Lauric acid – healthy fatty acid from the coconut

Have you ever stumbled across lauric acid while researching MCT oils or coconut oil? We explain you briefly and crisply what you should know about it!

Lauric acid is a fatty acid. The name is derived from laurel (Latin: laurus nobilis) because the oil of its fruits has high amounts of lauric acid.

If you talk about lauric acid, there is one thing you can least avoid: coconut oil. There it makes up about half of the fatty acids (up to 53%)! They are also found naturally in palm kernel oil (up to 50%) and around 5% have also been detected in breast milk.

Lauric acid is a true multi-talent! Lauric acid brings the following positive features when ingested or applied:

Some say “yes,” others say “no.” We say “yes.” It is often claimed that lauric acid, with 12 carbon atoms, is too large to be a “true” MCT. However, it is certain to have many of the beneficial properties also attributed to the slightly shorter fatty acids:

• they help to lose weight because they make it difficult for the body to store fat
• they cause fast and long-lasting saturation due to the formation of ketone bodies
• they increase energy consumption

How lauric acid is digested in our body cannot be clearly said. Studies suggest that it largely goes the way of the “classic” medium-chain fatty acids. This route is uncomplicated and fast. However, to a somewhat lesser extent, it can also take the complicated and long digestive route of long-chain fatty acids. The decisive factor here is the fat composition of the food consumed. Thus, the decision whether uncomplicated and fast or elaborate and slow, can be different for each meal.

You may have heard that there are different sizes of fatty acids: short, medium, and long chain. They differ in the number of carbon atoms (C) – the more they have, the longer they are. You can think of it as threading beads onto a necklace: The more beads (carbon atoms) you thread onto it, the longer the chain becomes. With 12 carbon atoms, lauric acid just barely belongs to the group of medium-chain fatty acids. This type is called MCFA(middle chain fatty acid). If it had one carbon more, it would already be called long-chain. One fatty acid rarely comes alone – they usually travel in a pack of 3 and are held together by a molecule (glycerol). If all three fatty acids in this 3-pack are medium-chain, a so-called medium-chain triglyceride, often called MCT(middle chain triglyceride), is formed. (Ha! MCT! Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? You can also buy MCTs in the form of MCT oils. Here, however, the amounts of fats with 12 carbon atoms are usually relatively small).

The reason for the good properties of medium-chain fatty acids lies in digestion: the longer the “string of pearls” is, the more difficult it is to get through our body. Therefore, the long chains also need some help with this (e.g. from bile acids or carnitine). Digestion is thus laborious and takes a relatively long time. Medium-chain fats, on the other hand, need little help. They are digested more quickly and easily and can thus better stimulate ketone body production. As mentioned earlier, lauric acid largely takes the faster digestive route that all other medium-chain fatty acids do. However, it can also take the route where it relies on bile acid and co.