bulletproof.com claims that Coconut Oil and other MCT oils contain a large percentage of Lauric Acid, which it claims acts in the body like a LCT despite that chemists classify it as an MCT.
Of course, they sell two alternatives: one containing only Caprylic Acid and the other containing that plus Capric Acid.
Is their claim justified? Does Lauric Acid really behave like an LCT? Is it worth buying their distilled oil options?
Not an expert but sounds like marketing BS, of course they will say theirs is better. A quick search to confirm or deny says that Lauric acid is found in large quantities in coconut milk, coconut oil, human breast milk, cow and goat milk. Sounds good, not a lot of other info though but there is a study linked.
Lauric acid greatly increased total cholesterol, but much of its effect was on HDL cholesterol.
I would have to see something pretty substantial to make me think this is anything more than a marketing claim, where is there evidence that it acts like an LCT, and more importantly why do they think that matters. I understand about the absorption but if it has “many properties of medium chain fatty acids” then what are the specific characteristics that are not MCT-like that have a detrimental effect on our body? I can’t find anything close to that.
I am not an apologist for them, but their claim is not that it is harmful, but merely that it doesn’t provide the quick energy that shorter MCTs produce. Actually they write about the benefits of Lauric Acid. The specific characteristic claimed is that it does not get converted directly into ketones like shorted MCTs but rather goes through the longer multi-step process that LCTs go through to get converted into usable energy.