Are Coconut Oil and Butter Really Good For You? Debunking the Saturated Fat Myth.

Several new studies that have come out recently show butter may actually be good for you and that coconut oil "is the great new superfood." For years we've been told saturated fat increases your risk of heart disease and that we should avoid it as much as possible. I mean honestly, it's no wonder everyone's confused on what to do these days. One minute we're being told eggs are the devil because of their cholesterol content, and the next we're told, "Just kidding, eating cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease!" So are butter and coconut oil really good for you? The answer in my opinion is, it depends!

I have read article after article on how great fat is, and I agree, but there are some caveats I think we need to pay attention to. We live in a culture that likes to make these "one size fits all" dietary recommendations, but the truth is our genetics are SO complex and different. Let's take this saturated fat controversy for instance. There are some people with a genetic profile, especially phenotype B individuals (its a certain type of gene), who are more susceptible to the oxidative stress of excess saturated fat in the blood. This means they're building plaque in the arteries when exposed to a high fat diet compared to other people(1) So if you have this particular individual eat a lot of butter and coconut oil for instance, their bad cholesterol will go through the roof. More specifically, the small dense apolipoprotein (B), and their risk of heart disease goes way up(2, 3). Clinically what I've seen, if you take a different individual and put them on the same diet, their cholesterol profile may go down and you may even see improved HDL (your good cholesterol). Yet another individual may never see any changes in their cholesterol profile at all.

Some of you skeptics regarding the "cholesterol:heart disease" relationship may be saying, "Come on! They've proven there's no relationship!" Ahh, but there is! Hear me out on this. Like I was saying before it completely depends on the individual. Study after study proves that when you have certain risk factors (family history of a heart attack before the age of 50 for dad and 60 for mom, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol), you're more at risk for heart disease(4, 5, 6,7). If you don't have a single risk factor, and you live a healthy lifestyle, BUT your cholesterol is elevated, then I would say your cholesterol level is probably not linked to an increased risk of heart disease (as long as it's not the rare genetic condition that causes outrageous elevated cholesterol called "Familial Hypercholesterolemia"). You can see how all of this gets really complex pretty quickly when you have to factor in lifestyle, diet, whether the person exercises or not, or if they have other medical conditions, family history etc.

So then what? Talk to your doctor about your risk factors for heart disease, and if your risk factors are low, eat butter and coconut oil. And hey, even cheese and animal fats if you tolerate them... in moderation. The key here is moderation folks. Olive oil is still the best oil out there as far as we know today, so use this as much as you can in place of the saturated fats unless you know how you respond to the other oils (8).