Coconut Oil is undoubtedly one of the most controversial foods among the medical and scientific community. A good part of the medical community directly recommends that it not be consumed, but, what is behind that recommendation? What are the contraindications and side effects of Coconut Oil? Are these doctors right to discourage its consumption?
The contraindications of coconut oil are nonexistent. There are no known side effects of virgin coconut oil in healthy people. Its use is absolutely safe both topical and oral. Naturally, people with coconut allergy are excluded, in which case, the contraindication, as with any other food, is obvious.
Like any other oil, coconut oil is a fat and therefore provides 9 calories per gram, so its consumption should be reasonable. However, thanks to its composition rich in medium chain fatty acids, coconut oil is metabolized directly into energy in the liver, so it is not easy to accumulate fat by its consumption but rather the opposite. Everything indicates that the intake of coconut oil can contribute to losing fat at the abdominal level, something that some authors have talked about in their books.
As for side effects, many doctors blame coconut oil for raising cholesterol and this is why they rush to exclude it from the diet of many of their patients. However, studies show that this oil favors the increase of HDL (good cholesterol) and therefore of total cholesterol. However, some doctors believe that total cholesterol should be low, although there is no scientific evidence to support this, even if the HDL / LDL ratio is adequate, something that the intake of coconut oil certainly contributes to.
The medical community is heavily influenced by the bad reputation of coconut oil. This reputation comes from a variety of sources. On the one hand, commercial interests in seed oils such as sunflower oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil or peanut oil. On the other hand, a few decades ago, in studies on saturated fats, hydrogenated coconut oil was used and the results extracted from the study were extrapolated to virgin coconut oil, which has nothing to do with hydrogenated coconut Oil.
In general, hydrogenated oils produce negative side effects in the short term and are therefore contraindicated for human consumption. However, we must make it clear that hydrogenated fats and saturated fats are not the same.
Saturated fats, such as coconut oil, have no contraindications or known negative side effects. In contrast, hydrogenated fats, including hydrogenated coconut oil, do have side effects to the body, including various cardiovascular problems, and therefore this is its main contraindication.
The prestigious website of medical information WebMD catalogs Virgin Coconut Oil as a healthy food, without contraindications or side effects. Moreover, it confers the following uses:
- Head lice: some studies have shown that a spray that carries virgin coconut oil among other components is effective against head lice in children.
- Obesity: some studies show that taking 10ml of virgin coconut oil a day can reduce the belly fat in a period ranging from 6 to 10 weeks.
- Newborns: studies show that massaging newborns with coconut oil can improve their growth and body weight.
- Cholesterol: some studies suggest that consumption of coconut oil can raise good cholesterol (HDL) without raising much bad cholesterol (LDL).
- Dry skin: studies show that applying a massage with coconut oil twice a day can significantly improve dry skin in people with chronic dry skin.
- Coconut Oil is also useful in patients with:
* Alzheimer's
* Diabetes
* Chronic Fatigue
* Irritable bowel syndrome
* Thyroid Problems
* Other medical problems.
Likewise, WebMD does not report any type of interaction known with other foods or medicines.
Therefore, we can conclude with some certainty that the use of virgin coconut oil, both orally and topically, is absolutely safe. There are no known contraindications or side effects of coconut oil to date, and considering that, we can say without risk to make a mistake, that its consumption is also highly recommended.
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