THE Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has requested the Bureau of Agricultural and Fishery Products Standards (BAFPS) to allow producers of virgin coconut oil (VCO) to remove the phrase “no therapeutic claim” from the PCA certified VCO products.
PCA Administrator Euclides G. Forbes said that the producers can indicate in the label “increase good cholesterol – HPL” on bottles of VCO once the necessary change in the Philippine National Standards (PNS) of VCO has been facilitated and a subsequent approval by the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This will help boost and promote the local and export market for VCO, he added.
Heart disease prevention may begin with consuming a good quality and quantity of medium chain saturated fats such as the virgin coconut oil (VCO). Results of the study commissioned by PCA and announced by former Health Secretary Jaime Galvez Tan, showed that VCO is safe for human consumption. Secondly, VCO intake significantly increases the High Density Lipoprotein (HDL or good cholesterol), thus balancing the cholesterol level. This makes the taker less prone to heart attack and stroke.
Dr. Christina Binag of the UST Research Center for Natural and Applied Sciences and the research team leader said that during the four-month long study, they made 110 participants take three (3) tablespoons of VCO every day while 79 participants took placebo drug similar to VCO. With or without, only one risk factor of hypertension but controlled and no other clinically significant abnormalities was present.
The team reported four most common positive experiences and they were regular bowel movement, increase appetite and stamina, better sleep and lose/gain weight. “It was interesting to note that an average of 13% of the VCO takers experienced becoming sexually active in the whole duration of their participants in the VCO study,” the team added.
On the other hand, negative side effects experienced by the participants in VCO group were soft bowel, stomach ache, sweating and nausea.
This is the largest clinical study made on VCO which seeks to give scientific bases to all the testimonies and claims on the effect of VCO in the level of total cholesterol, in human beings.
“We only hear anecdotes of its benefits before, but now it’s the scientists and doctors who have confirmed it,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said.