I recently had a client ask me if she needed to avoid "tropical" fruits for better health. The woman was told by a friend, who's doctor told her, to stay away from any "tropical" fruits because of the "palm" fruit oil that they contain, and that they would raise her blood cholesterol. I assured the woman that"tropical" fruits do not contain oils and would not raise her blood cholesterol. I wondered to myself, how did this doctor come up with something like this? Today I read an article that may help explain the misinformation.
"Both palm and palm kernel oil come from palm plants (often called “oil palms”) and are categorized as “tropical oils”. These two types of oils come from different parts of the palm plant. Palm oil, which is sometimes called “palm fruit oil,” comes from the fruit; palm kernel oil comes from the seed (a.k.a. the kernel)." The words "tropical oils" and "palm fruit oil". Could it be that the doctor simply assumed this meant"tropical fruit"? Please read on to better understand more about palm oil.
My clients' food diaries tell me a whole lot about current trends in diets in general, as well as what's being said about PCOS. More and more, I'm seeing women report eating coconut oil by the tablespoonful. So I thought I'd dissect the information and evaluate whether or not this is advisable.
Overall, the recommendations for a heart healthy, low glycemic diet, are to eat 30-35% of your calories as fat, equally distributed between saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated. Here is how that works out for most calorie levels you're likely to be on. First row is 30% of calories, second is 35% of calories.
One teaspoon of coconut oil contains 5 grams of saturated fat. Assuming that most fat that is found in milk and dairy is also saturated, let's work backwards and see on each of these calorie levels, at the two percentages, at any calorie level, you would not have any saturated fat left to allocate to your major sources of protein, calcium, and vitamin D. Keep in mind, women who consume at least one serving of fat-containing dairy a day are significantly more fertile than those who do not.
In the other direction, if you are eating entirely lean sources of protein (fish, poultry, lean red meat), and one serving of dairy a day, you should assume that about 23 grams of saturated fat will come from those sources. Again, even if you are aiming for 2000 calories a day, that leaves you room for 2.9 grams, or half a teaspoon of coconut oil per day.
Let's say you choose to switch out your unsaturated fat (where your pro-inflammatory omega-6 oils are found), for coconut oil. If, and only if, you had absolutely no other fats from these oils, you could include this much coconut oil in your diet.
Even at the highest level I calculated, there is not enough room for 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in your diet. The excess calories will eventually set you up to gain weight. All oils, even healthy oils, in excess, promote weight gain.
There is some evidence to suggest that this proportion of saturated fat to monounsaturated fat may be too high, because fluidity of neuron membranes is important for healthy brain and nervous system function…and too much saturated fat of any kind, is correlated with rigid (undesirable) membranes.
I double checked peer-reviewed references in Pub Med and was not able to find any articles describing studies that would have been the source for this dose. I did find some cautionary information, however.
A high-fat diet, when the fat is coconut oil, in one study, was associated with lower bone density than high-fat diets based on either flaxseed (omega-3) or safflower oil (omega-6).
Yes, a diet that is 10% coconut oil, as described above, has been reported to improve metabolic parameters. However, when the amount of fat is increased, to 25%, increased blood free fatty levels, insulin resistance, and hypertension, all increase as well. The incidence of atherosclerosis in this study also doubled.
It looks to me like what may be going on here, is that one study was taken out of context and used as a promotional piece of information by companies with much to gain if their sales of coconut oil increase. When you're looking for good information, go to the source. Websites primarily intended to sell a product, even if they provide references, are not"the source". Chances are, they will omit any references that encourage any kind of limitation of use of their product.
I have more information on coconut oil in future posts. I don't think it's bad, I just think it's being over-hyped and misused, in a way that can be especially problematic for women highly at risk of metabolic and hormonal disorders.
Lau BY, Fajardo VA, McMeekin L, Sacco SM, Ward WE, Roy BD, Peters SJ, Leblanc PJ. Influence of high-fat diet from differential dietary sources on bone mineral density, bone strength, and bone fatty acid composition in rats. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2010 Oct;35(5):598-606.
Waqar AB, Koike T, Yu Y, Inoue T, Aoki T, Liu E, Fan J. High-fat diet without excess calories induces metabolic disorders and enhances atherosclerosis in rabbits. Atherosclerosis. 2010 Nov;213(1):148-55. Epub 2010 Aug 11.
