Dr. Jenna Zampiello
Metabolic Fun Fact: Saturated fats are good.
Medium chained triglycerides (MCTs) are one type of saturated fat naturally occurring in coconut oil, palm oil and butter. These fats are beneficial for your metabolism in many ways. MCTs are immediate energy and brain power, as they do not need to be metabolized by the liver to be used as fuel in the cells, therefore giving your cells instant fat-burning fire (aka thermogenesis and fat oxidation). While on any weight loss plan, it is important to keep your metabolism fat-burning (as opposed to fat-storing) as much as possible.
How do you get MCTs? Coconut oil contains about 15% MCTs, butter around 7%. Most "MCT oils" sold in stores are 100% MCTs containing a combination of coconut and palm kernal oil.
MCTs are easily added to any meal plan. They gained popularity when blended into morning coffee or drink for a mega brain boost. The oil itself is pretty tasteless and can drizzled onto any food or used in a base for salad dressing.
A great serving size of MCTs is about 1 tablespoon per a meal. You may need to start smaller though, as some may experience digestive upset in the beginning.
To read more, here is a great blog article by Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/2009/06/06/saturated-fat/