- Though many consider coconut oil healthy, a new study suggests otherwise.
- The study finds that coconut oil disrupted mice’s ability to use leptin and insulin, two critical hormones, with insulin resistance being a primary characteristic of type 2 diabetes.
- Nutritionists recommend unsaturated or polyunsaturated oils instead of saturated oils like coconut oil.
Low doses of coconut oil added to the diet of mice for eight weeks led to alterations in their metabolism that contributed to the development of obesity and related co-morbidities, according to a new study.
The coconut oil disturbed the mice’s ability to properly use leptin and insulin, two hormones important for regulating energy expenditure, hunger, and how the body handles fats and sugars.
The findings support the hypothesis that a diet high in saturated fatty acids can lead to leptin resistance. At the same time as leptin resistance is developing, the body’s fat storage tissue, known as white adipose tissue, also becomes less responsive to leptin.
The study builds upon previous research in which the authors observed that coconut oil produced a central and peripheral inflammatory response, weight gain, a higher percentage of fat, reduced energy expenditure, and anxious behavior in mice, suggesting a systemic imbalance.
The 60 mice in the current study were divided into three groups receiving a liquid supplement. One group, the control group, received water, one received 100 microliters of commercial extra-virgin coconut oil, and one received 300 microliters of the same.
The daily coconut oil doses were calorically similar to what would equal about 13 grams of saturated fat or 5% of the saturated fat calories for a healthy human adult. At the end of the experiments, the mice were anesthetized and decapitated for hypothalamic study.
The study was published in the Journal of Functional Foods.
“The study proposes that coconut oil could make it harder for the body to properly respond to important hormones that…
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