Way back in the early 80's when I was a brand-new dietitian, we were taught to teach our clients to avoid nuts because of their high fat content. Today, nuts are the new health food. But research is often written up in ways that place a specific nut in the spotlight, without a big-picture perspective.
For example: Walnuts are routinely listed as"the" nut to eat because of their high omega-3 content. Most people do not realize that the omega-6 content of walnuts is so high that it is mathematically impossible to improve your dietary omega-6 to omega-3 ratio by eating only walnuts and no other nuts. Does that mean you shouldn't eat walnuts? Absolutely not! In all honesty, it is mathematically impossible to improve your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio with any nut. It is, however, yet another example of the imbalances we create when we focus on a handful of"super foods" and don't pursue variety.
Being the statistics nerd that I am, I spent the other afternoon looking at 10 different nuts in several different ways. I came to some interesting conclusions. Let me work you through what I did. I don't mean to be tedious, I just want to be transparent so anyone else can work through the analysis just as I did. If you're just looking for what nuts are best to eat,simply skip to the bottom of this post.
1. Analysis one: Best anti-inflammatory index (potential for a food to prevent or promote inflammation, as indexed at http://www.nutritiondata.com/), ranked in order of best to worst: macadamia hazelnut almond cashew peanut pistachio Brazil pecan walnut pine 2. Analysis two: Omega-3 fatty acid content, ranked from highest to lowest per ounce of nuts: walnut pecan pine pistachio macadamia cashew hazelnut Brazil peanut almond Important point of interest: almonds are the only nut that contain absolutely NO omega-3 fatty acids. 3. Analysis 3: Omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, ranked from lowest (most beneficial) to highest (least beneficial) walnut macadamia Brazil pecan cashew pistachio hazelnut pine peanut almond 4. Analysis 4: Total omega-3 and monounsaturated fat content, ranked from highest (most beneficial) to lowest macadamia hazelnut pecan almond cashew brazil peanut pistachio pine walnut 5. Analysis 5: Total saturated fat content, ranked from lowest (most beneficial) to highest walnut almond hazelnut pine pistachio pecan peanut cashew macadamia Brazil SUMMARY ANALYSIS: In each list, I placed a number"1" next to the top item, and numbered each nut below it in numerical order. Then I added up the scores for each nut based on their rank in each category. The lowest score shows the overall rank. This helps nuts that many not have one outstanding quality still receive a decent ranking--it gets credit, in other words, for being all-around pretty good without being written off for having one quality that is considered"bad" striking it off as"unhealthy". It also keeps a nut with one outstanding quality for getting too much credit when there may be nutritional aspects that truly keep it from being a superfood. The final rankings, with the most potentially beneficial at the top: macadamia hazelnut walnut pecan cashew almond/pistachio (tied) Brazil/pine (tied) peanut I guess you could say…just like people, all nuts have their good and not-so-great qualities. By spending too much time with one, you'll miss out on the benefits of the others. Diversify your interests, and you'll get the best benefit.
Yesterday I shared some information about coconut oil.
Now I'd like to encourage you to put it into action!
I'd like Tropical Traditions to have more savory recipes using coconut oil in their library, recipes that incorporate the concepts we teach at inCYST.
Tropical Traditions has graciously offered a free 32 oz. jar of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil to the winner of this giveaway. So this is what you'll need to do.
1. Create a SAVORY recipe using coconut oil. That means main dish, no baked goods, pancakes, sweets, etc.
2. The total fat content of your dish cannot exceed 30% of total calories. You can run your recipe through an analysis program such as http://www.fitday.com/ to be sure.
3. The total saturated fat content of your dish cannot exceed 10% of total calories.
4. Total calories for your dish, per serving, cannot exceed 500 calories.
5. To be fair, members of the inCYST Network cannot participate in this challenge. Anyone else is eligible.
6. Submit your recipe, along with your calorie and fat contents, on or before June 30, 2011, to marika@google.com in order to be considered.
7. The winner will be randomly drawn from the submissions, and all recipes will be posted here as well as forwarded to Tropical Traditions.
If you'd like to purchase the product I've been writing about, here is a link to do so.
