LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Re: coconut oil and saturated fat

I have read in this newsletter and elsewhere that coconut oil may be good for you. Since this went against conventional wisdom, I decided to search for the truth. I went to the medical library to see the studies for myself, and this is what I found.

There have been countless studies that link saturated fat in general, and coconut oil in particular, to increased LDL cholesterol levels. There have also been many studies that have linked high LDL cholesterol levels to heart disease. If you do a search on coconut oil in google scholar, which brings up only professional articles, you will see the studies listed for yourself. Not one positive study about saturated fat or coconut oil appears.

I then searched the popular literature, and read for several hours about the benefits of coconut oil. I did not find even one reference to an actual study. There were references to doctors; however, these doctors were stating their opinions and did not site a study to offer proof to support their opinions. This does not mean that all of their claims are wrong; it means that their claims are not tested rigorously. However, claims that coconut oil is good for the heart are troubling to me, given the studies mentioned above.

I found only one study that calls into question the relationship between saturated fat and death from heart disease (not occurrence of heart disease). There are problems with this study, and with the interpretation of the study by the media. The methodological choices of the researchers made it difficult to find a statistically significant result, which is exactly what the researchers found - no significant result about saturated (as compared to unsaturated) fat intake and death. This does not prove anything; it simply fails to support a claim that has been supported in other studies using different methodologies. It is important to note that in the study, nearly all people were eating a high fat diet (greater that 30% of calories from fat), so this study does nothing to undermine the American Heart Association or the World Health Organization's dietary requirements. Very few, if any, of the people in the study were following the dietary requirements of the American Heart Association.

It is hard to know what to believe when doctors disagree, but here are a couple of hints. Always be skeptical of everything written that does not site its sources. If a person can't back up what they are saying with facts, it could simply be their opinion (and some opinions are more educated than others). A degree is never enough to prove that what you say is correct; you need evidence.

Darla

Darla Flint Paulson is a Wedge Co-op member with advanced academic training in statistics.

Editor 's note: The letter writer suggests the Harvard Heart Letter as a resource for accessible medical opinion on heart health. Enter "Harvard Heart Letter" into any internet search engine to find access to this newsletter.