articles
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Daniel Ledda
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raypeat-articles/processed/coconut-oil.html
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raypeat-articles/processed/coconut-oil.html
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<html>
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<head><title>Coconut Oil</title></head>
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<body>
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<h1>
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Coconut Oil
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</h1>
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<p>
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I have already discussed the many toxic effects of the unsaturated oils, and I have frequently mentioned
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that coconut oil doesn't have those toxic effects, though it does contain a small amount of the unsaturated
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oils. Many people have asked me to write something on coconut oil. I thought I might write a small book on
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it, but I realize that there are no suitable channels for distributing such a book--if the seed-oil industry
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can eliminate major corporate food products that have used coconut oil for a hundred years, they certainly
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have the power to prevent dealers from selling a book that would affect their market more seriously. For the
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present, I will just outline some of the virtues of coconut oil.
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</p>
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<p>
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The unsaturated oils in some cooked foods become rancid in just a few hours, even at refrigerator
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temperatures, and are responsible for the stale taste of left-over foods. (Eating slightly stale food isn't
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particularly harmful, since the same oils, even when eaten absolutely fresh, will oxidize at a much higher
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rate once they are in the body, where they are heated and thoroughly mixed with an abundance of oxygen.)
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Coconut oil that has been kept at room temperature for a year has been tested for rancidity, and showed no
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evidence of it. Since we would expect the small percentage of unsaturated oils naturally contained in
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coconut oil to become rancid, it seems that the other (saturated) oils have an antioxidative effect: I
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suspect that the dilution keeps the unstable unsaturated fat molecules spatially separated from each other,
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so they can't interact in the destructive chain reactions that occur in other oils. To interrupt
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chain-reactions of oxidation is one of the functions of antioxidants, and it is possible that a sufficient
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quantity of coconut oil in the body has this function. It is well established that dietary coconut oil
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reduces our need for vitamin E, but I think its antioxidant role is more general than that, and that it has
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both direct and indirect antioxidant activities.
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</p>
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<p>
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Coconut oil is unusually rich in short and medium chain fatty acids. Shorter chain length allows fatty acids
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to be metabolized without use of the carnitine transport system. Mildronate, which I discussed in an article
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on adaptogens, protects cells against stress partly by opposing the action of carnitine, and comparative
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studies showed that added carnitine had the opposite effect, promoting the oxidation of unsaturated fats
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during stress, and increasing oxidative damage to cells. I suspect that a degree of saturation of the
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oxidative apparatus by short-chain fatty acids has a similar effect--that is, that these very soluble and
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mobile short-chain saturated fats have priority for oxidation, because they don't require carnitine
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transport into the mitochondrion, and that this will tend to inhibit oxidation of the unstable,
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peroxidizable unsaturated fatty acids.
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</p>
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<p>
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When Albert Schweitzer operated his clinic in tropical Africa, he said it was many years before he saw any
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cases of cancer, and he believed that the appearance of cancer was caused by the change to the European type
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of diet. In the l920s, German researchers showed that mice on a fat-free diet were practically free of
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cancer. Since then, many studies have demonstrated a very close association between consumption of
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unsaturated oils and the incidence of cancer.
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</p>
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<p>
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Heart damage is easily produced in animals by feeding them linoleic acid; this "essential" fatty acid turned
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out to be the heart toxin in rape-seed oil. The addition of saturated fat to the experimental heart-toxic
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oil-rich diet protects against the damage to heart cells.
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</p>
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<p>
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Immunosuppression was observed in patients who were being "nourished" by intravenous emulsions of "essential
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fatty acids," and as a result coconut oil is used as the basis for intravenous fat feeding, except in
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organ-transplant patients. For those patients, emulsions of unsaturated oils are used specifically for their
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immunosuppressive effects.
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</p>
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<p>
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General aging, and especially aging of the brain, is increasingly seen as being closely associated with
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lipid peroxidation.
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</p>
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<p>
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Several years ago I met an old couple, who were only a few years apart in age, but the wife looked many
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years younger than her doddering old husband. She was from the Philippines, and she remarked that she always
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had to cook two meals at the same time, because her husband couldn't adapt to her traditional food. Three
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times every day, she still prepared her food in coconut oil. Her apparent youth increased my interest in the
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effects of coconut oil.
