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Do you mind sharing? When I skimmed the Harvard article my take away was just that lots of fat is bad for you (duh), but there was nothing innately bad about co

Do you mind sharing? When I skimmed the Harvard article my take away was just that lots of fat is bad for you (duh), but there was nothing innately bad about coconut oil. Just don't delude oneself into thinking fat from coconut oil is healthy.

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
I believe the "inately bad" thing about coconut oil is that it's more than 80% saturated fat (wikipedia says 82.5).
- morsma 8y ago
  What's wrong with saturated fatty acids?
  - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
    Scientists think they cause cardiovascular disease: There are strong, consistent, and graded relationships between saturated fat intake, blood cholesterol levels, and the mass occurrence of cardiovascular disease.[5] The relationships are accepted as causal.[24][25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat#Association_with_diseases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat#Association_with...
logfromblammo 8y ago
I think the failure is in presuming that the number of double bonds in the carbon chains of the fatty acids is the dominant factor, when clearly overall chain length and the position and orientation of the double-bonds are also significant factors. Researcher says: "saturated fat is bad for you." I ask: "Is laurin (tri-lauric acid homoglyceride) worse or better than stearin? When lipases release the fatty acids, is free lauric acid worse or better than free stearic acid? Do acetic acid and formic acid count as saturated fats in your analysis? Is there a significant metabolic difference between eating fats as mono-, di-, or triglycerides, or as non-esterified fatty acids? Does the comparison with unsaturated fats change if the fats in question are exposed to heat and oxygen prior to consumption?" Chemically, those fats are all different. Metabolically, many of them are transformed via catalytic proteins into different chemicals, with certain steps being rate-limited, or resource-competitive with other steps. But it appears as though no one really knows all that much about fat, other than you need to eat a certain quantity of fatty acids with one double bond three carbons from the terminal end (omega-3) because the human body cannot produce those by itself, and they are required for certain hormones and structures. As far as I know, coconut oil, when compared to most other common vegetable oils, has a higher fraction of saturated fatty acids in it, but those fatty acids are also significantly shorter than the fatty acids typically found in animal fats and other vegetable oils. They are different fats, and a human body digests them differently. Do they follow different metabolic chains to achieve the same result, or do they produce different results? I don't know. No research I have seen has delved that deeply into those properties of dietary fats.
deleted 8y ago
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YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago

I believe the "inately bad" thing about coconut oil is that it's more than 80% saturated fat (wikipedia says 82.5).

morsma 8y ago
What's wrong with saturated fatty acids?
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
  Scientists think they cause cardiovascular disease: There are strong, consistent, and graded relationships between saturated fat intake, blood cholesterol levels, and the mass occurrence of cardiovascular disease.[5] The relationships are accepted as causal.[24][25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat#Association_with_diseases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat#Association_with...

logfromblammo 8y ago

I think the failure is in presuming that the number of double bonds in the carbon chains of the fatty acids is the dominant factor, when clearly overall chain length and the position and orientation of the double-bonds are also significant factors. Researcher says: "saturated fat is bad for you." I ask: "Is laurin (tri-lauric acid homoglyceride) worse or better than stearin? When lipases release the fatty acids, is free lauric acid worse or better than free stearic acid? Do acetic acid and formic acid count as saturated fats in your analysis? Is there a significant metabolic difference between eating fats as mono-, di-, or triglycerides, or as non-esterified fatty acids? Does the comparison with unsaturated fats change if the fats in question are exposed to heat and oxygen prior to consumption?" Chemically, those fats are all different. Metabolically, many of them are transformed via catalytic proteins into different chemicals, with certain steps being rate-limited, or resource-competitive with other steps. But it appears as though no one really knows all that much about fat, other than you need to eat a certain quantity of fatty acids with one double bond three carbons from the terminal end (omega-3) because the human body cannot produce those by itself, and they are required for certain hormones and structures. As far as I know, coconut oil, when compared to most other common vegetable oils, has a higher fraction of saturated fatty acids in it, but those fatty acids are also significantly shorter than the fatty acids typically found in animal fats and other vegetable oils. They are different fats, and a human body digests them differently. Do they follow different metabolic chains to achieve the same result, or do they produce different results? I don't know. No research I have seen has delved that deeply into those properties of dietary fats.

deleted 8y ago

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