IN THE NEWS: Suddenly, the coconut is the centre of attention

Fed up with Atkins? Bored with the GI diet? Is the South Beach just not working for you? Don?t worry ? just when you thought there were no more faddy weight loss plans to put your body through, along comes another to prove you wrong.

Get ready for the coconut diet, a plan that promises its followers will lose at least 10lb in just 21 days. Dieters are required to add two to three tablespoons of extra virgin coconut oil a day to a low-carbohydrate diet.

To many, consuming an oil that contains significant amounts of saturated fat may seem a strange way to lose weight. But Cherie Calbom, who has written the snappily-titled The Coconut Diet: The Secret Ingredient that Helps you Lose Weight While you Eat your Favourite Foods, swears by it. Calbom says that, in fact, extra virgin coconut oil is an extremely healthy fat (studies from the Fifties that claim otherwise are now thought to be inaccurate).

Apparently, the oil is perfect for weight loss because it contains fatty acids known as medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) which the body metabolises quickly, converting fats to energy rather than storing them. Most other oils are made up of long chain triglycerides, which are more likely to be stored as fat.

Calbom backs up her claims by pointing to the diets of those who live in the tropics. Population studies in the South Pacific islands of Pukapuka and Tokelau ? carried out during the Sixties, before the islands were exposed to refined foods ? show that islanders consumed, on average, between 50 and 60 per cent of their calories from fat, most of it saturated and from coconuts. Yet all the inhabitants were lean and healthy, and heart disease, colon cancer, ulcers and appendicitis were rare.

Calbom is not the only person who believes in the merits of the coconut diet. The Internet is awash with websites extolling its virtues, and, in America, it has become a sensation.

Beg to differ

Some experts, however, are horrified. Quite apart from the fact that consuming too much coconut oil can give you an upset stomach (coconuts are high in fibre), many health experts are worried about the amount of saturated fat in the diet. ?Coconut oil is almost 100 per cent fat, and 92 per cent of that is saturated,? says Jackie Lowden, a dietician at the British Dietetic Association. ?Saturated fat is known to clog up arteries and cause coronary heart disease ? it concerns me that people are suggesting we make it part of our daily diet.? Furthermore, she does not believe that the MCTs in the oil can aid weight loss. ?MCTs are good for you, but there?s such a small quantity of them in coconut oil that I can?t see there being any benefits once you?ve taken all that fat into consideration. The only way I can see it working is that it fills you up and stops you snacking.?

At the British Nutrition Foundation, Bridget McKevith is equally sceptical about the benefits of the coconut diet. ?Very little has actually been published to support the claim that it helps weight loss,? she says. ?In fact, there is one study where low birth-weight babies were fed with different types of oil, and the infants who had been given coconut oil actually gained the most weight.?

Both McKevith and Lowden believe that if the coconut diet works, it is only because it restricts the types of food you can eat and thus the amount of calories. ?It just doesn?t make scientific sense,? says Lowden. ?These faddy diets irritate me because they make it difficult to help people realise that in the long term, there is only one way to lose weight and stay slim, and that?s through eating a healthy, balanced diet and doing more exercise.?

Ayes and nays

Dr Pritpal Singh, weight management consultant based in Calcutta: ?Coconut oil is good but only if taken in moderation. I wouldn?t recommend more than two teaspoons a day.?

Dr Bruce Fife, a naturopathic doctor and author of The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil: ?Coconut oil is the healthiest oil on earth.? In his book Dr Fife talks about how the oil, once accused of increasing cholesterol levels, is now actually being used by doctors in the treatment of a variety of disorders. Clinical studies have shown that coconut oil has anti-microbial and anti-viral properties, and is now even being used in treating AIDS patients.

Nina Singh, manager of VLCC slimming centre at Alipore, Calcutta: ?It has good properties but you cannot live on it. One will benefit from the consumption of coconut oil only if it is taken in proportion with other useful fats and oils. If it?s just coconut oil, your body will lose out on the nutrients that only the other oils can provide.?

Dr Jon J. Kabara, PhD and Professor Emeritus of Michigan State University: ?Lauric acid is a medium chain fatty acid and it is abundant in coconut oil. Coconut oil is about 50 per cent lauric acid. The only other such source found in nature is in human breast milk.?

 

Matters of the heart

There is a debate on whether coconut oil is actually linked to coronaries

Think avial, think karimeen or even Syrian beef curry ? what would they be without coconut oil? In fact, south Indian cuisine is incomplete without the generous helpings of coconut oil. But often, its consumption has been linked with the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, one study conducted by the department of medicine, Medical College of Kerala, has a different story to tell. To explore the presumed link, the diets of 32 CHD patients and 16 otherwise healthy subjects were examined. The consumption of coconut and coconut oil was similar in both the groups. They also did not differ in the consumption of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. The results implied no specific role for coconut or coconut oil in the causation of CHD.