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</p>
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<p>
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In the l960s, Hartroft and Porta gave an elegant argument for decreasing the ratio of unsaturated oil to
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saturated oil in the diet (and thus in the tissues). They showed that the "age pigment" is produced in
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proportion to the ratio of oxidants to antioxidants, multiplied by the ratio of unsaturated oils to
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saturated oils. More recently, a variety of studies have demonstrated that ultraviolet light induces
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peroxidation in unsaturated fats, but not saturated fats, and that this occurs in the skin as well as in
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vitro. Rabbit experiments, and studies of humans, showed that the amount of unsaturated oil in the diet
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strongly affects the rate at which aged, wrinkled skin develops. The unsaturated fat in the skin is a major
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target for the aging and carcinogenic effects of ultraviolet light, though not necessarily the only one.
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</p>
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<p>
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In the l940s, farmers attempted to use cheap coconut oil for fattening their animals, but they found that it
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made them lean, active and hungry. For a few years, an antithyroid drug was found to make the livestock get
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fat while eating less food, but then it was found to be a strong carcinogen, and it also probably produced
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hypothyroidism in the people who ate the meat. By the late l940s, it was found that the same antithyroid
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effect, causing animals to get fat without eating much food, could be achieved by using soy beans and corn
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as feed.
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</p>
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<p>
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Later, an animal experiment fed diets that were low or high in total fat, and in different groups the fat
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was provided by pure coconut oil, or a pure unsaturated oil, or by various mixtures of the two oils. At the
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end of their lives, the animals' obesity increased directly in proportion to the ratio of unsaturated oil to
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coconut oil in their diet, and was not related to the total amount of fat they had consumed. That is,
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animals which ate just a little pure unsaturated oil were fat, and animals which ate a lot of coconut oil
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were lean.
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</p>
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<p>
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In the l930s, animals on a diet lacking the unsaturated fatty acids were found to be "hypermetabolic."
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Eating a "normal" diet, these animals were malnourished, and their skin condition was said to be caused by a
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"deficiency of essential fatty acids." But other researchers who were studying vitamin B6 recognized the
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condition as a deficiency of that vitamin. They were able to cause the condition by feeding a fat-free diet,
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and to cure the condition by feeding a single B vitamin. The hypermetabolic animals simply needed a better
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diet than the "normal," fat-fed, cancer-prone animals did.
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</p>
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<p>
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G. W. Crile and his wife found that the metabolic rate of people in Yucatan, where coconut is a staple food,
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averaged 25% higher than that of people in the United States. In a hot climate, the adaptive tendency is to
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have a lower metabolic rate, so it is clear that some factor is more than offsetting this expected effect of
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high environmental temperatures. The people there are lean, and recently it has been observed that the women
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there have none of the symptoms we commonly associate with the menopause.
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</p>
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<p>
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By l950, then, it was established that unsaturated fats suppress the metabolic rate, apparently creating
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hypothyroidism. Over the next few decades, the exact mechanisms of that metabolic damage were studied.
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Unsaturated fats damage the mitochondria, partly by suppressing the repiratory enzyme, and partly by causing
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generalized oxidative damage. The more unsaturated the oils are, the more specifically they suppress tissue
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response to thyroid hormone, and transport of the hormone on the thyroid transport protein.
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</p>
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<p>
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Plants evolved a variety of toxins designed to protect themselves from "predators," such as grazing animals.
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Seeds contain a variety of toxins, that seem to be specific for mammalian enzymes, and the seed oils
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themselves function to block proteolytic digestive enzymes in the stomach. The thyroid hormone is formed in
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the gland by the action of a proteolytic enzyme, and the unsaturated oils also inhibit that enzyme. Similar
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proteolytic enzymes involved in clot removal and phagocytosis appear to be similarly inhibited by these
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oils.
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</p>
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<p>
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Just as metabolism is "activated" by consumption of coconut oil, which prevents the inhibiting effect of
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unsaturated oils, other inhibited processes, such as clot removal and phagocytosis, will probably tend to be
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restored by continuing use of coconut oil.
