 What the heck is MCT oil? Well, let's take a step back and talk about the various types of fats that are chains of carbon atoms that are all strung together and Believe it or not. There are short chain fatty acids There are Medium chain fatty acids that we generally categorize as medium chain triglycerides, but they are medium length chain fatty acids There are long chain fatty acids and as I've written about in unlocking the keto code There are extra long or ultra long chain fatty acids that we won't go into today Okay, short chain fatty acids you may know about because these are these remarkable compounds like butyrate like acetate like propionate that are really some of the most important signaling molecules in your body Next up in the line are medium chain fatty acids medium chain triglycerides Now these in general have anywhere from six carbon atoms to 12 carbon atoms in a chain and that makes them a medium length chain medium chain triglycerides are named after the Latin word for goat capra and So you have capric acid caprylic acid caprolic acid and so forth Why were they named after goats? Well fun fact goat and sheep Melcks about 30% of all the fats in goat and sheep milk are medium chain triglycerides Hence the name now you're not going to see C6 very often. Why? because C6 quite frankly smells Goaty and if you've ever been around goats like I have they have a Goaty smell that most people don't find very pleasant. So what you're normally going to find is C8 a lot of times you'll see C10 You won't see C12 very much now. Why coconut oil has all of these medium chain fatty acids But the vast majority of coconut oil is C12 lauric acid Unfortunately as we'll talk about in a minute lauric acid has no ketogenic effect In fact for ketogenic effect the best is C6, but you're not going to drink that C8 is next in line Which has the best ketogenic effect of the medium chain triglycerides C10 will not be as good And C12 will quite frankly have no ketogenic effect. So from the start Try to look for C8 or C8 and C10 medium chain triglycerides coconut oil is not Ketogenic, so please don't bother to say I'm on a ketogenic diet and all I use is coconut oil It's not going to do the trick now. What happens with? MCT oil so most of the time when you eat any fat these fats are broken down into these fatty acids and They're absorbed not directly through the wall of your gut, but most fats have to actually be Put into moving vans that are called Kylo microns, and I promise there won't be a test Kylo microns Literally float through the wall of the gut and they don't go into the bloodstream instead they go into the lymph system and they travel through lymph vessels along the back of your spine and Eventually coalesce into this big lymph vessel that drops all this fat you ate into Basically your superior vena cava the big vein that enters your heart from the top of your head and your chest So totally different than all the other fats that are absorbed and go direct to your liver Now what's unique about that is that MCT's go direct to your liver? They don't go on Kylo microns They don't go in your lymphatic system, and they go direct through the wall of your gut into your liver So what well there? Medium-chain triglycerides are Converted almost a hundred percent in your liver to ketone bodies or the infamous ketones Well, so what ketones have gotten a lot of hype a lot of press that they are Incredibly important fuel sources for your muscles for your brain for your body And I spent a good part of unlocking the keto code hopefully debunking that myth ketones are a lousy fuel source So why in the world would you want to make ketones? Well two reasons number one when you're on a ketogenic diet or a low carbohydrate diet or you're starving You don't make enough glucose to keep your brain happy and the brain loves glucose on the other hand you make plenty of What are called free fatty acids and your muscles are? Delighted to burn free fatty acids for fuel. They think it's great your heart by the way loves and prefers free fatty acids as a fuel Better than glucose, but unfortunately free fatty acids are too big to get through the blood-brain barrier Into your brain your brain would be happy to use them, but they just can't get through ketones on the other hand are Smaller molecules of fat that just happen to be able to get through the wall the blood-brain barrier and into your brain Where neurons can use them as an emergency fuel and They can keep your brain alive during these time periods, but When we started realizing that ketones aren't the miracle fuel that everybody thought they were we started looking well if they're not a miracle fuel, but they're really good for you. What do they do and ketones actually are signaling molecules That tell your mitochondria the little energy producing organelles in all of your cells that produce ATP that They need to protect themselves and to protect their energy making ability By this mechanism called mitochondrial uncoupling and I've written books about this I've talked about this and that's not the purpose of today's podcast It's the fact that ketones made directly from ingesting MCT are uncoupling devices to make your mitochondria better less damage and To actually tell mitochondria to make more of themselves a concept called mitogenesis So how does ketones work in the brain? Well, the ketogenic diet was actually developed to treat children with epilepsy Back in the 1930s almost a hundred years ago now and it's very effective in fact There was a paper this week just published looking at the effectiveness of a ketogenic a diet in drug-resistant epilepsy in children and Low and behold even to this day the ketogenic diet in kids held up extremely well in these kids versus multi-dose pharmaceutical drugs Why does it work? We think now that it improves the mitochondrial function of the neurons by uncoupling mitochondria in the brain and so that's the benefit of Getting ketones now we will make ketones if we starve ourselves to death if we exercise Incredibly vigorously to exhaustion or we if we dramatically limit carbohydrates and proteins and instead just eat a lot of fat in fact the original ketogenic diet was an 80% fat diet and That for multiple reasons is not good for you And I again spent a book explaining