Abstract
The consumption of coconut milk has long been regarded as detrimental to cardiovascular health due to its high saturated fatty acid content. Contradictorily, emerging evidences have highlighted that the fatty acids in coconut lipids, which comprise mostly of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA), may be beneficial to the regulation of serum cholesterol. To identify the potential health effect of coconut milk on lipid metabolism, this current study employed an intragastric gavage method on C57BL/6 mice to investigate the physiological and molecular alteration in the mice subject after 8 weeks of gavage intervention. The supplementation of coconut milk did not affect the levels of serum triglyceride, but it induced the total serum cholesterol after 2 weeks of treatment. The serum cholesterol level subsequently plateaued, but an increase in bile acid excretion was observed, most likely through the modulation of bile regulating genes, i.e. farnesoid X receptor (Fxr) and Cyp7a1. Despite that, the total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol ratio of coconut milk group was comparable to that of the light cream group. In short, coconut milk supplementation promoted cholesterol excretion through the fecal bile route but did not significantly improve the serum cholesterol profile of C57BL/6 mice.
Highlights
Coconut products are consumed as staple food in many countries in the tropical region (Foale, 2003)
This study was aimed to investigate the molecular relationship between coconut milk, bile excretion, and serum cholesterol using an in vivo model system, C57BL/6 mice
Our results show that mice supplemented with coconut milk exhibited the highest fecal bile content as compared to control and light-creamsupplemented mice
Summary
Coconut products are consumed as staple food in many countries in the tropical region (Foale, 2003). The number of cases associated with vascular diseases were sparse in populations that consume traditional diet containing little to no processed foods (Lipoeto et al, 2004; Amarasiri and Dissanayake, 2006; DiBello et al, 2009). These researchers questioned if the causative role of coconut fat in the pathology of cardiovascular disease had been biased perceived. Such results should be interpreted cautiously since diet may not be the sole contributor to vascular disease. Coconut fat may not be the only reason that the native populations are in good health as there are other nutrients in the native’s diet. Eyres et al (2016) raised concern against the consumption of coconut fat together with lipid-laden Western-styled diet
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