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</p>
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<p>
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Brain tissue is very rich in complex forms of fats. The experiment (around 1978) in which pregnant mice were
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given diets containing either coconut oil or unsaturated oil showed that brain development was superior in
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the young mice whose mothers ate coconut oil. Because coconut oil supports thyroid function, and thyroid
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governs brain development, including myelination, the result might simply reflect the difference between
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normal and hypothyroid individuals. However, in 1980, experimenters demonstrated that young rats fed milk
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containing soy oil incorporated the oil directly into their brain cells, and had structurally abnormal brain
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cells as a result.
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</p>
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<p></p>
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<p>
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Lipid peroxidation occurs during seizures, and antioxidants such as vitamin E have some anti-seizure
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activity. Currently, lipid peroxidation is being found to be involved in the nerve cell degeneration of
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Alzheimer's disease.
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</p>
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<p>
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Various fractions of coconut oil are coming into use as "drugs," meaning that they are advertised as
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treatments for diseases. Butyric acid is used to treat cancer, lauric and myristic acids to treat virus
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infections, and mixtures of medium-chain fats are sold for weight loss. Purification undoubtedly increases
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certain effects, and results in profitable products, but in the absence of more precise knowledge, I think
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the whole natural product, used as a regular food, is the best way to protect health. The shorter-chain
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fatty acids have strong, unpleasant odors; for a couple of days after I ate a small amount of a medium-chain
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triglyceride mixture, my skin oil emitted a rank, goaty smell. Some people don't seem to have that reaction,
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and the benefits might outweigh the stink, but these things just haven't been in use long enough to know
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whether they are safe.
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</p>
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<p>
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We have to remember that the arguments made for aspartame, monosodium glutamate, aspartic acid, and
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tryptophan--that they are like the amino acids that make up natural proteins--are dangerously false. In the
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case of amino acids, balance is everything. Aspartic and glutamic acids promote seizures and cause brain
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damage, and are intimately involved in the process of stress-induced brain aging, and tryptophan by itself
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is carcinogenic. Treating any complex natural product as the drug industry does, as a raw material to be
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fractionated in the search for "drug" products, is risky, because the relevant knowledge isn't sought in the
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search for an association between a single chemical and a single disease.
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</p>
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<p>
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While the toxic unsaturated paint-stock oils, especially safflower, soy, corn and linseed (flaxseed) oils,
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have been sold to the public precisely for their drug effects, all of their claimed benefits were false.
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When people become interested in coconut oil as a "health food," the huge seed-oil industry--operating
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through their shills--are going to attack it as an "unproved drug."
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</p>
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<p>
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While components of coconut oil have been found to have remarkable physiological effects (as antihistamines,
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antiinfectives/antiseptics, promoters of immunity, glucocorticoid antagonist, nontoxic anticancer agents,
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for example), I think it is important to avoid making any such claims for the natural coconut oil, because
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it very easily could be banned from the import market as a "new drug" which isn't "approved by the FDA." We
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have already seen how money and propaganda from the soy oil industry eliminated long-established products
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from the U.S. market. I saw people lose weight stably when they had the habit of eating large amounts of
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tortilla chips fried in coconut oil, but those chips disappeared when their producers were pressured into
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switching to other oils, in spite of the short shelf life that resulted in the need to add large amounts of
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preservatives. Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, potato chip producers, and movie theater popcorn makers have
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experienced similar pressures.
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</p>
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<p>
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The cholesterol-lowering fiasco for a long time centered on the ability of unsaturated oils to slightly
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lower serum cholesterol. For years, the mechanism of that action wasn't known, which should have suggested
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caution. Now, it seems that the effect is just one more toxic action, in which the liver defensively retains
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its cholesterol, rather than releasing it into the blood. Large scale human studies have provided
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overwhelming evidence that whenever drugs, including the unsaturated oils, were used to lower serum
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cholesterol, mortality increased, from a variety of causes including accidents, but mainly from cancer.
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</p>
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<p>
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Since the l930s, it has been clearly established that suppression of the thyroid raises serum cholesterol
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(while increasing mortality from infections, cancer, and heart disease), while restoring the thyroid hormone
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brings cholesterol down to normal. In this situation, however, thyroid isn't suppressing the synthesis of
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cholesterol, but rather is promoting its use to form hormones and bile salts. When the thyroid is
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functioning properly, the amount of cholesterol in the blood entering the ovary governs the amount of
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progesterone being produced by the ovary, and the same situation exists in all steroid-forming tissues, such
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as the adrenal glands and the brain. Progesterone and its precursor, pregnenolone, have a generalized
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protective function: antioxidant, anti-seizure, antitoxin, anti-spasm, anti-clot, anti-cancer, pro-memory,
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pro-myelination, pro-attention, etc. Any interference with the formation of cholesterol will interfere with
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all of these exceedingly important protective functions.
