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Nutrition

MCT Oil Benefits – 6 [Best] Benefits, Uses and Effects

MCT Oil is not just a weight loss aid, but it’s more than this. It is a cognitive booster to some degree, but let’s find out what is really is.

A Guide to MCT Oil Benefits, Chemistry Dosage, and MCT Oil Side Effects

Use of herbal oil offers various health benefits; weight loss is one of them for which now people pour MCT Oil into their morning coffee.

There are questions about how MCT helps in weight loss, but most importantly people have been asking about the exact basis of MCT Oil.

Then comes the side effects of its excessive use, which we are going to discuss below.

MCT Oil is not just a weight loss aid, but it’s more than this. It is a cognitive booster to some degree, but let’s find out what is really is.

What is MCT Oil?

MCT Oil

MCT Oil is named after its composition which is Medium-Chain Triglycerides, a form of fatty acid that is found in many herbal sources.

The massive sources for commercial extraction of MCT Oil are mainly Palm Kernel Oil or Coconut Oil.

There is a very interesting fact about MCT Oil is its carbon-containing tail, all fatty acid in our body are like a giant molecule with a bigger tail.

The bigger tail, the more inflammatory effects will take place.

MCT Oil has a medium length carbon tail that is generally not harmful, but more like beneficial in many situations.

How to Determine the Best MCT Oil?

MCT Oil is classified into 4 different types and they are based on their carbon chain length.

  1. Caproic Acid is a saturated medium chain fatty acid with 6 carbon backbone.
  2. Caprylic Acid is an 8 chain long saturated fatty acid that is also known as octanoic acid.
  3. Capric Acid has 10 carbon backbone.
  4. Lauric Acid contains 12 carbon chain, and it’s the MCT Oil with the longest tail

MCT plays a sudden, but important role in ketosis, some of the carbon chains of MCT Oil turns into fat burning ketone bodies that cut down the fat more efficiently.

When your body enters into ketosis which only happens if it’s getting deficient of carbohydrates, it automatically switches to fat burn located at the critical part of your body.

These ketone bodies can also be found exogenously in a form of some well-known ketone supplements.

Caprylic Acid a.k.a C8 is one of the best MCT Oil in terms of ketogenic nature, it easily passes through the digestive system where it is directly metabolized by the liver and then turned into ketone bodies.

MCT Oil that you found made synthetically have 4 types of Oils while coconut oil mainly contains C12 Capric acid.

C8 or Octane oil is a brain stimulator and it’s 4 times more powerful than coconut oil in terms of producing ketone bodies.

Your body upon losing weight needs some help from the brain-boosting ingredients that keeps you sane, C8 MCT does the same thing to your body.

Benefits of MCT Oil

Scientifically conceived, MCT Oil delivers unique benefits to the human body, these are:

1) MCT Oil For Weight Loss

MCT Oil is beneficial to those men and women who are trying to lose weight.

MCT Oil is clinically tested in humans where it shows remarkable stimulation of two main hormones that suppress the appetite and induce the feelings of satiety.

These hormones are leptin and peptide YY.

2) It Helps Performance Via Ketosis

When you perform a strenuous workout, your body muscles build up lactate which poses negative impacts on your body.

MCT Oil dissolves the lactate and induces ketosis which allows your body to burn more fat and get an immense amount of energy.

3) MCT Oil for Brain Booster

MCT Oil crosses the BBB (Blood Brain Barrier) which upon absorption cause a dramatic energy upsurge in your brain cells.

This can improve your cognitive functions and use fat energy to fuel the brain.,

4) For Antimicrobial & Antifungal

It’s true that MCT Oil is the powerful fatty acid that prevents the growth of bacteria or yeast that causes severe skin infections.

MCT in many hospital causes suppressed the growth of fungus of about 50%.

5) Treats Brain Disorder

MCT Oil empowers the brain cells by making their connections stronger with the other neurons.

This can prevent so many brain-related disorders, MCT is known to treat the symptoms of

  • Epilepsy
  • Alzheimer disease
  • Autism
  • Manage Sugar Level and Diabetes

In a Chinese study, about 40 males were taken who were given MCT Oil after which the group experienced weight loss within a period of 4 weeks.

The results also showed their sugar levels were optimum and chances of type 2 diabetes were reduced to 60%.

6) MCT Oil for Cardiovascular Diseases

MCT Oil shows remarkable anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertensive nature which makes it a cardioprotective agent.

This will also allow users to manage their weight, especially those who are suffering from Atherosclerosis.

Side Effects by MCT Oil

MCT Oil is although the natural element, but it can be tricky to handle at times.

For instance, its use can induce the process of laxation (enhancement of bowel movements) in some individuals after which they had to experience a brutal form of diarrhea.

bulletproof mct oil

This also depends on the product’s quality that binds to your bowel for a prolonged period.

In high doses, MCT Oil can cause fat buildup in the liver area which is not a good sign. For this, users need to take low or medium doses.

MCT Oil Dosage – How to Use MCT Oil?

The good part about MCT Oil is how to using it, user can have so many options when it comes to using MCT.

It is generally odorless and tasteless oil that is in liquid form and can be added in your milkshakes or coffee.

Click Here to watch, How you can make Bulletproof coffee with MCT oil.

You can also use it as a dressing purpose in a bowl of salad dressing or pour it on your food.

Find MCT Oil recipes online if you got time, they can be potentially beneficial in reducing the fat percentage of your body.

The normal dosage is one tablespoon which is about 15 ml per day.

Guide to Use MCT Oil with Keto Diet

You don’t need much of the ketone-containing food material when you are using MCT Oil keto in your diet.

mct oil keto

Just stop taking carbs and you will notice a few good changes in some days, which would be a thinner waistline and fewer cravings for the carb.

The ketone ratio in MCT Oil is higher than what it’s found naturally in the human body.

Adding it regularly into the coffee or salad can help you burn more fats and reignite your muscle with intense energy.

Appetite suppression is the common effect of MCT Oil but at the same time, it also raises the level of appetite-boosting hormone if worked as a laxative.

Does MCT Oil Keto Products Work?

Depends on what you are taking them for?

There are supplements that contain most of the C8 MCT Oil which works as an excellent brain booster.

Also, some weight loss supplements contain MCT are beneficial unless they are using the material from legitimate sources.

It is not always wise to trust the diet pills with MCT Oil or MCT Oil keto because most of them do not work.

Conclusion

Here is what we learned so far:

  • MCT Oil is an acronym for Medium Chain Triglycerides.
  • It is officially extracted from palm or coconut oil.
  • There are four types of MCT Oil, C6, C8, C10 and C12.
  • Coconut oil has mostly C12
  • C8 alone accelerates the process of ketosis 4x better than coconut oil
  • Side effects include mild diarrhea
  • MCT Oil dosage is 12-15 ml (1 tablespoon) every day

References:

  1. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mct-oil-benefits
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5805166/
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18326600
  4. https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-915/medium-chain-triglycerides-mcts
  5. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/food-features/coconut-oil/
  6. https://med.virginia.edu/ginutrition/wp-content/uploads/sites/199/2014/06/Parrish-February-17.pdf
  7. https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/132/3/329/4687297
  8. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320251.php

By Jason R. Karp, Ph.D.

Jason is a certified trainer and a professional nutrition expert. He is currently pursuing towards Ph.D. in homeopathic medicines in the University of Florida. He is a fitness geek who has been using and observing several legal supplements for bodybuilding. He likes to discuss his review of fitness supplements with his audience.