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Liquid coconut oil also labeled MCT oil, is not a legitimate healthy fat and why these expensive, highly processed lipids that occur nowhere in nature are best avoided by smart consumers.
If there is one truism in the world of food manufacturing, it is this. If a particular whole food becomes popular with consumers, food manufacturers will figure out a way to adulterate and cleverly market it.
The endgame is fooling the average consumer into erroneously believing that this new fractionated food is “better” than the original.
This adage very accurately applies to the much-hyped supplement MCT oil. Manufacturers also shrewdly market it as liquid coconut oil for cooking purposes.
Both of these impostors have been popping up on health food store shelves sometimes boldly and inaccurately marketed as “better than coconut oil”.
Why Coconut Oil is a Fat Superstar
Coconut oil in its unprocessed, unfractionated state is one of the healthiest fats on the planet. It has nourished degenerative disease-free traditional cultures in Asia for centuries.
What’s more, these cultures suffered from essentially no heart disease. Thus, misguided accusations that coconut oil isn’t “heart healthy” are clearly false and completely unsupportable with anthropological evidence.
Coconut oil is loaded with beneficial fatty acids called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). These MCTs or MCFAs (medium chain fatty acids) do not need to be digested by bile salts.
These digestive juices are secreted by the liver and stored by the gall bladder.
Hint: this is why coconut oil is good for those who’ve had gall bladder surgery.
What’s more, MCTs are not typically stored by the body as fat as longer chain fats are. Instead, they are quickly converted to energy which makes them particularly suitable for weight loss.
Consumers have caught onto the benefits of coconut oil for weight loss and overall wellness in recent years. Numerous companies now market virgin and expeller pressed versions for a variety of culinary uses.
MCT Oil is a Factory Food
Some companies are marketing impostor products trying to ride the wave of coconut oil popularity. Coconut oil processed into wannabes like MCT oil or liquid coconut oil becomes something else entirely, and for the consumer, it is definitely not for the better.
When I first saw liquid coconut oil on the shelf of my local health food store, I thought, “What in the world is this? A coconut oil that stays liquid in the refrigerator and is “excellent” for cooking?” I secretly wondered and knew that something fishy was going on.
Anyone familiar with coconut oil knows that it is a solid fat at temperatures below 76 F/ 24 C.
If the coconut oil stays liquid all the time, even in the refrigerator, that is your clue that it is fake.
Similarly, I was receiving emails from readers who were using MCT oil, the supplement version of liquid coconut oil, instead of actual coconut oil for weight loss and other health purposes.
Things just didn’t seem on the up and up to me, so I started to sniff around…
Dregs from Fractionated Coconut Oil
The dominant medium chain fatty acid in coconut oil is lauric acid, comprising 50% of the total fat content. It is no exaggeration to call lauric acid a superstar of fats, as it has scientifically proven antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Our human digestion converts lauric acid into monolaurin which defends us against viruses, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens. In short, lauric acid is a huge boon to the immune system.
Lauric acid is not only one of the healthiest fatty acids on the planet, it is highly elusive as well. Made only by the mammary gland in humans and available in small amounts in butterfat and significant amounts in palm kernel oil and coconut oil, this beneficial fat is not widely found in nature.
The trouble with MCT Oil
People want lauric acid for the health benefits, but personal care manufacturers want it too for enhancing the quality of their products.
Isolated lauric acid functions as a skin conditioning agent. It is an inert and stable emollient used in creams, ointments, lotions, and lipsticks. Lauric acid slows the loss of water from the skin by forming a barrier on the skin’s surface.
It also alters the thickness of liquids acting as a viscosity controlling agent and provides surface glide by promoting color dispersion in finished products.
This is why lauric acid is removed from coconut oil and sold off for manufacturing purposes to personal care companies.
What’s left when the highly saturated lauric acid (and potentially a few other highly saturated fatty acids too depending on the manufacturer) with a melting point of 110F/ 43C is removed from coconut oil?
You guessed it!
