Yes, coconut cream contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). A quarter cup of coconut cream provides roughly 3 to 5 grams of MCTs, making it a moderate but not concentrated source. The MCTs in coconut cream are the same types found in coconut oil, just diluted by the water content in the cream.
How Much MCT Is in Coconut Cream
Coconut cream is essentially the thick, fatty layer extracted from coconut meat. A one-tablespoon serving contains about 3 grams of total fat. Since coconut fat is roughly 54% MCTs, that tablespoon delivers a little over 1.5 grams of MCTs. Scale up to a quarter cup and you’re looking at 3 to 5 grams.
For comparison, coconut oil packs about 54% MCTs by weight, and pure MCT oil is 100% MCTs. So coconut cream sits well below both of those as a concentrated MCT source. The difference comes down to water: coconut cream is an emulsion of coconut fat and water, so gram for gram you’re getting less fat (and therefore fewer MCTs) than you would from straight coconut oil.
Which MCTs Coconut Cream Contains
Not all MCTs behave the same way in your body, and the mix in coconut cream is heavily weighted toward one type. Coconut fat contains about 42% lauric acid (a 12-carbon chain), 7% caprylic acid (8-carbon), and 5% capric acid (10-carbon). That means the vast majority of the MCTs in your coconut cream are lauric acid.
This matters because caprylic and capric acid are the MCTs most efficiently converted to energy. They’re absorbed quickly, travel straight to the liver, and get burned for fuel almost immediately. Lauric acid does qualify as a medium-chain fatty acid, and research published in the Journal of Lipid Research confirms it behaves differently from long-chain fats: about 65% of lauric acid gets directed toward oxidative pathways (energy production), compared to only 35% of a typical long-chain fat like palmitic acid. Lauric acid also increases oxygen consumption in muscle cells, similar to capric acid.
Still, lauric acid is metabolized more slowly than caprylic or capric acid, which is why concentrated MCT oils typically strip it out and focus on the shorter chains. If you’re specifically after the faster-acting MCTs (C8 and C10), coconut cream provides only about 12% of its fat from those two, giving you a relatively small dose per serving.
Coconut Cream vs. MCT Oil
If your goal is maximizing MCT intake, pure MCT oil is dramatically more efficient. MCT oil delivers 100% MCTs per serving, typically composed of 50 to 80% caprylic acid and 20 to 50% capric acid. Coconut cream gives you roughly one-tenth the MCT concentration per tablespoon, and the MCTs it does contain are mostly the slower-metabolizing lauric acid.
That said, coconut cream has advantages MCT oil doesn’t. It works in recipes (curries, soups, smoothies, desserts), provides a creamy texture, and comes with small amounts of iron and other minerals. For people on a ketogenic diet or anyone hoping to get MCTs through whole foods rather than supplements, coconut cream is a practical option. Just don’t expect it to deliver the same metabolic punch as a tablespoon of MCT oil. One study in older adults noted that coconut-based fats other than concentrated MCT sources “should not be expected to make a substantial contribution to ketosis.”
Does Coconut Cream Boost Metabolism
You may have seen claims that coconut products rev up your metabolism because of their MCT content. The evidence is less clear-cut than marketing suggests. A randomized trial in obese adolescents compared a coconut oil-rich meal to a corn oil meal and found no significant difference in thermogenesis (the calories your body burns digesting and processing the food). There was also no difference in hunger, satiety, or energy levels between the two meals.
This doesn’t mean MCTs have zero metabolic effects, but it does suggest that getting MCTs through whole coconut products, where they’re mixed with other fats and diluted by water, may not produce the dramatic results sometimes attributed to pure MCT supplements. The dose matters, and the 3 to 5 grams of MCTs in a quarter cup of coconut cream is a modest amount.
Full-Fat vs. Light Coconut Products
If you’re choosing coconut cream specifically for its MCT content, go full-fat. Light coconut milk is essentially coconut cream diluted with more water, cutting the fat content (and MCTs) significantly. Full-fat coconut cream typically has 3 grams of fat per tablespoon, while light coconut milk can have less than 1 gram per tablespoon.
Canned coconut cream and the solid layer that rises to the top of a can of full-fat coconut milk are essentially the same thing. Both give you the highest concentration of coconut fat you’ll get from a cream product. Heat processing during canning doesn’t break down or destroy MCTs, since these fatty acids are chemically stable and resistant to the temperatures used in pasteurization.