Medium chain triglyceride (MCT) is an important biochemical substance which is made up of three molecules of fatty acids and one molecule of glycerol. Fatty acid is basically a lipid molecule that contains a hydrocarbon chain and a carboxylic group at its end. Depending on the length of hydrocarbon, fatty acid is categorised into short chain fatty acid that contains less than 6 carbons, medium chain fatty acid contains 6 to 12 carbons and long chain fatty acid contains 13 to 21 carbons and very long chain fatty acid that contains more than 21 carbons in their hydrocarbon chain. The triglyceride which is made up of medium chain fatty acids is known as MCT. Caproic acid (C6), caprylic acid (C8), capric acid (C10) and lauric acid (C12) are naturally occurring MCT. MCT can be easily digested and absorbed within body due to its structure. This characteristic of MCT is responsible for its unique health benefits.

• Coconut oil
• Safflower oil
• Kernel oil
• Soybean oil
• Corn
• Peanut
• Cheese
• Yogurt
• Fish
• Butter
• Milk

Health benefits

Role on weight management

• MCT is such a fat that provides instant energy hence body used it as an active energy source rather than storing it as body fat, which is associated with reducing fat accumulation in body and prevents obesity
• It increases the activity of hormones leptin and peptide YY that helps to decrease appetite leads to reduced food intake
• It increases catabolic rate of the body hence promotes energy expenditure
• Recent studies have shown that MCT helps in weight reduction by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis (Wang et al., 2018)

Role on endurance

• As it provides instant energy hence it can increase energy level during strenuous physical exercise which helps to prevent muscle fatigue
• Accumulation of lactic acid occurred in muscle during exercise that interferes with its performance. MCT helps to reduce lactate accumulation in muscle and results in improving endurance

Role on brain

• MCT is associated with producing ketone bodies within body that act as an alternative source of energy for brain
• It has seen that brain utilises only carbohydrates (especially glucose) as fuel which supports proper functioning of the brain. Individual who follow keto diet (a diet contains less than 50g of carbohydrate) for weight reduction are at risk of developing harmful disabilities of brain due to insufficient carbohydrate intake. It is better for them to consume MCT as it provides alternative fuel (ketones) for brain and also facilitates weight reduction

• MCT helps to prevent epilepsy. Capric acid is an important MCT, which is widely used as anti-epileptic substance
• MCT also helps to prevent autism among children
• Various researches have shown that MCT is associated with preventing Alzheimer’s disease and also helps to improve memory, learning, brain processing and cognitive abilities among individual suffers from Alzheimer’s disease (Croteau et al., 2018)

Role on preventing chronic medical conditions

• MCT is related with treating steatorrhoea, diarrhoea and other related gastrointestinal disorders
• It acts as an effective energy source for body and it is readily digested and absorbed which helps to prevent malabsorption of nutrients. This is considered as the principle factor responsible for inhibiting malnutrition
• It also helps to promote hepatic health
• It promotes the secretion and sensitivity of insulin that helps to control blood sugar concentration. Its consumption is highly beneficial for individual suffers from type 2 diabetes mellitus

Role on gastrointestinal health

• It has seen that MCT are readily absorbed and metabolised in body than any other fats. This feature of MCT promotes its usage in the management of gastrointestinal disorders
• Several researches have shown that consumption of MCT is a healthy choice for individual suffers from pancreatitis or cystic fibrosis as MCT does not requires pancreatic enzyme for its digestion. So, consumption of MCT would provide energy without pressurizing the pancreas for secreting enzyme, which is related with its healing process (Shah and Limketkai, 2017)

• It also helps to prevent short bowel syndrome (SBS), which is characterised by anatomic reduction in bowel length leads to malabsorption of nutrients. Consumption of MCT would increase the absorption with a minimum need for prior digestion and helps to improve the symptoms of SBS