MCT oil, which is sold as a supplement, and liquid coconut oil, sold for cooking. They are both the same thing, in essence, the coconut oil “dregs”.
MCT Oil Manufacturing
Another problem with MCT oil and its cooking counterpart liquid coconut oil is the manufacturing.
The forcible removal of lauric acid from coconut oil is not an easy process. You could not do it yourself at home!
It typically requires chemical recombination of refined fatty acids in coconut oil with a synthetic vegetable-based ester.
Chemical residues in the resulting MCT oil would be a definite concern as a result.
A more natural process is molecular distillation of virgin coconut oil. This method involves no chemicals and is a physical process only.
While MCT oil manufactured in this manner would be nontoxic and safe to consume, it is important to note that MCT or liquid coconut oil is not found anywhere in nature.
As such, regular consumption would have unknown health consequences.
To obtain the full health and weight loss benefits of MCTs in the proper proportions as found in nature, you need to consume virgin coconut oil, and if you need one with no taste, expeller-pressed coconut oil.
Don’t fall for the MCT oil scam! It is a manmade product found nowhere in nature.
Liquid Coconut Oil Scam
The reason I suspect that liquid coconut oil is marketed as “better than coconut oil for cooking” is that it stays liquid even when refrigerated.
However, while this is better for convenience, it is not better from a health perspective especially considering that coconut oil itself doesn’t need to be refrigerated due to high resistance to rancidity even in very hot climes.
For example, I keep large buckets of coconut oil in my garage which regularly gets over 100 F/28 C during summer days, and it keeps perfectly for months on end.
Note also that the most beneficial and elusive fat of all in coconut oil, lauric acid, is completely absent from liquid coconut oil.
Two saturated fatty acids primarily remain…caprylic acid and capric acid.
Dairy foods, particularly goat milk and cheese, contain these fats naturally.
The other fats remaining in MCT oil/liquid coconut oil are oleic acid (the primary fat in olive oil) and linoleic acid found in vegetable oils.
Higher Percentage of Heat Unstable Fats
While oleic acid is heat stable and fine for cooking, linoleic acid definitely is not!
Removing lauric acid and other high melting point saturated fats from coconut oil results in a lipid that is no longer ideal for cooking.
It is a far worse choice than virgin or expeller-pressed coconut oil.
The reason is because it contains a much larger percentage of heat unstable fats. What’s more, the longer-chain vegetable fats encourage weight gain, not weight loss.
Would liquid coconut oil be a better choice than vegetable oils? In that case, I would agree. Vegetable oils like soy, corn and even canola would be far worse choices for cooking than liquid coconut oil. But when compared with true blue coconut oil, the scammy “liquid” versions pale by comparison.
Do yourself a favor, if you want to experience the benefits of coconut oil for cooking or weight loss, use the real thing. Skip the cleverly marketed liquid coconut oil versions.
MCT Oil and Liquid Coconut Oil Aren’t Cheap!
As if not being as good as real coconut oil isn’t enough, food manufacturers have the gall to charge a fortune for MCT oil and liquid coconut oil.
Sometimes the price tag is higher than a quality jar of virgin coconut oil itself!
This is one trick that manufacturers use to make you “believe” that their factory foods are better than the real thing.
MCT Oil is similarly priced, at or higher than the same amount of real, authentic virgin coconut oil.
You get the dregs and pay more for the “privilege”. Nice huh?
What about MCT Oil with Lauric Acid?
While most MCT oil on the market has no lauric acid whatsoever, I have seen some brands of MCT oil recently where there is some lauric acid present.
This means that manufacturers removed only some of the lauric acid (and sold it off for industrialized purposes).
The lauric acid amount present is not at the same high percentage as in unadulterated coconut oil, however.
If you remember the discussion from above, virgin and expeller pressed coconut oil are approximately 50% lauric acid. MCT oil with lauric acid contains far less.
The highest I’ve seen to date is 30%. Some brands do not list how much lauric acid is present at all!
One thing is for sure. If the MCT oil or liquid coconut oil stays fluid in the refrigerator, it doesn’t have much lauric acid in it.
