In the aftermath of the American Heart Association’s (AHA) recent bashing on coconut oil, eye brows have been raised and questions have been asked over the efficacy of the “I-use-it-for-everthing” oil. Coconut oil has a functional food profile, with it’s antimicrobial properties and many moistening applications. These traits have made it a house hold favourite, from kitchen to bathroom to bedroom.

But wait, what? Our beloved coconut oil may be the cause of plaque clogging your arteries and might be the reason you may one day have cardiovascular disease. According to the science, we should stop using coconut oil. The direct quote from the research paper, quite simply stated:  “Coconut oil increases LDL cholesterol (unhealthy cholesterol), a cause of cardiovascular disease, and has no known offsetting favorable effects, we advise against the use of coconut oil.”

But don’t melt your coconut oil and pour it down the sink just yet. Let’s look a little deeper into this claim, and more importantly into how you can live a happy healthy life, with coconut oil by your side!

Why is coconut oil so bad?

In short, it is not bad. However, it is currently being criticized because its rich in saturated fats, which in turn increase unhealthy cholesterol levels. Notably, something that wasn’t mentioned in this research was that coconut oil is also proven to regulate total cholesterol. This includes increasing the amount of healthy cholesterol, as well.

Let’s a break down what fats there are, in the most simplistic way:

• Unsaturated fat: olive oil, flaxeed oil, fish oils – good fat
• Saturated fat: animal fat, coconut oil, palm oil – also ok in moderation
• Trans fat: fried foods, baked good, pizza – bad bad bad

There had been decades of misleading dietary advice suggesting fats were the nutritional bad guys, stating that removing them from your diet would be the one change needed to improve health. The disastrous trend to follow saw the rise in low fat, no fat, 2% fat and other fat reduced products. The problem with this was when the food manufacturers reduced fat content it was often replaced with sugar. Which is what some would argue lead to the rise in obesity. A major factor also associated with heart health.

If we can be real for a moment, if someone is sincerely worried about their health or heart disease coconut oil shouldn’t be the first thing to ditch. Removing any item from the junk food / food like substance category would be better than replacing coconut oil.Plus, a growing amount of research shows limiting the numerous risk factors that contribute to heart health like stress, high sugar diets, smoking, excessive caffeine, excessive alcohol and basically anything that causes obesity are the life choices that should be addressed.Heck, even yoga can modify these risk factors and would be more beneficial than cutting out coconut oil.

Reasons to love coconut oil

Even if the bad publicity was enough for you to push coconut oil towards the back of the kitchen cupboard, you can’t argue against its many other beneficial uses

• The wonders it works on dermatitis, especially in comparison to other mineral oils
• It leaves your skin feeling amazing after oil cleansing your face
• Oil pulling, which uses coconut oil as a mouthwash
• Massaging into you scalp or using it as a hair mask to add a luscious shine to your locks, plus it prevents hair damage.
• Lubricants of all sorts
• It has a high smoking point, meaning when you cook with coconut oil, it won’t turn into a trans fat.

So go on, grab a spoon of coconut oil and add it to whatever and wherever you desire. If it’s better health you are after, the most important thing to remember is that you should practice moderation in all of your dietary habits and lifestyle choices, rather than exclusively restricting. Dietary uses aside, coconut oil has so much more to give and is too good to ever get rid of.