You Heart MCT Oil But Does MCT Oil Love Your Heart Back?

MCT Oil: the one in which we offer answers to the question: ‘MCT oil side effects and heart health - what’s the latest science news?’

If we are conscious of wellness, then we don’t ignore our heart.  Maybe we have chosen to embark on a weight management plan to move away from being overweight or obese, in which case we are offering our hearts a keystone to keep that ticker going.  Maybe we take MCT to utilise the benefits it offers to energy expenditure and satiation, in which case, the science supports these MCT oil and powders qualities.  If we have added C8 MCT oil into our diet, all the evidence suggests that we will be losing more weight than if we’d merely enriched our diet with good fats such as olive oil.  If we have added MCT into our world as a way of curbing cravings, then so far, so efficient.  

It’s easy to assume that saturated fats are called that because they must be saturated in, well you’d guess, fat.  And, the result, if we eat them, would be that we’d become saturated with fat, right?  They’d saturate our arteries and our heart would labour to beat blood through them because they’d be too narrow, caked, as they would surely be, in saturated fat plaque.  But, when it comes to the word ‘saturated’, all those thoughts might be misapprehensions. 

The only thing that saturated fats are saturated in is carbon atoms.  That sounds a little less frightening, right?  And, besides this, MCTs, despite being categorised as saturated fats, have physiological, physiochemical and nutritional properties different to long-chain fatty acids.  MCTs do not enter the lymphatic system but instead are transported from the gut through the hepatic portal vein to the liver where they produce ketones for energy.

But, if you are asking whether MCT oil is good for your heart, this is what we have to say on the matter.  For the last thirty years, we’ve been taught to be terrified of fat.  We might have decided to befriend some fats and trust them with our heart health - omega 3 and olive oil, for example, but, if we are new to the idea of taking MCT oil, and if we are a bit hazy on the role of fats in our health, then the idea of consuming saturated fats can strike fear into, ironically, our hearts.  

But knowledge about dietary fats has come a long way.  For example, it is now more popularly accepted that saturated fat in dairy products have a neutral effect, and even possible positive effects on our health [*].  This is why, at WillPowders, we love full fat milk, cheese, and Greek yoghurt.   Bring on those macro and micronutrients. We also love our grass-fed butter, but that is a story for another day.  One fundamental that makes us sleep easy when considering heart health and MCTs, which are saturated fats, is that MCTs are ‘known to have good physiological as well as functional characteristics which help in treating various health disorders’ [*].  Those health disorders include overweight and obesity, which has been a function of MCT oil since the 1950s.  It is also established knowledge that MCT oil does not lead to adverse metabolic profiles when compared to heart healthy olive oil [*].  Essentially, then, if you are happy to consume MCT oil because it has been used safely in the medical field, and this oil is generally recognised as safe, and because it has been studied for its weight loss properties and is comparable with olive oil, then you are good to go!

One key thing to remember when we look at studies into the effects of MCT on heart health is that humans cannot isolate MCTs as their sole fat source as this would lead to malnutrition.  This means that, ethically, it is not possible to explore how hearts are affected by MCT oils and powders solely, because subjects would have to be placed on an ‘MCT only’ diet and be measured for what happens to their cardiovascular health.  Those subjects would be malnourished before any MCT side effects and heart health could be studied.   

Diets rich in MCT oil are accompanied by a range of other fats in studies - because the range is essential to health.  For example, coconut oil has both MCTs and LCTs but to eat coconut oil and expect the same effects on the body as MCT would have alone is not possible - the tests have proven it and we explore this topic in Spot the Difference - the weight loss factors are lost.  You have to consume a refined C8 MCT Oil for those properties to be effective.  In essence, then, any measurement of human subjects has to look at the range of fats that they need to consume in order to get the macro- and micro- nutrients they need.  

1950 MCT oil is launched and is soon put to useful work controlling obesity as it:

• has high satiety and so prevents the overconsumption of food
• Increases fat oxidisation (which is when the body breaks down the fat to a form it can use as energy)
• Increases energy expenditure in healthy adults even when only a small amount, 2% of total food intake, is incorporated into the diet over three months 

1968 MCT oils are established as fats that do not enter the lymphatic system and so have very little chance of being stored in the form of adipose tissue (that’s what us mortals call body fat)

1999 the calorific value of MCT is established at 8.4 kcal/g, compared with that of long chain triglycerides which are 9.0 kcal/g.  This might not seem a lot, but it is considered significant enough by scientists to make them take note.  

1996 - 2021 MCTs are launched as exceptional sources of energy for various clinical nutrition like: 

• Malabsorption of fat 
• Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
• Obesity 
• Feeding straight into the bloodstream
• Control of epilepsy in adults and children when part of a ketogenic diet 
• And they are also used safely in infant formulations 

2002 MCT is considered a nutraceutical fat through the work of St. Onge and Jones [*] whose review of the scientific literature available up until this point led them to conclude that MCTs:

• increase energy expenditure
• may result in faster satiety
• and may facilitate weight control when included in the diet as a replacement for fats containing LCT

2008 St. Onge and Bubayan establish that MCT has no adverse effects on metabolism when compared with olive oil (which is considered to be heart healthy)

More recently MCT oil have been utilised as:

• an immediate energy source for sports persons and athletes 
• a fuel source for the elderly who have less ability or an inability to metabolise sugar
• Having the potential to increase psychological health by boosting memory

Potential future applications  :

• A recent study further on rats showed a diet rich in MCT can reduce anxiety and lead to improved social behaviour in rats (it may seem that rats get hangry too and MCT oil helped with that!)
• The possibility of MCT being antimicrobial and antibiotic