Also, remember the problem with chemical residues in MCT oil if it wasn’t extracted using a physical process only.
The bottom line is that MCT oil is a manmade factory fat. It occurs nowhere in nature.
It doesn’t occur naturally in nature and using it regularly won’t produce the health benefits and weight loss results of using the real thing: coconut oil.
Isn’t MCT Oil Best for Alzheimer’s?
There’s been quite a bit of buzz in recent years surrounding MCT oil and its application in Alzheimer’s reversal using lipids.
It is true that MCTs are the active ingredient in Axona, a popular drug for those with Alzheimer’s Disease.
It is highly doubtful that MCTs are better than virgin coconut oil (VCO) for this purpose, however!
Dr. Bruce Fife, author of Stop Alzheimer’s Now, recommends VCO instead of MCT oil or MCT drugs such as Axona because the drugs become ineffective over time, wear off quickly, have side effects, and cause free radical damage to the cells. And, MCT oil on its own is an adulterated, inferior form of coconut oil.
When the MCTs in virgin coconut oil are converted into ketones they act as a super fuel for the brain. This super fuel provides energy to the brain as well as stimulates healing and repair. Hence, these fatty acids are very important for those who espouse the keto diet.
And, don’t forget. Lauric acid is the most beneficial MCT of all and yet is absent in most MCT oil brands on the market or in significantly reduced amounts.
Go for the real thing and you won’t ever be disappointed down the road that clever marketing has somehow cost you your health or failed to produce the wellness results you seek.
References
(1) MCT Oil Manufacture
(2) Eat Fat Lose Fat
(3) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
(4) Stop Alzheimer’s Now
More Information
Coconut Oil Capsules: As Effective as Straight Up?
How to Use Coconut Oil for Weight Loss
When Coconut Oil May Not Be Right for You
So what manufacture makes the best coconut oil with the greatest benefits?
I also like whole coconut oil which contains: all three medium chain fatty acids caprylic, capric and lauric acids; the long chain saturated FAs myristic, palmitic, and stearic; and long chain monounsaturated oleic acid and polyunsaturated linoleic acid. However, your characterization of MCT oils is incorrect. They are usually 75% caprylic and 25% capric acid, never oleic or linoleic, which are long chain. Capric and caprylic acid share many of the same antimicrobial and ketogenic health benefits of lauric acid and are preferred because they are shorter (caprylic is 8 carbons, capric is 10, and lauric is 12) thus having lower melting points and staying liquid at lower temperatures. They are also believed to be even easier to be used directly for energy, however all three MCFAs are known to posses this property and do not require carnitine for transport into the mitochondria.
I can’t speak to the liquid coconut oil for cooking which may have long chain mono and polyunsaturated fats but an MCT oil should never have these as they are long chain unsaturated fats. I know Bulletproof’s MCT oils are capric and/or caprylic.
A great resource for delving deep into dietary fats and metabolism is “Know Your Fats” by Mary G. Enig.
Dodecanioc acid is an MCFA not a an MCT. MCTs are generally dietarily better than dodecanioc acid in that they are readily digestible and metabolize quickly (much like sugar but without the adverse effects) without also irritating your large intestine. While you are correct that MCT oil is not whole coconut oil, it is made from coconut oil via a physical process meaning that it is unadulterated and no external chemicals are added to it. Please note that none of this is opinion. Now you are correct to say that MCT oil doesnt posses the same health benefits as whole coconut oil, but that is not to say that it doesn’t have dietary applications in which it outshines it.
I didn’t read any real convincing information Of MCT oil being a bad thing.
It’s was said the MCT oils are not found naturally in nature, well, coconut oil is a process too and doesn’t occur naturally too. The natural source would be to eat the whole coconut flesh – contradiction
It was said the Coconut oil is MCT oil. The carbon chain 12 Lauric acid is a long chain. It was considered medium chain prio to the 70’s but later discovered it was indeed long chain. This means it needs the aid of the gallbladder and could be stored as fat in the body. Having liquid MCT and coconut oil together at different times is in my mind a fine idea. They are both processed oils. Besides, good wine is a process and doesn’t exist naturally in nature, more does cooking our food and combining agrediants to make nice dishes.
