A Havard professor this week branded coconut oil as “pure poison for the body” and “one of the worst things you can eat”.
The claim came from Dr Karin Michels, professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumour Epidemiology in a lecture at the University of Freiburg, titled: “Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors.”
The professor’s comments, which made headlines around the world, represent the most direct challenges to date of coconut oil’s current ‘superfood’ status.
Coconut oil has been a star performer for natural food retailers in recent years. With uses spanning cooking to skincare, this ‘all-in-one’ natural product has gained swathes of supporters, as evidence of its multiple health benefits has steadily grown.
Studies have shown that eating coconut, naturally high in saturated fats, increases levels of healthy HDL cholesterol in the body, leading to cardio-protective effects. The presence in coconut oil of high levels of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) has also been linked to weight loss in people who consume it.
But the cholesterol picture is made more complicated by the findings of a meta-study of 60 trials, which found that while coconut boosted good cholesterol (probably because of the high levels of lauric acid in coconut) it also increased harmful (LDL) cholesterol.
The quality of the science supporting claims on weight loss and metabolism have also been questioned in recent years, leading to a reappraisal of the nutritional contribution of coconut oil by some nutritionists and health groups.
But just how seriously anyone will take Professor Michel’s attention-grabbing intervention – labelling a food eaten by millions of people every day across India and South East Asia “pure poison” – must be open to question.