Coconut Oil: A Once-Maligned Fat Making a Well-Deserved Comeback For decades, coconut oil was unjustly maligned—pushed aside by poorly designed, misleading studies that lumped all saturated fats together and paved the way for widespread use of industrial seed oils like soybean oil. In hindsight, this shift has proven disastrous, contributing to an epidemic of metabolic dysfunction, inflammation, and chronic disease. As awareness grows around the health consequences of refined vegetable oils, coconut oil is reemerging as what it has always been: a stable, traditional fat with unique metabolic and antimicrobial properties that support energy, immune function, and overall health. A Fat with a Long History of Safe Use Coconut oil has been used safely for thousands of years, particularly in tropical cultures where it remains a dietary staple. These populations—despite consuming large amounts of saturated fat from coconut—historically show low rates of heart disease, cancer…