why that's not a good idea, but Generating ketones without the suffering is a really good idea for the reasons we just went through so the cool thing about medium-chain triglycerides are That when you swallow them They will be absorbed go directly to your liver and regardless of what else you're eating Will generate ketones that will signal your mitochondria to Uncouple and as a consequence Waste fuel you literally will do a caloric bypass now is MCT oil good for people not on a ketogenic diet Well quite frankly if repairing your mitochondria making your mitochondria healthier and Building more mitochondria seems like a good idea and I can assure you it's a really good idea Then MCT oil is worth our interest. There are really good studies looking comparing MCT oil versus olive oil for weight loss a columbia university study did exactly like that and People were divided into the oil they got they either got olive oil or MCT oil and Olive oil is actually good for weight loss in its own but the people who got MCT oil had a Much greater weight loss during the study period than the folks getting olive oil So MCT oil does work by literally doing a caloric bypass now Can it work alongside of a ketogenic diet? Well sure Anytime you can generate more ketones the better up to a point and I won't belabor that point now mitochondrial on coupling is what you're trying to achieve By ingesting medium chain triglyceride because you want to generate ketones and I joke that you could actually Eat a big fruit smoothie and in just a tablespoon of MCT oil and You will generate ketones even though you ate just a giant load of carbohydrates And that's one of the real I think beauties of adding MCTs to a regimen for particularly long-term health and weight loss the more Stimulation from ketones the more you tell your mitochondria to protect themselves repair themselves And the more you tell them to make more of themselves to literally carry the workload now I got interested in coconut by studying the katavans, which you've heard me talk a lot about They're a ancient tribe in Pepe New Guinea Who subsist on eating a lot of coconuts they eat tubers? They don't drink coconut oil, but they have incredible longevity Despite the fact or because they are heavy heavy smokers And interestingly enough, there's never been a ketaban Found with coronary artery disease or a stroke or get this cancer Even though they're heavy smokers. So they're getting their MCTs by eating the coconuts that are Profuse on that island. So how do you use MCT oil? Well, first of all a few provisos in general Women are far more sensitive to the side effects of MCT oil than men a number of women Get an upset stomach get a queasy stomach get nauseated Get loose bowel movements even with small amounts of MCT oil So the first word to the wise is start slow try a teaspoon of MCT oil a day and see how you do It's flavorless. It's odorless You can mix it in your salad dressing. You can pour it on your vegetables You can put it in your coffee like a bulletproof coffee. Just start there If that's too much I found with my female patients that the MCT powders have less of an adverse effect There are a number of MCT powders on the market. There are MCT creamers that I Happened to make at Gundry MD. So this is another particularly if you're a female another way of trying out MCTs Preferably, I'd like to get you up to about a tablespoon Three times a day now some of you will never make that much But in those cases where you can MCT oil again is easy to get into your diet particularly in salad dressings or on vegetables or In a cup of coffee. So that's the way to work up to it. Is there a preferred time for fat loss? No, remember Anytime you start generating ketones You will actually do a caloric bypass on your mitochondria So if you're into intermittent fasting Then you probably don't need that extra boost of ketones in the morning because you'd be making ketones anyhow But if you're new to intermittent fasting as you've read or heard me talk about You won't make a ketones for multiple days And you will fall flat on your face trying intermittent fasting meal skipping skipping breakfast and there a Tablespoon of MCT oil Maybe just what you need to get you through that period until you start making your own ketones So it's a great way to supplement. How do you find high quality MCT oil? Read the label Look for C8 at worst look for a combo of C8 and C10 Don't just buy something that says MCT oil because for the most part you're going to get coconut oil with C12 and It has no ketogenic effect. It's just bad calories Now speaking of coconut oil as you know, I treat a lot of patients with the apo E4 G and For those of you who need reminding The apo E4 mutation affects up to 30% of Americans. It's sometimes called the Alzheimer's gene So saturated fats in general and coconut oil specifically I ban from my apo E4 patients, but MCT oil even though a lot of it is derived from coconut oil has none of the downside of coconut oil because these are much shorter chain fats and they're absorbed in an entirely different mechanism and they make ketones and My good friend Dale Bredesen who wrote the end of Alzheimer's will tell you that ketones are one of the most important Protective agents in your brain if you carry the apo E4 G So by all means I tell my apo E4 patients to please add MCT oil to their program a lot of people say but dr. G I thought the purpose of food was to get more olive oil in your mouth not MCTs. Well, that's true Olive oil has a huge amount of polyphenols that directly benefit your health in Different ways than MCT oil and the benefit of polyphenols as you now know is Also to help uncouple your mitochondria. So why not get a one-two punch? Mix some MCT oil in with your olive oil, but again the proviso Please start slow with MCT oil. Do not overdo it I have seen so many people particularly my female patients dive in wholeheartedly only to suffer the consequences and then they're scared of ever introducing MCT oil please believe me start slow start with an MCT powder and Usually you can build up a tolerance More amazing episodes just like this one watch now You should know that most detoxing diets are actually causing or releasing Toxicity into the body say what how could a detox diet? Toxify you