Hi everyone,
A Harvard professor has called coconut oil 'pure poison'.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/aug/22/coconut-oil-is-pure-poison-says-harvard-professor*********
Karin Michels, an epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan school of public health, poured scorn on the superfood movement and singled out the fad for coconut oil in particular, calling the substance “one of the worst things you can eat” that was as good for wellbeing as “pure poison”.
Michels made her comments in a recent lecture entitled “Coconut oil and other nutritional errors” at the University of Freiburg, where she holds a second academic position as director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumour Epidemiology. The speech, delivered in German, has now been watched nearly a million times on YouTube.
Michels based her warning on the high proportion of saturated fat in coconut oil, which is known to raise levels of so-called LDL cholesterol, and so the risk of cardiovascular disease. Coconut oil contains more than 80% saturated fat, more than twice the amount found in lard, and 60% more than is found in beef dripping.
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This view of course, is disputed by other researchers who think of coconut oil as a superfood. What to make of this?
Besides all this 'research'....people in the Indian state of Kerala eat coconut oil as almost a staple food. Coconut oil is added to everything and most fries including the famous banana chips (nendrangai) are fried in coconut oil. The people of Kerala are a healthy lot and have one of the highest life expectancy of 74 years, in India.
What can be said about the research findings?
Cheers.
Sriram
