Question

Coconut oil is touted to have a wide variety of health benefits, leading people to add it to everything from their morning coffee to their vegetables at dinner. Which of these benefits are supported by research? Should we be concerned about the saturated fat content?

How do the physical and chemical properties of different types of fat affect our health?

Based on your research, would you recommend replacing sources of monounsaturated fats (like olive oil and nuts) with coconut oil instead?

Answer 1

some benefits which are supported by research are:

• It boosts cardiovascular health
• It helps in losing weight
• Coconut oil contains lauric which have antimicrobial effect
• Coconut oil can reduce appetite
• The diet which includes coconut oil can reduce seizures
• It will increase good cholesterol
• It can moisture the skin and prevent eczema
• It will improve brain functioning in alzheimer's disease

Coconut oil is considered as super food now a days , compared to other fats it contains high saturated fatty acids.

Most dietary fats contains long chain triglycerides while coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides, it also raises HDL which is good for cardiac health

The physical and chemical properties of oil includes

• Viscosity: it is studied that rice bran oil contains more viscosity than other oils
• Density: density is found highest in soybean oil compared with other oils
• Specific gravity: the highest specific gravity is found in soybean oil when compared with other oils
• Peroxide value: found highest in mustard oil than in other oils
• Iodine value: the iodine value depends on storage of oils
• Free fatty acid value: free fatty acids found highest in mustard oil than other oils
• PH value : it is assumed that highest PH is found in soybean oil than other oils

olive oil contains high monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat which is good for health, comparatively olive oil is more beneficial than coconut oil.