Over the last few years, coconut oil has received a lot of attention and praise for its health benefits. Like olive oil, coconut oil has been found to be much healthier to cook with than vegetable oils such as sunflower and corn oil.
When it comes to heart health, we ask the question, is olive oil or coconut oil better?
Firstly, we need to keep in mind that there are two types of coconut oil, virgin and refined, or the labeling will just read coconut oil. Virgin coconut oil is removed from coconut milk by a process called wet extraction, largely free of refining.
Extra virgin is cold pressed while olive oil is largely refined, the process of refining may destroy some of the oil’s compounds that promote heart health, such as polyphenols and antioxidants, in both coconut and olive oil.
For the purpose of looking at which oil is better for heart health, we will compare virgin coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil.
As stated by cardiologist Jared Bunch, “Olive oil has more “good fat,” monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, than virgin coconut oil. For example, 1 tablespoon of olive oil contains 11 grams (gm) of monounsaturated fat and 1 gm of polyunsaturated fat. In comparison, a tablespoon of coconut oil contains 0.1 gm of monounsaturated fat and 0.25 gm of polyunsaturated fat. In a quick analysis, olive oil has 5 to 10 times the amount of good fat we need to consume.”
The debate is still ongoing as to whether saturated fats are closely linked with increased risk of coronary artery disease, more recent studies suggest that this is not the case and trans fats are to blame. Nevertheless, extra virgin olive oil also has less saturated fat than virgin coconut oil.
1 tablespoon of olive oil contains 1 gm of saturated fat while 1 tablespoon of coconut oil contains 13 gm of saturated fat which is roughly 10 times more than that of olive oil.
With any efficient food source, the amount of calories per serving becomes important. Even healthy foods consumed in excess can become unhealthy. – Jared Bunch
In terms of calories, both olive oil and coconut oil are similar. One tablespoon of olive oil contains 120 calories, compared to 130 calories in a tablespoon of coconut oil.
While both oils are very low in the worst kind of fat, trans fat, we see that EVOO is predominantly heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, while virgin coconut oil is almost 90% saturated fat, whether you are an advocate of saturated fats or not, coconut oil is still a lot lower in the proven “good” monounsaturated fat.
Extra virgin olive oil and virgin coconut oil also contains antioxidants such as polyphenols which may be linked to lower risk of heart disease. EVOO contains significantly higher levels with at least 36 different polyphenols while virgin coconut oil only contains about six different polyphenols.
To this day, there has been a lot more research on olive oil benefits than coconut oil, yet from the above information it seems olive oil is the winner when it comes to heart health.
Sources:
http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/jared-bunch-rhythm-of-life/coconut-oil-olive-oil-heart-health/
https://blog.fitbit.com/fat-face-off-olive-oil-vs-coconut-oil/
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