Is coconut oil a healthy choice?

Last Updated : 19 December 2025

Key takeaways:

• Coconut oil contains around 84 g of saturated fat per 100 g. Diets high in saturated fats are linked to raising “bad” LDL cholesterol and increasing the risk of heart disease.
• While coconut oil also raises HDL (“good”) cholesterol, simply increasing HDL does not guarantee better heart health.
• Claims that coconut oil’s medium-chain fats make it “healthier” are misleading; most of its fat behaves like long-chain saturated fat, meaning it is not rapidly burned for energy and is more likely to be stored as fat.
• Dietary guidelines recommend replacing saturated fats (like coconut oil, butter, palm oil) with unsaturated fats (olive, rapeseed, sunflower oils, nuts, seeds, fish) for heart health.

Coconut oil is extracted from the kernel (the white flesh) of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm, which grows in tropical and subtropical regions. While coconut oil has traditionally been used mainly for non-culinary purposes such as cosmetics, skin care, and hair products, it has increasingly been incorporated into foods and marketed as a cooking fat in recent years. It’s now commonly found in baked goods, confectionery, snack foods, plant-based spreads, dairy alternatives, and some processed food products, and is also used by some consumers for frying, roasting, or baking at home.

Over the past decade, coconut oil has been praised as a natural, healthy alternative to other fats, credited with heart health benefits, but is that true? Let’s look at the facts, then look at the myth, and finally explain why the myth doesn’t hold up.

Fact: coconut oil is very high in saturated fat and isn’t considered a heart-healthy choice.

Coconut oil contains around 84 g of saturated fat per 100 g. This is much higher compared to other fats and oil, such as butter (54 g/100 g), olive oil (15 g/100 g), sunflower oil (11 g/100 g), or rapeseed oil (7 g/100 g).¹ The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that saturated fats should provide less than 10% of our total daily energy intake, which is equal to about 22 g per day for a 2,000-kcal diet or 27 g for a 2,500-kcal diet.² This means that a tablespoon of coconut oil (about 14 g) already gives you 53% or 44%, respectively, of this recommended maximum intake.

Diets rich in saturated fats are known to increase LDL cholesterol, the so-called “bad” cholesterol. LDL cholesterol carries cholesterol from the liver to the cells. When there is too much LDL in the bloodstream, cholesterol can build up inside artery walls, forming plaques. Over time, these plaques narrow or block arteries, increasing the risk of heart attacks and stroke. This process is called atherosclerosis. LDL cholesterol is a well-established predictor of cardiovascular disease risk in the general population, contributing to a higher likelihood of developing heart disease and stroke.^3,4

Results on coconut oil’s effect on LDL cholesterol vary depending on coconut oil dose, the comparison oils, study population and duration, and background diet. However, meta-analyses show that, compared with unsaturated plant oils (olive oil, safflower oil, canola oil etc.), coconut oil raises LDL cholesterol or does not improve it.^5-7

Coconut oil also increases “good” HDL cholesterol.^5-7 HDL cholesterol helps transport excess cholesterol back to the liver for removal. Because of this role, HDL was once thought to protect against heart disease. However, recent research shows that simply raising HDL doesn’t necessarily reduce cardiovascular risk.^8,9 Overall, the evidence trends in a clear direction that coconut oil doesn’t provide unique heart-health benefits, supporting unsaturated plant oils as a better choice for cardiovascular protection.

Dietary guidelines across Europe emphasise replacing saturated fat with poly- or monounsaturated fats to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. In practical terms, this means switching from, for example, coconut oil, palm oil, butter, high-fat cuts of meat to foods such as olive oil, rapeseed oil, nuts, low-fat dairy, and fish to support heart health.

Myth: coconut oil is heart-healthy because it contains special medium-chain fats.

One of the most common arguments for coconut oil is that it is rich in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), a type of fat that is quickly absorbed and used for energy rather than stored as body fat.¹⁰ However, this claim oversimplifies coconut oil’s actual fat composition.

Coconut oil is very high in saturated fat, mainly lauric acid and myristic acid, which together make up the majority of its fat content.^1,11 Lauric acid, the main fatty acid in coconut oil, is sometimes classified as a medium-chain fatty acid based on its chemical structure. However, in terms of digestion and metabolism, it behaves more like a long-chain saturated fat.¹²

True medium-chain fatty acids are those with shorter chain lengths, such as caprylic and capric acid, which are absorbed and metabolised differently in the body. Coconut oil contains only small amounts of these true MCTs.

Because lauric acid is absorbed and transported like other saturated fats, it raises total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, even though it also increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol.¹¹ As a result, findings from studies using purified MCT oil cannot be applied directly to coconut oil, and claims that coconut oil is uniquely beneficial for heart health are not supported by the scientific evidence.¹²

Fallacy: the notion that coconut oil is beneficial relies on cherry-picked evidence.

The belief that coconut oil is healthy often stems from selectively picking positive findings while ignoring the full picture (cherry-picking evidence). Some claims focus on its ability to raise HDL cholesterol or mention its content of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). However, these arguments overlook that most of the fats in coconut oil are not metabolised in the same way as MCTs and that it also raises LDL cholesterol which is linked to a higher risk of heart disease. The perceived benefits of coconut oil also depend on the comparison context. Indeed, coconut oil raises LDL cholesterol less than butter, making it look healthier in that comparison, but it still performs worse than unsaturated vegetable oils, like olive oil.¹³

Moreover, most studies suggesting health benefits from coconut oil are observational, meaning they can show links but cannot prove that coconut oil directly causes these effects. Other factors may play a significant role. For instance, people who use coconut oil often follow traditional diets that are higher in fish and lower in processed foods, which could also explain the observed benefits.⁶

Research consistently shows that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated ones, such as olive, rapeseed, or safflower oil, helps lower LDL cholesterol and supports heart health.^6,7,9 This doesn’t mean you must avoid coconut oil altogether. If you enjoy its taste, you can still use it sparingly.