Are the saturated fats in coconut oil different? Roughly 80 percent of the fat in coconut oil is saturated. Yet some people claim that coconut oil doesn’t raise LDL. Not true, says Frank Sacks, professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of public Health. “The evidence is straightforward and compelling. Saturated fat causes atherosclerosis and heart disease” says Frank Sacks, professor of cardiovascular disease. Some of the short-chain saturated fatty acids in coconut oil don’t raise LDL cholesterol. But they don’t counteract the effects of the oil’s longer-chain fatty acids, which do increase LDL cholesterol. So coconut oil raises LDL cholesterol in the same way that, say, butter does
Source: What you need to know about coconut oil – Nutrition Action
