New research from The University of Hull has confirmed that saturated fats in virgin coconut oil appear to be significantly healthier than those found in dairy products.
Although this has been shown previously through animal-based studies, the new research used human subjects. The volunteers were split into two groups and given high fat shakes made using either dairy products or virgin coconut oil, an hour after which they were asked to exercise.
In both groups the shakes raised the levels of fats in the blood and exercise lowered these levels, but the post-exercise blood fat levels in the coconut oil group were significantly lower, up to 34% compared to 18% in the dairy group. This suggests that the make up of the medium chain saturated fats in coconut oil speeds up the metabolism process.
The study, conducted by MSc student Craig Scott, was supported by Coconoil. The company’s brand director, Garry Stiven, commented: “Whilst there had been a few animal studies supporting the concept that coconut oil is treated differently to other saturated fats by the body we wanted to prove that this was the case in humans. The results show, as we’d hoped, that virgin coconut oil is more readily utilised by the body as a fuel than other saturated fats and hopefully the research will help convert any sceptics.”
