Is Your Coconut Oil Secretly Killing You?

A new trend emerges

You could say that coconut oil is really having a moment. Everywhere you look, influencers are discussing the importance of using it in their cooking. And all of this buzz has made this oil a staple of kitchens around the world.

What made coconut oil become the talk of the cooking town in the first place, though? The short answer is that cooking with oil has a reputation for being a healthier alternative to cooking with butter or olive oil. Coconut oil, then, seemed like the best of both worlds: good for your body and good for your taste buds.

Unfortunately, a new study has revealed that coconut oil is far more dangerous than anyone thought. In fact, it could even be deadly!

The results of a shocking new study

Recently, the American Heart Association released a report with some fairly shocking findings. They studied coconut oil with the aim of evaluating how healthy it really is. Unfortunately for coconut lovers, though, the findings of this study reveal that this oil is more dangerous than anyone could have guessed.

What makes coconut oil less healthy than people think? According to the report, seven different trials revealed the same thing: that coconut oil can increase the LDL (also known as “bad cholesterol”) in your body. And that can have serious effects on your heart, including cardiovascular disease.

What does this study mean for your cooking?

The hand of a Japanese woman pouring clear oil into finely crushed brown dough in a white enamel bowl.

One blunt way to interpret the American Heart Association report is that coconut oil is effectively no healthier than other cooking fats. Its reputation as a healthy alternative is built on nothing but empty hype from people who fear cooking with too many saturated fats.

To put things in perspective, the study found that coconut oil actually has more saturated fat than both butter and animal fat. Cooking with it, then, will put more saturated fats into your body while increasing your risks of bad cholesterol.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder the American Heart Association is now warning people against coconut altogether.

The American Heart Association weighs in

Coconut oil in a glass jar. Near the jar are sweet peppers, tomatoes and a wooden spoon. Healthy food concept. Flat lay

Sometimes, scientific reports can be intimidating because results are difficult for casual audiences to truly understand. Fortunately, the American Heart Association spoke very plainly in the report when warning all of us against using coconut oil to cook.

The AHA claimed that because coconut oil increases your bad cholesterol and “has no known offsetting effects,” they advise against using it. Their verdict makes sense, of course…why would anyone want to use something that offered no real advantages while sabotaging their overall health?

Thanks to this study, we all know to protect our health by avoiding cooking with coconut oil. But what nobody can figure out is why this oil developed its healthy reputation in the first place.

Why do people think coconut oil is healthy?

pouring fresh coconut milk and coconut fruit ingredient on wooden table

It didn’t take the American Heart Association long to debunk the widespread claim that coconut oil is a healthy alternative to cooking with butter or animal fat. But where did this claim come from in the first place? Frustratingly enough, it’s almost impossible to track this crazy claim to its original source.

According to report co-author Frankie Sacks, coconut oil is almost pure fat. He’s nearly as confused as the rest of us as to how this oil developed its reputation as a super-trendy, super-healthy alternative to butter. He does have one theory, though: that previously misleading research made people think coconut oil helped with weight loss, kicking off a healthy reputation that never really went away.

Another researcher, Marie-Pierre St-Onge, thinks that her previous research in medium chain triglycerides is to blame. Her research found that the medium-chain triglycerides may increase metabolism, making weight loss easier to achieve. Now, though, she acknowledges that the downsides of cooking with coconut oil may outweigh the potential benefits in the wake of studies like the one conducted by the American Heart Association.