On Wed, 3 Dec 1997, Don Wiss wrote:

> For an article touting the benefits of coconut oil see:
>
> Ray Peat's Newsletter has a web site with some downloadable sample
> articles. There are two articles of interest to Paleo dieters: "The
> Benefits of Coconut Oil" and "Toxicity of Unsaturated Oils".
>
>   http://garcia.efn.org/~raypeat/nutri.html
>
> Don.

I've read it.  Unfortunately, Peat does not include even a single
reference to support his claims.  That is, although his article
has a bunch of references at the end, none of them support his
claims about the benefits of coconut oil.  I spent a great deal
of time last summer slogging through this stuff, and in fact I
subscribe to his newsletter.  He also has misinformation in the
article, such as his claim that coconut oil is a source of the
beneficial saturated fat butyric acid.  According to every
reference source that I have been able to locate, the butyric
acid content of coconut oil is zero.

When I did my own search on the effect of coconut oil on serum
lipids, the results were unequivocal: coconut oil is
hypercholesterolemic, with particularly negative effects on LDL
cholesterol.  I cannot find even one study that says otherwise,
although several indicate that butter is even worse.  Peat claims
that coconut oil improves serum lipids, but offers not even a
single piece of evidence to support his claim.  And he ignores
the considerable body of evidence to the contrary.

I have to conclude that Peat is not a reliable source of
information about this.

Todd Moody
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Todd Moody
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