Coconut oil is fat from coconut flesh. It is rich in short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids. Those chains burn in mitochondria without the carnitine shuttle that long-chain fats need. That gives them priority over unstable polyunsaturated fats during stress.

Coconut oil
Type Tropical seed oil
Saturation Predominantly saturated (short- and medium-chain)
Smoke point ~175-205°C (350-400°F, refined higher)
Culinary use Cooking, baking
Shelf stability Excellent; highly saturated, resists oxidation
Ray's verdict Generally helps
Short/medium-chain fats burn in mitochondria without the carnitine shuttle, giving priority over unstable PUFA during stress

Coconut oil is unusually rich in short and medium chain fatty acids. Shorter chain length allows fatty acids to be metabolized without use of the carnitine transport system.

— Ray Peat[1]

See Saturated fat, Randle cycle, PUFA.

Oxidation priority

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Some medium-chain saturated fatty acids inhibit the liver's formation of fat, which likely works with their pro-thyroid effect so energy gets used rather than stored.[2]

Mildronate protects cells against stress partly by opposing carnitine. Added carnitine pushed oxidation of unsaturated fats during stress and raised oxidative damage in comparative work cited in the coconut essay. Short saturated chains, highly soluble and mobile, take oxidation priority and inhibit burning of peroxidizable unsaturated fats.[3]

They digest and enter use faster than common long-chain food fats. That supports heat, thyroid-friendly metabolism, and lower free-PUFA stress. In a double-blind crossover trial, 16 healthy adults given 5-10 g of medium-chain fat in a meal showed significantly greater diet-induced thermogenesis (measured by indirect calorimetry over 6 hours) than the same dose of long-chain fat, whether the MCT came as a liquid meal or was baked into mayonnaise or margarine.[4] See Free fatty acids.

Diabetes and sugar

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In Houssay-type experiments, sugar and coconut oil protected animals from experimental diabetes where lard-heavy diets failed.[5] Relative to PUFA, coconut oil raises oxidative metabolism and displaces antimetabolic unsaturated stores.[6]

Waist circumference versus soybean oil

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A 12-week randomized, double-blind trial in Brazil put 40 women with abdominal obesity (waist circumference over 88 cm) on a hypocaloric diet plus a daily 50-minute walk, and gave half of them 30 mL/day of coconut oil and half 30 mL/day of soybean oil. Both groups lost BMI, but only the coconut oil group showed a drop in waist circumference. The soybean oil group's total cholesterol, LDL, and LDL:HDL ratio rose over the same period, with HDL falling; none of that happened in the coconut oil group.[7] The design can't isolate coconut oil as a fat-loss agent on its own, since both groups dieted and walked, but the split between the two oils lines up with the broader pattern here: swapping a PUFA-heavy oil for a saturated one avoids the lipid deterioration the PUFA group saw, rather than coconut oil "burning fat" by itself.

Inflammation and COVID-19

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In a 28-day single-blind randomized trial of 76 adults with confirmed COVID-19 in the Philippines, participants given virgin coconut oil alongside standard care reached normal C-reactive protein levels (≤5 mg/L) by day 14, versus day 25 in the control group, and their symptoms cleared roughly three days sooner on average. The authors attributed the effect to the lauric acid and monolaurin content of coconut oil rather than any single named compound.[8] A separate randomized trial in hospitalized COVID-19 patients found no significant benefit on hospital stay, symptom resolution, or mortality, so the effect looks strongest as an early adjunct in milder, non-hospitalized cases rather than as treatment for severe disease.[9]

Skin barrier and eczema

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In a double-blind trial in mild to moderate xerosis, extra virgin coconut oil matched mineral oil as a moisturizer, improving skin hydration and surface lipids with no adverse reactions.[10]

Topical virgin coconut oil also outperformed mineral oil for pediatric atopic dermatitis (eczema) in an 8-week randomized, double-blind trial of 117 children with mild-to-moderate disease. Coconut oil cut eczema severity about twice as much as mineral oil and also produced a larger drop in water loss through the skin and a bigger gain in skin capacitance, both markers of a repaired skin barrier.[11]

Helicobacter pylori

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In lab cultures, lauric acid and its monoglyceride monolaurin, both from coconut fat, kill Helicobacter pylori within minutes at low concentrations.[12][13] In infected mice, monolaurin lowered stomach colonization.[14] Human evidence is a single case report: one adult took coconut oil by mouth for 15 days and went from positive to negative on an IgG antibody test, a test that stays positive long after cure and cannot confirm eradication.[15]

Brain and Alzheimer's model

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In rats injected with amyloid-beta to mimic Alzheimer's disease, virgin coconut oil restored memory and learning, calmed the NLRP3 inflammation pathway and lowered oxidative stress in the hippocampus.[16] Stained brain sections from the same study showed fewer amyloid plaques, less of the altered tau that forms tangles and healthier hippocampal tissue. A high-fat diet made the amyloid damage worse, and coconut oil still helped in those rats.[16] These results come from a rat model with injected amyloid.

An important function of coconut oil is that it supports mitochondrial respiration, increasing energy production that has been blocked by the unsaturated fatty acids. Since the polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit thyroid function at many levels, coconut oil can promote thyroid function simply by reducing those toxic effects.

— Ray Peat[17]

Named medium-chain acids

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Coconut fat includes lauric acid (abundant), plus smaller amounts of medium-chain species often sold as refined MCT oil fractions (caprylic acid C8, capric acid C10). Those names are chemistry labels for the same short/medium saturated story above, not separate supplements required for a Peat-leaning diet.

