There are lots of good reasons to try and follow a healthier diet.

You lose weight, you feel good, but the main reason to live a longer, happy, productive

life.

Sounds good, right?

And though it may sound deceptively easy, the devil is in the details.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Back by popular demand, it's the Nutrition Facts Grab Bag with the latest news on a whole

variety of topics.

First up, a review of the evidence on the effects of coconut oil on weight loss and belly fat.

I was surprised to see in a popular infographic that there was promising evidence that coconut

oil could help with obesity?

Well, if you pump the stomachs of rats with purified medium-chain fatty acids, it's

one component of coconut oil.

They end up eating less food, but you don't know if there's any relevance to humans until

you put it to the test.

Researchers compared breakfast with the same amount of dairy fat, coconut oil fat, or

tallow beef fat, and no effect on hunger, fullness, satisfaction, or how much they then went

on to eat at lunchtime.

So where did this whole idea that coconut fat was somehow different come from?

Well, six years ago, an open label pilot study was published.

They asked 20 men and women to eat two tablespoons of coconut oil a day for a month.

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