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I know nutrition can sometimes be confusing.

And when the American Heart Association put out a statement advising against coconut oil use, many people were just that... confused.

So why is the AHA attacking coconut oil? Primarily because it's a saturated fat and their claim is that coconut oil can raise LDL cholesterol, leading to higher overall cholesterol levels.

If you're not familiar with cholesterol lingo, LDL is what's considered "bad" cholesterol and HDL is what's considered "good" cholesterol. (A good way to remember that is LDL is what you want to LOWER, and HDL is the good and what you want HIGHER.)

Yes, there have been studies that show coconut oil does have the ability to raise LDL cholesterol, but what the AHA didn't mention is the countless studies that show how incredibly effective coconut oil is at raising HDL cholesterol, providing a protective effect on cardiovascular disease.

Not only can coconut oil elevated good HDL cholesterol, it also has an increasing effect on metabolism, helping many people lose excess fat off their body. Dropping this excess fat is one of the best ways to protect your heart and decrease your risk of every getting cardiovascular disease.

In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, LDL is not a good predictor for heart disease risk. Instead, cholesterol ratio is a much better number to focus on.

"For predicting your risk of heart disease, many doctors now believe that determining your non-HDL cholesterol level may be more useful than calculating your cholesterol ratio. And either option appears to be a better risk predictor than your total cholesterol level or even your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol level.

To calculate your cholesterol ratio, divide your high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or "good") cholesterol number into your total cholesterol number. An optimal ratio is less than 3.5-to-1. A higher ratio means a higher risk of heart disease." - Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D.

What does this mean for you and me?

First, when the doctor shows you your blood test results, be sure he or she shows you not just your total cholesterol, but more importantly your good (HDL) cholesterol number and your cholesterol ratio.

Second, you and I do NOT need to ditch the coconut oil, nor do we have to blame coconut oil for causing high cholesterol or heart disease.

What is really to blame?

Hands down, the real culprit is INFLAMMATION.

In fact, Dr. Tanya Edwards, director of the Center for Integrative Medicine, writes that inflammation is now recognized as the "underlying basis of a significant number of diseases." And that includes heart disease.

When asked "What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation?" Dr. Dwight Lundell, a heart surgeon who has performed over 5,000 open heart surgeries, states, "Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of Omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods."

Instead of blaming one food for causing disease, we need to dig deeper and tackle the root cause of the problem, and that root cause can almost always be tied back to inflammation in the body.

When inflammation is addressed using an eating strategy that focuses on clean whole foods and the right supplements, inflammation in the body decreases dramatically.

That's why the Beyond Diet meal plans have proven over and over again to dramatically decrease chronic inflammation in the body and, as a result, show a dramatic decrease in markers for heart disease and a long list of other diseases like type 2 diabetes and many forms of arthritis.

How about you? Is your current eating plan one that decreases inflammation? If you're unsure, I'm here to help.

»Anti-inflammatory meal plans and recipes – delivered to you every month