While it has been touted as the “healthy” alternative to everything from olive oil to toothpaste, the highly-praised coconut oil has been recently slammed by a Harvard professor who instead labelled it “pure poison”.
Harvard epidemiologist Karin Michels made the comments while teaching a lecture titled “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 lecture – posted to YouTube and now viewed over one million times – sees Michels saying: "I can only warn you urgently about coconut oil, this is one of the worst foods you can eat.”
Michels comments stem from the “health food’s” extreme levels of saturated fat (more than 80 per cent) and raised levels of LDL cholesterol. She explains that coconut oil consumption can lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease thanks to its high saturated fat content (higher than both butter and lard); and there is very little research to back claims that coconut oil was “good for you”.
Recent independent studies from both the American Heart Association and the British Nutrition Foundation also found that there is very little evidence to support health marketers claims that coconut oil has any offsetting favourable effects. The latter released a statement, saying: “Coconut oil can be included in the diet, but as it is high in saturated fats should only be included in small amounts and as part of a healthy balanced diet.
“There is to date no strong scientific evidence to support health benefits from eating coconut oil.”
While this may have some worried, the general consensus when it comes to coconut oil is “everything in moderation” and where possible to use olive oil or sunflower oil to prevent heart disease and raised cholesterol levels.