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</p>
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<p>
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As far as the evidence goes, it suggests that coconut oil, added regularly to a balanced diet, lowers
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cholesterol to normal by promoting its conversion into pregnenolone. (The coconut family contains steroids
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that resemble pregnenolone, but these are probably mostly removed when the fresh oil is washed with water to
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remove the enzymes which would digest the oil.) Coconut-eating cultures in the tropics have consistently
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lower cholesterol than people in the U.S. Everyone that I know who uses coconut oil regularly happens to
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have cholesterol levels of about 160, while eating mainly cholesterol rich foods (eggs, milk, cheese, meat,
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shellfish). I encourage people to eat sweet fruits, rather than starches, if they want to increase their
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production of cholesterol, since fructose has that effect.
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</p>
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<p>
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Many people see coconut oil in its hard, white state, and--as a result of their training watching television
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or going to medical school--associate it with the cholesterol-rich plaques in blood vessels. Those lesions
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in blood vessels are caused mostly by lipid peroxidation of unsaturated fats, and relate to stress, because
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adrenaline liberates fats from storage, and the lining of blood vessels is exposed to high concentrations of
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the blood-borne material. In the body, incidentally, the oil can't exist as a solid, since it liquefies at
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76 degrees. (Incidentally, the viscosity of complex materials isn't a simple matter of averaging the
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viscosity of its component materials; cholesterol and saturated fats sometimes lower the viscosity of cell
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components.)
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</p>
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<p>
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Most of the images and metaphors relating to coconut oil and cholesterol that circulate in our culture are
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false and misleading. I offer a counter-image, which is metaphorical, but it is true in that it relates to
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lipid peroxidation, which is profoundly important in our bodies. After a bottle of safflower oil has been
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opened a few times, a few drops that get smeared onto the outside of the bottle begin to get very sticky,
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and hard to wash off. This property is why it is a valued base for paints and varnishes, but this varnish is
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chemically closely related to the age pigment that forms "liver spots" on the skin, and similar lesions in
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the brain, heart, blood vessels, lenses of the eyes, etc. The image of "hard, white saturated coconut oil"
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isn't relevant to the oil's biological action, but the image of "sticky varnish-like easily oxidized
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unsaturated seed oils" is highly relevant to their toxicity.
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</p>
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<p>
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The ability of some of the medium chain saturated fatty acids to inhibit the liver's formation of fat very
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likely synergizes with the pro-thyroid effect, in allowing energy to be used, rather than stored. When fat
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isn't formed from carbohydrate, the sugar is available for use, or for storage as glycogen. Therefore,
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shifting from unsaturated fats in foods to coconut oil involves several anti-stress processes, reducing our
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need for the adrenal hormones. Decreased blood sugar is a basic signal for the release of adrenal hormones.
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Unsaturated oil tends to lower the blood sugar in at least three basic ways. It damages mitochondria,
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causing respiration to be uncoupled from energy production, meaning that fuel is burned without useful
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effect. It suppresses the activity of the respiratory enzyme (directly, and through its anti-thyroid
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actions), decreasing the respiratory production of energy. And it tends to direct carbohydrate into fat
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production, making both stress and obesity more probable. For those of us who use coconut oil consistently,
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one of the most noticeable changes is the ability to go for several hours without eating, and to feel hungry
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without having symptoms of hypoglycemia.
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</p>
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<p>
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One of the stylish ways to promote the use of unsaturated oils is to refer to their presence in "cell
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membranes," and to claim that they are essential for maintaining "membrane fluidity." As I have mentioned
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above, it is the ability of the unsaturated fats, and their breakdown products, to interfere with enzymes
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and transport proteins, which accounts for many of their toxic effects, so they definitely don't just
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harmlessly form "membranes." They probably bind to all proteins, and disrupt some of them, but for some
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reason their affinity for proteolytic and respiration-related enzymes is particularly obvious. (I think the
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chemistry of this association is going to give us some important insights into the nature of organisms.
