Is coconut good for health or reducing cholesterol?
There are biased arguments about coconut and its adverse effects on heart or health, besides some websites boasts coconut actually improves the HDL ( High Density Lipo Protein) levels, which is good for heart. But compare the saturated fat levels in different sources, Coconut oil is nearly 90% with saturated fat, Lard with 40% saturated fat and beef fat is about 40% saturated fat.Even butter has 64% saturated fat.So Coconut has highest amount of saturated fat.
One argument is cholesterol comes from animal based oils or fats but not from plant based or fruits and nuts based oils.LDL cholesterol which is known as bad cholesterol is increased with saturated fats, as too much percentage of saturated fat is from coconut oil it definitely increases the bad cholesterol however it helps increase the HDL ( good cholesterol)the ratio of how much it increases HDL to increase of LDL should alsobe considered. Coconut oil or coconut loving people take one positive point as an excuse to consume more coconut will not be spared by increase of cholesterol ( which is no one giving guarantee about it!). Hence it is wise to be away from using excessive saturated fats. Simple reason is we cannot claim our life after we die with increased cholesterol or what so ever the reason based on biased or scientific and non scientific arguments.
One website says higher amount of usage of coconut oil and coconut products used areas such as some states of India like Kerala reported less heat attack rates while one website gives the evidences of study conducted on people of Singapore and Hong Kong found that Singapore residents suffered 3 times heart attacks and a reason or factor that researchers blamed for the higher the rate of heart attacks is due to higher consumption of coconut oil and coconut products ! So my question is how people take this? Is it based on Kerala population or Singapore population? One who did not read the other website may believe it is established with research that coconut is good, but please don't get carried away with words like "secret food", " goodies","healthy coconut tips" etc etc.. they look often believing but cannot believe one study which is done for shorter time and shorter population. The reasons which may keep people healthy at one place may be knitted with other reasons such as their life style and may be they are consuming coconuts or coconut oils with variety of vegetables, fruits or fish. The usage of such products may propelled the good side of increased heart health while suppressing the bad side of the health by usage of coconut. So just with that one cannot go or trust it is 100% scientifically and universally established fact. It is biased argument. Who can give you the right advice if coconut oil or products are useful or not is your doctor, he can advice how much and to what extent you can consume. So don't ever fall into trap of this cyber trap. This is only a personal opinion or supporting one side of biased opinion.
One more comparison here 10g of saturated fat found from 100g of coconut milk, while 2.3g of saturated fat is found from 100ml of reduced fat cow milk. Coconut is dominant with almost 90% with saturated fat but saturated fats are mostly found in animal food which are known for heart diseases but we cannot rule out that there is no danger of using coconut just because it is plant based or nut based. American Heart Association and National Heart foundation recommends avoiding usage of coconut oil, while it includes recipes that of coconut milk reduced-fat version. So it does not mean it is encouraging to use coconut milk, we need to understand the right point what it says.
However there are plus points of usage of coconut as it provide good nutrition and fiber ( known to reduce cholesterol !), Vitamin C, minerals, phosphorous and iron. It has good nutritional value but we should
understand to what extent we can use in daily usage by limits.