Effect of sarcopenia

• Sarcopenia is a vital health complication that affects the activities of daily life (ADL) due to the loss of skeletal muscle functions and muscle mass
• Activities of daily life include eating, dressing, getting into or out of chair, washing and taking bath. All these activities required strengthen muscle with proper functionality
• It has seen that consumption of amino acid (mainly leucine), cholecalciferol (activated form of Vitamin D) and MCT in a combination show significant role in improving the muscle strength and function. Whereas recent researches have shown that MCT alone can able to increase the skeletal muscle strength, growth, mass and functionality that results in increasing ADL (Abe et al., 2019)

Mechanism of its action

Basically, the digestion and absorption of fat depends on the length of the fatty acid.  It has seen that long chain fatty acids require bile for emulsification that breaks the fat molecule into small droplets and facilities digestion. Secretion of the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) and enzymes (pancreatic and intestinal lipid splitting enzymes) also facilitates their digestion. After completion of digestion it is absorbed into lymph through the formation of micelles and chylomicrons. Whereas MCT contains medium chain fatty acid that does not require further cleavage by bile or enzymes for its digestion. This is the actual reason behind its easy digestion and rapid absorption.

General consideration of using MCT

• It is better, not to consume MCT oil more than 100ml per day as it may interferes with gastrointestinal tolerance and develops various harmful complications
• Heating of MCT oil over 150°C is not wise, as it gets oxidised at that temperature and affects the flavour of food stuffs
• As MCT is not essential fatty acid (EFA) hence consuming only MCT can develops essential fatty acid deficiencies and related harmful consequences. So, it is better to consume MCT along with EFA like linoleic acid and linolenic acid
• MCT oil can be added to several foods or beverages like soups, fruit juices, vegetable curries, smoothies, hot chocolates, sauces before consumption to enhance their energy and nutritive value

Risk factors

• It is recommended to consume MCT 1 to 1.5 tablespoon per day (which is equivalent to 14 to 21g) initially. Whereas the suggested value of maximum daily dose of MCT is about 50 to 100g for improved gastrointestinal tolerance. It is better to increase the consumption of MCT as per the toleration, but it should not consume more than 100g per day
• Poor consumption of MCT (<14g/day) would develop several deficiency disorders due to malabsorption of nutrients and leads to growth retardation
• Whereas excessive consumption of MCT (>100g/day) also causes harmful consequences in body such as flatulence, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal distress and cramping. So, it is better to consume MCT as per recommendation

Abe, S., Ezaki, O. and Suzuki, M., 2019. Medium-chain triglycerides (8: 0 and 10: 0) are promising nutrients for sarcopenia: a randomized controlled trial. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 110(3), pp.652-665.

Avgerinos, K.I., Egan, J.M., Mattson, M.P. and Kapogiannis, D., 2020. Medium chain triglycerides induce mild ketosis and may improve cognition in Alzheimer’s disease. A systematic review and meta-analysis of human studies. Ageing Research Reviews, 58, p.101001.

Cliff Harvey, N.D. and Fit, D., 2017. Why Take MCT Oil?. SCIENCE.

Croteau, E., Castellano, C.A., Richard, M.A., Fortier, M., Nugent, S., Lepage, M., Duchesne, S., Whittingstall, K., Turcotte, É.E., Bocti, C. and Fülöp, T., 2018. Ketogenic medium chain triglycerides increase brain energy metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 64(2), pp.551-561.

Selvi, G.G., 2018. Effects of MCT oil (Coconut Oil) on the lipid profiles and body weight among adults. Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR), 7(2), pp.661-666.

Shah, N.D. and Limketkai, B.N., 2017. The use of medium-chain triglycerides in gastrointestinal disorders. Pract. Gastroenterol, 41, pp.20-28.

Volpe, S.L., 2020. Medium-Chain Triglycerides and Health. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 24(1), pp.35-36.

Wang, Y., Liu, Z., Han, Y., Xu, J., Huang, W. and Li, Z., 2018. Medium chain triglycerides enhances exercise endurance through the increased mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolism. PloS one, 13(2), p.e0191182.