Going coconuts

INCREASINGLY seen as a “superfood” because of its positive effects on health, coconut oil could potentially help solve the global problems of high blood pressure and calories. 

Besides speeding up fat loss and improving brain function, recent studies highlight the other health benefits of coconut oil. One research reveals the “superfood” can be used to lower oxidative stress and subsequently reduce blood pressure. When added to rice, coconut oil can boost the rice’s resistance to starch and help lower calorie consumption.

Lower blood pressure with combination coconut oil & exercise

Findings of a recent study by the Biotechnology Center of the Federal University of Paraiba in Brazil and  published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism indicated a daily intake of coconut oil combined with regular exercise could slow weight gain and lower blood pressure.

The researchers studied the effects of daily coconut oil intake and exercise training in restoring baroreflex sensitivity and reducing oxidative stress to push down blood pressure. Experiments on spontaneously hypertensive rats for five weeks revealed rats given coconut oil and exercise training experienced lower weight gain compared to rats given only saline and not exposed to the exercise training protocol.

While it is known that coconut oil supplementation or exercise training could lower blood pressure, only a combination of coconut oil and exercise training was successful in bringing blood pressure back to normotensive value (normal). This reduction in blood pressure is linked to improvement of the reduced baroreflex sensitivity and a decrease in oxidative stress in the serum, heart, and aorta.

According to Dr Valdir de Andrade Braga, co-author of the study, “This is an important finding as coconut oil is currently being considered a popular ‘superfood’ and it is being consumed by athletes and the general population who seek a healthy lifestyle.”

Dr Braga said the possibility of using coconut oil as an adjuvant to treat hypertension adds to the long list of benefits associated with its consumption.

“Our next step is to start some clinical trials in order to verify whether we can reproduce those findings in hypertensive human patients,” Dr. Braga further stated.

Rice cooked with coconut oil could lower calories

Still another benefit from coconut oil involves a new approach to cooking rice, which is seen as a potential way of reducing calorie intake by more than half.

A study on rice resistant starch (RS) presented at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) involved experiments on 38 kinds of rice from Sri Lanka. The team of scientists developed a new way of cooking rice that boosts the RS content by 10 times compared with traditional, non-fortified rice.  

This new method involves the addition of a teaspoon of coconut oil to boiling water, after which a half cup of rice is added. The rice is simmered for 40 minutes, although boiling it for 20 to 25 minutes is also allowed. The rice is then refrigerated for 12 hours.

In this new way of cooking rice, the oil enters the starch granules during cooking. According to team leader Sudhair A. James, who is at the College of Chemical Sciences, Colombo, Western, Sri Lanka, this changes the architecture of the rice, making it resistant to the action of digestive enzymes.

“The cooling is essential because amylose, the soluble part of the starch, leaves the granules during gelatinisation. Cooling for 12 hours will lead to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the amylose molecules outside the rice grains, and also turns it into a resistant starch,” Mr James added.

Reheating the rice for consumption does not affect the RS levels, he said.

The study, which also received funding from the College of Chemical Sciences, Industrial Technology Institute, Sri Lanka, hopes to help address concerns related to rising overweight and obesity rates. Diet changes stemming from lifestyle changes and people becoming more sedentary are resulting in bigger serving sizes and broader food options. Besides greater fat and sugar consumption, people may choose to fill up on starchy carbohydrates such as rice, which has about 240 calories per cup.

Mr James said their team wanted to find food-based solutions to the growing health problem of obesity, particularly in many developing countries.

“We discovered that increasing rice resistant starch (RS) concentrations was a novel way to approach the problem,” he stated.

Rice contains starch at 1.6 ounces in a cup, according to Mr James. Starch can be digestible or indigestible. RS, unlike the digestible type, is not broken down in the small intestine, where carbohydrates are metabolised into glucose and other simple sugars and absorbed into the bloodstream.

He said, “After your body converts carbohydrates into glucose, any leftover fuel gets converted into a polysaccharide carbohydrate called glycogen. Your liver and muscles store glycogen for energy and quickly turn it back into glucose as needed. The issue is that the excess glucose that doesn’t get converted to glycogen ends up turning into fat, which can lead to excessive weight or obesity.”

The researchers think that if they could transform digestible starch into RS, it could reduce the number of usable calories in rice. By using a specific heating and cooking regimen, the scientists concluded that “if the best rice variety is processed, it might reduce the calories by about 50% to 60%.”

The next step for the scientists is to complete studies with human subjects to identify the rice varieties that are best suited to the calorie-reduction process. The researchers will also look into other oils to study if they have similar effect besides coconut oil.