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I am currently consuming a high calorie diet to keep up with my activities and never much bothered to track my daily food intake until yesterday. First thing I noticed is that I am consuming a total of 130-150 grams of saturated fat most of it coming from coconut oil. I can't handle dairy much so I rely on coconut oil to get the bulk of my fat intake. Is there any potential problems with a diet solely based on coconut and as saturated as mine is?

Don't get me wrong, I know how good saturated fat is but is there a limit. Browsing on various paleo/primal forums has brought me to the realization that what many consider a high saturated fat intake usually contains only about 70-80 grams of saturated fat.

Would I be better off sourcing my fat intake from something like suet, or could I potentially stick with coconut oil with no undesirable effects?

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Well, I eat around 3500 calories a day. At 60-70% fat that's 2100-2450 calories from fat. Most of that is from eggs, butter, meat, and coconut. So I'm probably getting 100-150g from saturated just like you. I am not the slightest bit worried about it.

I think there are plenty of people here on paleohacks who do very much the same.

Why do I not worry? I have never seen any convincing evidence that there's anything wrong with it. And since it is not all that far off from presumed paleolithic standards (I still use that word and that concept, when appropriate) I assume that my body is constructed in such a way to handle it.

Yes, ruminant meat is generally about half monounsaturated and half saturated, and we are skewing that somewhat with heavy butter consumption -- and the short-chain saturated fat in coconut (12 carbons or fewer, basically; sometimes people say medium sometimes people say short) is a different thing altogether. But I'm still not worried.

For some classic Paleohacks-style discussion on the topic, see this thread.

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Wow that is very reassuring. I thought I was the only one who consumed that much saturated fat, because no one else seems to, at least no one I know hahah. – rob Feb 20 2011 at 23:32
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 Here are the two biggest arguments for and against this higher level of saturated fat, that I can tell. For: The latest meta-analyses (Siri-Tiriano, 2010) showed no different in CVD risk between high saturated fat and low saturated fat intake. Easily explicable by the paleo rationale of LDL as simply a marker not a causative agent. Against: Modern day paleos who are zero or low carb may eat substantially higher levels of saturated fat than our ancestors. Saturated fat still downregulates the LDL receptor. This is no big deal unless you have excess inflammation. But what if you do? Bum bum bum – Kamal♦ Feb 20 2011 at 23:46
....so saturated fat in the absence of inflammation is healthy but could be potentially dangerous if inflamed....aw crap hopefully my inflammation levels are low. I do follow a pretty anti-inflammatory diet, so I am hoping for the best. – rob Feb 21 2011 at 0:28
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 I guess I'm with Kamal more or less. I upvoted his comment after all. But look, I have a thread for everything: paleohacks.com/questions/10307/… If you're eating more saturated then you're probably (hopefully) eating less polyunsaturated. But of course grains and other things are still an issue. – Paul Feb 21 2011 at 1:09
Excellent recall! You should take on Watson. – Kamal♦ Feb 21 2011 at 1:33
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you can live off the saturated fats of coconut as any tribe in the pacific has.....but if your able to move between fat sources you should if can but it is NOT a must. Personally I use mostly coconut, pastured butter, Ghee, bacon fat, Palm Oil, and the "cold oil" are EVVO and Macademia nut oil......I also think before you start you should get base labs to see how bad your cell membranes are. I usually get omega six/three indexes on patients with Vit D and Cardiac CRP levels to baseline assess how much and how rapid the change in the diet should be. I have also found that weight loss become fastest when your eating a ton of omega threes, no fructose and your leaky gut is completely treated.

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Do Pacific Islanders live off coconut fat? I would figure they'd be eating loads of fish, crustaceans, sea turtles and turtle eggs, sea bird eggs, seals, whatever small mammal critters they brought over to the island with them, etc. Which is to say my hypothesis would be that they have a much more varied fat profile than just coconut fats. While I realize we're addressing sat fats specifically, everything I listed would be available on most islands and have sat fats. Fresh fish, turtle eggs and coconut sounds like good eats to me. – RG73 Feb 20 2011 at 17:34
Thanks Dr.K for the info, sadly I am doing this diet untested because of lack of health insurance. Also weight loss is the last thing I want, I am in need of putting on a couple pounds. – rob Feb 20 2011 at 17:34
if you want to put weight on......eat whey. It causes huge insulin spikes and that is how one puts it on fast. If your looking for muscle weight you need to first make sure your leptin sensitive. If you are then your muscles can be built fast with whey, protein, raw milk – The Quilt Feb 21 2011 at 5:55
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There's no reason to worry about that level of saturated fat intake. It will make your large LDL particles (harmless) increase, your HDL will increase to around 100 I would guess (good) and you will just have a low amount of appetite and probably feel fine. I'm allergic to all nuts, which somehow includes coconuts, but if I could I would eat tons of it as you do.

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 coconut and macademia are the only nuts worthwhile nutritionally. Cases can be made for others until you look at the PUFA content. Then you realize the risk. – The Quilt Feb 21 2011 at 5:57

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