Good high grade MCT oils have been developed by folks who were interested in marketing oils great for fat loss through the Ketone pathway. Lauric acid dose not use this pathway, so creating an oil for this pathway was clever move. Using the keystone pathway creates faster availed energy and mental clarity. Take that even further and you can use a even more refined oil of Caprylic Acid C8 know for fueling the brain. It’s 18x of what you would find in coconut oil, meaning you get more for the amount for particular goals.
The above article seems to be based more on option than science, so let the choice be yours. As the market grows beware of where the oils come from. Palm oils are a controversial market and the ethics of manufacturers should be considered.
Hi Sarah,
I think your article is unbalanced. Good quality MCT oil has benefits. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE virgin coconut oil and use it in place of most kitchen / healhcare oils. However as someone who lives a ketogenic lifestyle, I prefer the 8 and 10 chain triglycerides as they bypass the liver to metabolise much more swiftly as energy. Lauric acid must pass through the liver on its pathway which, if you want a fast energy hit without hitting the sugar, isn’t always the best. I do absolutely agree with you that Lauric acid is wonderful – but MCT oil is not always the dregs. It’s also much much harder to discern the “quality” suppliers of MCT oil.
I have a metabolic disorder which means I can’t absorb my very long chain fatty acid, to help me live a normal life I am prescribed various forms of mct (both oil and powder form) to have daily in my diet, whilst it may not work for everyone please don’t dismiss something so easily that for some of us is literally a life saving product. Without mct in my diet I am at a massive risk of rhabdomyolisis, or to put it bluntly my body will eat my own muscles and organs to obtain energy, the resulting toxins in my blood can (and have) caused my kidneys to fail. So for all of you saying mct isn’t that great and it’s an imposter, for some of us it’s better than a neckline taking your blood through a dialysis machine. Like I said it’s not for everyone and it won’t have health benefits for everyone, but for those of us who need it’s a life saver.
Lauric acid is a short chain fatty acid, so even you should be able to tolerate the real thing in the form of coconut oil and don’t need to resort to the fake MCT oil (which has the most beneficial short chain fat of all .. lauric acid .. removed in total or in part). If you have a reaction to coconut oil, it isn’t from your long chain fatty acid problem, it is likely due to the incredible detoxification that lauric acid triggers in the body .. simply start small and work your way up. Don’t give up and settle for the MCT oil dregs.
Thanks for writing such a succinct yet detailed article Sarah. This is exactly what I was looking for while researching how to add bulletproof coffee to my diet while avoiding hyped ingredients. As expected, the age old adage appears true once again: eat whole foods where possible because they are recognised by the body, cheaper and less likely to be over concentrated. I will be blogging about butter-fed coffee at goneworkabout.com shortly and will reference this article. Thanks again and in case it helps, I’ve decided on this daily recipe; Locally roasted fairtrade coffee (ground), a Montbell O.D. dripper (re-usable drip filter), local organic butter, organic coconut oil (expeller pressed), cinammon (ground), an aeropress and a ceramic double-walled mug.
Sarah, a genuinely concerned reply:
I’m very surprised there was no mention of caprylic acid (C8) or capric acid (C10) in this article.
Also in regards to the idea of a more “refined” product being cautiously avoided, I understand the reaction. However I find essential oils to be equally as refined as distilled MCT oil. In short, where do we draw the line? Clothing certainly doesn’t appear all the natural, and yet we need it to survive. I consider humans to be stewards of nature that must listen to her and keep a balanced hand. “Whole foods” seems an abused term to be, I find “balanced foods” a better one.
