Transcript
A (0:03)
Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. This is the podcast where I get to answer your health questions and they drive the conversation. Let's see what's on your mind today. Kira, one of our producers is here. Who do we have first?
B (0:17)
Hey, Sanjay. So Will from Passaic, New Jersey asks which cooking oils are the worst for your cholesterol and increase those levels and which ones actually help lower your bad cholesterol.
A (0:30)
Alright, this has been a topic that's been in the news quite a bit lately. Seed oils versus animal fats. Couple things to keep in mind. Saturated fats, and these are typically going to be made of the tropical fats such as coconut and palm tree, but also butter and beef tallow. Lots of saturated fats in there. Saturated fats was something that we used to cook with a lot up until the middle of the last century when it became clear that they were more likely to elevate your cholesterol and were associated with heart disease. That is when we started to move more and more towards plant based fats and seed oils. Those are things like canola oil and avocado oil and olive oil, but also sesame oil, soybean oil, peanut oil. You get the idea. Those are generally going to be lower in saturated fats. Now there's no question that seed oils are heavily processed. They can be pro inflammatory and sometimes when they degrade or decompose, they may give off other chemicals as well. And that's been sort of the concern about those. But again, keep in mind, they are typically much lower in saturated fat. So will, what decades of research has shown us is that consuming too many saturated fats does increase the risk of heart disease. LDL cholesterol, often referred to as bad cholesterol, that can build up in the blood vessels as well. So replacing those saturated fats with unsaturated fats is going to be better for your heart. In fact, there was this large study following around 220,000 people over 30 years that found about a 15% decrease in mortality overall if you substituted unsaturated fats instead of saturated fats. And actually an increase in about 16% when it comes to mortality when you're eating more of those saturated fats.
B (2:23)
Okay, wait, but what about coconut oil? Because I feel like people are always calling it this, you know, healthy alternative and I feel healthy when I'm using it. But if it's packed with saturated fat, should we not be cooking with it?
A (2:39)
Yeah, look, when it comes to coconut oil, Kira, keep this in mind. It's a lot of calories and it's a lot of saturated fat. It may have some potential benefits like actually raising your hdl. That's the good cholesterol. That's because of something known as its lauric acid content. There's also a lot of what are known as mcts, medium chain triglycerides in coconut oil. And that can be helpful as well. But you know, when you have a lot of calories and a lot of saturated fat, you have to think about using the coconut oil sparingly. So it's not going to be necessarily the healthiest option when it comes to oils that are higher in unsaturated fats. Okay, now you've probably heard it a thousand times. Drink eight glasses of water a day. But is that really the magic number or is that a myth? We'll get into it after the break.