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</p>
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<p>
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Metchnikof's model that I have discussed elsewhere might give us a picture of how those factors relate in
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growth, physiology, and aging.) Unsaturated fats are slightly more water-soluble than fully saturated fats,
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and so they do have a greater tendency to concentrate at interfaces between water and fats or proteins, but
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there are relatively few places where these interfaces can be usefully and harmlessly occupied by
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unsaturated fats, and at a certain point, an excess becomes harmful. We don't want "membranes" forming where
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there shouldn't be membranes. The fluidity or viscosity of cell surfaces is an extremely complex subject,
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and the degree of viscosity has to be appropriate for the function of the cell. Interestingly, in some
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cells, such as the cells that line the air sacs of the lungs, cholesterol and one of the saturated fatty
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acids found in coconut oil can increase the fluidity of the cell surface.
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</p>
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<p>
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In many cases, stressful conditions create structural disorder in cells. These influences have been called
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"chaotropic," or chaos-producing. In red blood cells, which have sometimes been wrongly described as
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"hemoglobin enclosed in a cell membrane," it has been known for a long time that lipid peroxidation of
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unsaturated fats weakens the cellular structure, causing the cells to be destroyed prematurely. Lipid
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peroxidation products are known to be "chaotropic," lowering the rigidity of regions of cells considered to
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be membranes. But the red blood cell is actually more like a sponge in structure, consisting of a "skeleton"
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of proteins, which (if not damaged by oxidation) can hold its shape, even when the hemoglobin has been
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removed. Oxidants damage the protein structure, and it is this structural damage which in turn increases the
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"fluidity" of the associated fats.
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</p>
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<p>
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So, it is probably true that in many cases the liquid unsaturated oils do increase "membrane fluidity," but
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it is now clear that in at least some of those cases the "fluidity" corresponds to the chaos of a damaged
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cell protein structure. (N. V. Gorbunov, "Effect of structural modification of membrane proteins on
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lipid-protein interactions in the human erythrocyte membrane," Bull. Exp. Biol. & Med. 116(11), 1364-67.
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1993.
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</p>
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<p>
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Although I had stopped using the unsaturated seed oils years ago, and supposed that I wasn't heavily
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saturated with toxic unsaturated fat, when I first used coconut oil I saw an immediate response, that
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convinced me my metabolism was chronically inhibited by something that was easily alleviated by "dilution"
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or molecular competition. I had put a tablespoonful of coconut oil on some rice I had for supper, and half
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an hour later while I was reading, I noticed I was breathing more deeply than normal. I saw that my skin was
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pink, and I found that my pulse was faster than normal--about 98, I think. After an hour or two, my pulse
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and breathing returned to normal. Every day for a couple of weeks I noticed the same response while I was
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digesting a small amount of coconut oil, but gradually it didn't happen any more, and I increased my daily
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consumption of the oil to about an ounce. I kept eating the same foods as before (including a quart of ice
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cream every day), except that I added about 200 or 250 calories per day as coconut oil. Apparently the
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metabolic surges that happened at first were an indication that my body was compensating for an anti-thyroid
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substance by producing more thyroid hormone; when the coconut oil relieved the inhibition, I experienced a
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moment of slight hyperthyroidism, but after a time the inhibitor became less effective, and my body adjusted
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by producing slightly less thyroid hormone. But over the next few months, I saw that my weight was slowly
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and consistently decreasing. It had been steady at 185 pounds for 25 years, but over a period of six months
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it dropped to about 175 pounds. I found that eating more coconut oil lowered my weight another few pounds,
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and eating less caused it to increase.
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</p>
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<p>
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The anti-obesity effect of coconut oil is clear in all of the animal studies, and in my friends who eat it
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regularly. It is now hard to get it in health food stores, since Hain stopped selling it. The Spectrum
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product looks and feels a little different to me, and I suppose the particular type of tree, region, and
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method of preparation can account for variations in the consistency and composition of the product. The
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unmodified natural oil is called "76 degree melt," since that is its natural melting temperature. One bottle
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from a health food store was labeled "natural coconut oil, 92% unsaturated oil," and it had the greasy
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consistency of old lard. I suspect that someone had confused palm oil (or something worse) with coconut oil,
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because it should be about 96% saturated fatty acids.
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</p>
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<p></p>
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<p>
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© Ray Peat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.RayPeat.com
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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