Kokosolie: gezond of niet?

Het valt mij op dat veel vegan zuivelvervangers kokosolie als belangrijk bestanddeel hebben. Er is al jaren veel te doen over kokosolie en kokosvet: is dit nou gezond of juist niet? Het onderstaande artikel over gezondheidsclaims over kokosvet heb ik geschreven tijdens de cursus Professional Certificate Food, Nutrition and Health van de WUR.

As part of current food-trends and food-hypes, there are multiple websites with claims on health benefits on coconut oil. Examples are: “An Effective Remedy to Lose Body Fat” , “Aids in Prevention of Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure”, “Helps Treat Alzheimer’s Disease” and “Coconut oil has two qualities that help it fight cancer”.

However, while most of the general public thought that coconut oil is healthy, only a minority of dieticians thought so, according to a survey study conducted by the New York Times (2016). The general public may be, more than dieticians, susceptible to claims from ‘food-influencers’ who gain commercial advantage (by getting sponsored by companies producing and selling coconut-oil) of making positive health claims about specific products. These ’food-influencers’ may cherry-pick from scientific studies whatever ‘proof’ suits them to make their argument. Another factor that may make it difficult to form an overall opinion with regard to the degree in which coconut has health benefits, is that scientific studies differ with regard to multiple aspects, such as participant characteristics, study design, health-related outcome variables, and last but not least: the type of coconut oil used. Duranova et al. (2024) pointed to the different compositions of coconut oil as regularly used for cooking, and coconut-based MCT-oil. The last type consists mainly of caprylic acid (C8) and capric acid (C10), and hardly contains any lauric acid (C12); this in contrast with the first type, that consists mainly of C12. Whereas the medium-chain fatty acids C8 and C10 are directly transported in the bloodstream to the liver, C12 is metabolized differently: like long-chain fatty acids it is transported in chylomicrons through the lymphatic system. So, these two types of coconut oil may have different effects on health outcomes. 

After having shed some light on factors that illustrate why there is debate on coconut oil and health benefits, an overall view on the main findings of research on coconut oil and health-related outcomes so far will be presented.  

On the one hand, meta-analyses and systematic reviews conducted on cardiovascular risks associated with coconut oil, provide evidence on specific health risks and disadvantages associated with coconut usage. Specifically, multiple studies have demonstrated that usage of coconut oil leads to an increase of LDL- cholesterol (Jayawardena et al., 2020, Neelakantan et al., 2020, Teng et al., 2019), accompanied by an increase in HDL- and total cholesterol  (Jayawardena et al., 2020, Neelakantan et al., 2020) compared with other, non-tropical oils, and lowers LDL-cholesterol and increases HDL-cholesterol when compared with butter (Jayawardena et al., 2020, Neelakantan et al., 2020). Elevated LDL-cholesterol levels impose a risk on developing cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure (CDC, n.d.).

On the other hand, health advantages of coconut oil are not convincingly established, due to limited research of sufficient quality. Some studies may suggest a possible beneficiary effect of coconut MCT-oil on cognitive functioning in people with dementia (for example those included in Bafail et al., 2023), and on cancer cells (for example, Ramya et al., 2022; Sheela et al., 2019) but evidence at this point is premature and too scarce. In conclusion, with all that we do know at this point, is that other non-tropical oils are healthier than coconut oil for usage in the kitchen, and that we cannot state that coconut oil is beneficiary for health. 

What implications do these insights have for all parties involved in the coconut-health debate?  First, scientists can continue their work on coconut oil and health benefits and risks, building on current evidence and new research questions and publish (preferably open-access) in scientific papers. Magazines for professionals working in the field of food and health, or the food industry, can closely follow scientific publications and communicate findings to their readers, who on their turn can use their updated knowledge into action. Based on the current evidence, the food industry can and should prefer to use other, non-tropical oils instead of coconut oil. They should not make false health claims on their products or in their advertisements, nor provide false claims to food-influencers. Dieticians should advice their clients or patients to use primarily other non-tropical oils in their regular cooking instead of coconut oil. Public food and health associations should communicate that coconut oil usage on a regular basis is, although slightly less unhealthy than butter, not the best choice with regard to health outcomes, and that preferably mainly other non-tropical oils should be used. 

The coconut oil-debate is not standing on its own. There are a lot of food-trends and food-hypes and a lot of players in the field with their own (commercial) interests, that may conflict with personal health interests of people using those foods. We always have to take into account what motives underly health claims, and carefully evaluate these claims by relying on findings from scientific research. 

Author: S. Geerlings, May 2024. All rights reserved.