I’m pretty sure you understand what I’m trying to say. While I would applaud your skepticism of “liquid coconut oil” I would also challenge you to approach this product more like you think of cod liver oil – countless inferior products, very few acceptable offerings. It could be all about the process, do they properly extract the MCTs, or are they sloppy? I believe there are some things that were meant to be refined, refining is found in nature, in the body, in bee hives and ant colonies. Lauric acid is wonderful, just as codfish is a healthful fish to eat. But perhaps there is a hidden wonder in those caprylic and capric triglycerides. The whole point of MCT oil is to concentrate the MCTs. I have heard that inferior MCT oils have Lauric acid still in them, and have a much less concentration of MCTs… but they charge the same expensive price! Those companies are basically selling you slightly altered coconut oil at exorbitant prices.
Really, at some point we have got to put our ice cold logic hats on. Is all refinement bad? No(All oils are separated from their fruits, aka refined) Are all products made of byproducts evil? No (whey is a byproduct).
Simply put, Coconut oil and GOOD MCT oil have different purposes. Just like cod fish and fermented cod liver oil do. Just like oregano and oregano essential oil. So your skepticism is a great place to start, but please don’t stay there by default.
Anyways, it feels weird to be this critical, and I have much admiration for you. But I think you need an attitude adjustment because the logic needs balance.
“it is important to note that MCT or liquid coconut oil is not found anywhere in nature”
That’s like saying that apple juice isn’t found anywhere in nature. It’s ridiculous. Apple juice is an apple minus everything except the juice. Liquid coconut oil is coconut oil minus the lauric acid. The same thing is true of MCT oil. It’s a one piece of a larger thing. According to your reasoning, virgin coconut oil doesn’t exist in nature either, because you’ve removed all of the other parts of the coconut. Looking through the recipes on your page (some excellent ones, for sure), I see things that “don’t exist in nature.” Like vanilla extract. And butter.
“Lauric acid is the most beneficial MCT of all”
Lauric acid is basically good stuff, but it’s not “the most beneficial” because the different fats have different pros and cons, and one fat that’s desired by some may be contraindicated for others. Those other fats are very good for you, too. There is ample research demonstrating their health benefits, including their use for weight loss. And there are good reasons people may want to get those other MCTs while avoiding lauric acid, not to mention the ability to consume it in liquid form at below room temperature.
“lauric acid a superstar of fats, as it has scientifically proven antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties”
Science is definitely good stuff.
“Chemical residues in the resulting MCT oil would be a definite concern as a result.”
Not really. Chemical residue is rare, and even when detected by testing, it is in such minute quantities that you’d have to consume impossible amounts of the product to notice any ill-effects. Now, doing something like putting gasoline into your car? That’s something you may want to stop doing, if you’re trying to avoid chemicals.
MCT’s have numerous benefits that so I wouldn’t be quick to throw it under the bus! Straight from Mark Sisson over at Mark’s Daily Apple who provides links to the research that support his points. And he provides research to back up these claims.
marksdailyapple.com/paleo-primal-beer-and-liquid-coconut-oil/
“Coconut oils are liquidized by removing the long chain fatty acids and leaving the medium chain triglycerides. The removal process is entirely physical and uses no chemicals or solvents. No mutant fats are created, and the medium chain triglycerides remain intact and unaffected. This is similar to MCT oil, which is usually made from a combination of coconut and palm kernel oils. MCTs have a number of benefits:
They require less bile acid to digest, so people with impaired fat digestion can digest them more easily than longer-chained fats. MCTs actually increase the ability of a person to oxidize longer chained fats, too, making them especially useful for improving an impaired fat digestion (as well as burning body fat).
They are converted readily into ketones regardless of the carbohydrate content of the diet, so people on a ketogenic diet can use MCTs to generate ketone bodies without having to eliminate most of their plant foods. If you know someone – a grandparent, perhaps – who could probably use some ketones in their lives for the cognitive benefits, it’s a lot easier to slip some MCTs into their morning coffee than it is to get them to switch to a ketogenic diet.
They increase the metabolic rate, an effect that persists for about a week after ingestion.
They seem to have beneficial effects on lipid and metabolic profiles. For instance, in men with high triglycerides, MCT-feeding improves blood lipids and reduces abdominal and overall body fat, and in type 2 diabetics, MCTs improve insulin sensitivity.”