Practice

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Use for cooking in place of PUFAs. Pair with carbohydrate so metabolism stays on the sugar-oxidation side. Refined, deodorized coconut oil is the everyday choice. Unrefined and virgin oils keep aromatic coconut compounds that some people react to, and they tend to be harder on the intestine. Flavorful virgin oil still works for coconut-tasting desserts such as ice cream.[18]

I recommend the completely deodorized coconut oil. The research was always done with the filtered kind that had no odor. Some people are allergic to the aromatic compounds in the coconut.

— Ray Peat[19]

I found that the nice-tasting unrefined ones were harder on the intestine. The ultra-refined and even hydrogenated coconut oil, I find, is easiest on the intestine.

— Ray Peat[20]
Coconut oil mayonnaise
From ReciPeatsCoconut oil mayonnaise

Homemade mayo with coconut oil in place of seed oils.

Ray Peat's coconut ice cream
From ReciPeatsRay Peat's coconut ice cream

A simple ice cream made with coconut.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Coconut Oil, Ray Peat newsletter
  2. ↑ Ray Peat, "Coconut oil," raypeat.com.
  3. ↑ Ray Peat, "Coconut oil," raypeat.com.
  4. ↑ Kasai M, Nosaka N, Maki H, et al. "Comparison of diet-induced thermogenesis of foods containing medium- versus long-chain triacylglycerols," J Nutr Sci Vitaminol. 2002;48(6):536-540.
  5. ↑ Ray Peat, "Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context," raypeat.com.
  6. ↑ Ray Peat, Ray Peat email Q&A - Randle Cycle, raypeatemails.com.
  7. ↑ Assunção ML, Ferreira HS, dos Santos AF, Cabral CR Jr, Florêncio TM, "Effects of dietary coconut oil on the biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women presenting abdominal obesity," Lipids. 2009;44(7):593-601. PMID: 19437058.
  8. ↑ Angeles-Agdeppa I, Nacis JS, Dayrit FM, Tanda KV, "Virgin coconut oil (VCO) supplementation relieves symptoms and inflammation among COVID-19 positive adults: a single-blind randomized trial," J Nutr Sci. 2024;13:e1. PMID: 38282651.
  9. ↑ "Virgin Coconut Oil as Adjunctive Therapy for Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Referral Hospital: A Randomized Controlled Trial," PMC.
  10. ↑ Agero AL, Verallo-Rowell VM. "A randomized double-blind controlled trial comparing extra virgin coconut oil with mineral oil as a moisturizer for mild to moderate xerosis," Dermatitis. 2004;15(3):109-116. doi:10.2310/6620.2004.04006. PMID 15724344.
  11. ↑ Evangelista MT, Abad-Casintahan F, Lopez-Villafuerte L, "The effect of topical virgin coconut oil on SCORAD index, transepidermal water loss, and skin capacitance in mild to moderate pediatric atopic dermatitis: a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial," Int J Dermatol. 2014;53(1):100-108. PMID: 24320105. Randomized double-blind trial, 117 children; mean SCORAD fell 68.23% with coconut oil vs 38.13% with mineral oil (P < 0.001).
  12. ↑ Petschow BW, Batema RP, Ford LL. "Susceptibility of Helicobacter pylori to bactericidal properties of medium-chain monoglycerides and free fatty acids," Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1996;40(2):302-306. doi:10.1128/aac.40.2.302. PMID 8834870. In vitro; C10-C14 monoglycerides at 1 mM gave 4-log or greater kill in 1 h; lauric acid the only bactericidal medium-chain free fatty acid; more needed in protein-rich media.
  13. ↑ Sun CQ, O'Connor CJ, Roberton AM. "Antibacterial actions of fatty acids and monoglycerides against Helicobacter pylori," FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 2003;36(1-2):9-17. doi:10.1016/s0928-8244(03)00008-7. PMID 12727360. In vitro; MBC lauric acid 1 mM at pH 7.4, monolaurin 0.5 mM; fatty acid potency rose at lower pH, monolaurin pH-independent.
  14. ↑ Kang S, et al. "In vitro and in vivo inhibition of Helicobacter pylori by Lactobacillus plantarum pH3A, monolaurin, and grapefruit seed extract," Food Funct. 2021;12(21):11024-11032. doi:10.1039/d1fo01480c. PMID 34657941. In vitro MIC 62.5 ppm; mouse infection model, monolaurin tested alongside a Lactobacillus strain and grapefruit seed extract.
  15. ↑ Anagha U, Binitha A. "A Single Case Study of Treating H-Pyroli Infection with Coconut Oil," Int J Ayurvedic Med. 2020;11(2):322-325. doi:10.47552/ijam.v11i2.1215. Case report; samanasnehapana (internal oil therapy); IgG serology only, no breath, stool antigen or biopsy test.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Mirzaei F, Khazaei M, Komaki A, Amiri I, Jalili C. "Virgin coconut oil (VCO) by normalizing NLRP3 inflammasome showed potential neuroprotective effects in Amyloid-β induced toxicity and high-fat diet fed rat." Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2018;118:68-83. PMID: 29729307. Rat study; 120 male Wistar rats in 12 groups (n = 10), amyloid-beta and/or high-fat diet models, VCO at 8% or 10%; memory tests, hippocampal NLRP3 inflammasome gene expression, oxidative stress markers, Congo Red, Cresyl Violet and immunohistochemistry; p < 0.05 for normalization versus untreated model groups.
  17. ↑ Mary Shomon interview, Ray Peat newsletter, 2001
  18. ↑ Ray Peat, "Iodine, Spider Veins, Oxalates, Fat Loss", Jodellefit, 22:33
  19. ↑ Ray Peat, "EastWest Healing: Cholesterol and Saturated Fats", EastWest Healing, 92:17
  20. ↑ Ray Peat, "Ask the Herb Doctor: Skin Cancer Part 3", KMUD, 40:33