It seems that coconut meat has quite a lot of saturated fat in it (approximately 11 grams per 1/3 cup). Yet you do not generally hear advice to limit coconut. Is it more complicated than it seems?
Yeah, coconuts have a larger share of saturated fatty acids than butter and cheese. However, most people don’t eat a lot of coconut products. That’s why it isn’t mentioned.
I use coconut oil and milk in cooking.
A friend of mine has been vegan for many years. She does every once in a while complete blood count. Since a year ago or so, she incorporated quite a lot of coconut oil in her diet (she basically started to cook almost everything with it). She went to check her blood recently and she was very surprised finding out that her cholesterol level (the bad one) was way much higher then usual. Even her doctor suggested she should decrease the amount of saturated fat. Apparently in terms of how it effect on the cholesterol level of your body is the same as butter.
Yes, the saturated fat in coconut is a different fatty acid than animal saturated fat.
That saturated fat is probably better for you than the one from animals.
… It’s probably not better for you than mono/polyunsaturated fats though, so don’t consider coconut oil a health food - “Healthier than butter” isn’t a very high bar.
all fats contain unsaturated and saturated fats what categorizes them at “saturated” or “unsaturated” is the ratio between the different types of fat. i.e olive oil is unsaturated because it contains high levels of unsaturated.. and so on.
coconut oil containers higher amounts of saturated fat then butter. it’s not different it’s more so the quantity of fats are different. coconut oil is primarily saturated fat.