This Doctor Says Olive & Coconut Oil Are Bad For You. Here's Why

Rates of obesity are on the rise in the United States and estimates1 are that over 40 percent of adults and 20 percent of children meet this definition. From a medical perspective, the concern is that obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, dementia, cancer, arthritis, and blood clots. At least part of the problem is that we eat too many calories as a nation. It is estimated that the average intake of daily calories rose by 23 percent from 1970 to 2010. An increasing source of those calories is coming from fats and oils, also up compared to 1970. Most of those calories are from vegetable oils like soybean, corn, and canola but also include calories from olive and coconut oils. While there are no new data on U.S. consumption since 2010, we do know that butter consumption is up 14 percent due to the "Butter is back" movement, adding more fats to our daily intake. In my functional medicine practice I discuss nutrition at length with patients, and the topic of whether oils are healthy or not comes up during every visit. Here are the points I review with my patients (and talk about in more depth in my book, The Plant-Based Solution: America’s Healthy Heart Doc’s Plan to Power Your Health).

I teach patients that the American Heart Association recommends that to prevent or halt heart disease, total dietary fat intake should be less than 35 percent of our daily caloric intake, and saturated fats found mainly in animal products such as meat, eggs, dairy, and tropical oils like coconut should account for less than 7 percent of our daily calories. If oils are to be used in cooking, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated vegetable sources are recommended.

Diets rich in colored vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains with adequate calories provide sufficient essential fats. Fatty fish like salmon and sardines serve as a middleman by eating algae and storing these fats, along with persistent organic pollutants and mercury, in their fat stores. The monounsaturated fats found in olive oil and the fats found in vegetable oils including coconut oil are not essential to health.

Olive oil is not a rich source of the essential fats we must have for health. My patients are usually shocked when I tell them that they would have to eat almost 2,000 calories a day of olive oil to meet their daily omega-3 requirements. Olive oil contains active chemicals called polyphenols, which may be good for health but there are many better sources. For example, 10 blueberries will give 10 calories and zero fat and as many polyphenols3 as 1 teaspoon of olive oil with 120 calories and 13 grams of fat.

I always recommend the Mediterranean diet as a healthy substitute for the standard Western diet, which is overloaded with processed calories and excess refined sugar, salt, and vegetable oils. My patients are usually shocked, however, when I instruct them that the Mediterranean diet may be healthy despite the olive oil—not because of it. The classic diet found in Southern Italy described by Ancel Keys, Ph.D., is low in red meat and dairy, includes fish when available, and is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and wine. While data from the Harvard School of Public Health indicates that olive oil is clearly a healthier choice for heart outcomes than butter and lard, there is concerning data about olive oil and arteries. When cardiologist Robert Vogel, M.D., and co-workers at the University of Maryland investigated4 the effect of olive oil on artery function, they found that it reduced blood flow in vessels by a whopping 31 percent. I do not want my patients to suffer from this drop in blood flow.

But can you eat too much avocado? Functional doctors weigh in.