For years, coconut oil has been sold as a wellness upgrade, an ingredient you can swap for butter or vegetable oil without a second thought. When researchers pooled the controlled trials, that story stopped fitting the numbers.
A meta-analysis published in Circulation, the American Heart Association's flagship peer-reviewed journal, combined 16 clinical trials and reported that coconut oil raised LDL cholesterol, the artery-clogging "bad" cholesterol linked to heart attacks and strokes.
The pooled effect was an LDL rise of about 10 mg/dL compared with nontropical vegetable oils such as olive, canola, sunflower or soybean oil. HDL, the "good" cholesterol, rose more modestly, by about 4 mg/dL. Coconut oil did not meaningfully change blood sugar, inflammation markers or body fat.
Why the "lauric acid is different" argument doesn't hold up
Coconut oil is a fat outlier on the shelf. Roughly 80 to 90% of it is saturated fat, a higher share than butter or lard, and its dominant fatty acid is lauric acid.
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Coconut oil's defenders argue lauric acid behaves like a medium-chain fat that bypasses the LDL-raising trap. In the trials, that isn't what happens. Rob M. van Dam, PhD, the study's senior author at the National University of Singapore, told TCTMD that "coconut oil consists of about 90% saturated fat, which is higher than the proportion of saturated fat in butter or lard," and that lauric acid, in practice, acts more like a long-chain saturated fat.
The AHA arrived at the same verdict earlier. Its 2017 presidential advisory on dietary fats found coconut oil raised LDL in every one of seven controlled trials reviewed, and concluded coconut oil should not be considered a healthy fat.
A big gap between what shoppers think and what the trials show
Public perception hasn't caught up. In a widely cited 2016 survey, 72% of Americans rated coconut oil as "healthy," compared with 37% of nutrition experts asked the same question, a gap the AHA has since addressed head-on.
That gap matters because LDL is one of the most consistent risk factors for atherosclerosis, the plaque build-up in arteries that drives heart attacks and strokes. The AHA recommends keeping saturated fat to no more than about 6% of daily calories, roughly 13 grams for a 2,000-calorie day. One tablespoon of coconut oil supplies about 12 grams on its own, close to a full day's cap in a single spoonful. Reading the label is doing a lot of the work here, and the broader eating pattern still matters more than any one ingredient swap.
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What to use instead
Cleveland Clinic recommends leaning on monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils, with extra-virgin olive oil a common default in the kitchen. Registered dietitian Julia Zumpano, RD, LD, notes that "research shows that there's little difference between coconut oil and other saturated fats like butter and palm oil."
For higher-heat cooking, canola and other nontropical vegetable oils fit the same profile the trials rewarded. That is also the pattern behind the Mediterranean diet, which the AHA repeatedly ties to lower cardiovascular risk. Occasional coconut oil for flavor is not what the research warns against. Using it daily as a heart-health tonic is another matter, and anyone whose cholesterol has already been flagged should raise the swap with their own doctor before making it a habit.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.