A recent study measured the effect of high-fat diets, fed for more than three months to the neonatal pig, on the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme's function and gave some surprises. There were two feeding protocols: one with the added cholesterol and one without added cholesterol, but both with coconut oil. The hepatic reductase activity, which was the same in all groups at the beginning of the feeding on the third day and similar on the 42nd day, was increased with and without added cholesterol on the 13th day and then decreased on the 25th day. The data was said to suggest that dietary cholesterol suppressed hepatic reductase activity in the young pigs regardless of their genetic background, that the stage of development was a dominant factor in its regulation, and that both dietary and endogenously synthesized cholesterol was used primarily for tissue building in very young pigs. (McWhinney et al 1996) The feeding of coconut oil did not in any way compromise the normal development of these animals.

When compared with feeding coconut oil, feeding two different soybean oils to young females caused a significant decrease in HDL cholesterol. Both soybean oils, one of which was extracted from a new mutant soybean thought to be more oxidatively stable, were not protective of the HDL levels (Lu Z et al 1997).

Trautwein et al (1997) studied cholesterol-fed hamsters on different oil supplements for plasma, hepatic, and biliary lipids. The dietary oils included butter, palm stearin, coconut oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil, and sunflowerseed oil. Plasma cholesterol concentrations were higher (9.2 mmol/l) for olive oil than for coconut oil (8.5 mmol/l), hepatic cholesterol was highest in the olive oil group, and none of the diet groups differed for biliary lipids. Even in this cholesterol-sensitive animal model, coconut oil performed better than olive oil.

Smit and colleagues (1994) had also studied the effect of feeding coconut oil compared with feeding corn oil and olive oil in rats and measured the effect on biliary cholesterol. Bile flow was not different between the three diets, but the hepatic plasma membranes showed more cholesterol and less phospholipid from corn and olive oil feeding relative to coconut oil feeding.

Several studies (Kramer et al 1998) have pointed out problems with canola oil feeding in newborn piglets, which result in the reduction in number of platelets and the alteration in their size. There is concern for similar effects in human infants. These undesirable effects can be reversed when coconut oil or other saturated fat is added to the feeding regimen (Kramer et al 1998).