skin infections: an in vitro study. J Drugs Dermatol. 2007;6:991-8.
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