A year after the American Heart Association (AHA) issued an advisory discouraging people from consuming coconut oil, the country’s top agricultural export is back in the spotlight. In a recent lecture at the University of Freiburg in Germany, an epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan school of public health called coconut oil “pure poison” and should be avoided. The British daily, The Guardian, which published a story about the Harvard professor’s remarks on August 22, noted that the lecture has been viewed almost a million times on YouTube.
The article noted that Karin Michels based her warning on the high proportion of saturated fat in coconut oil, which could raise the so-called bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Bad cholesterol is a major cause of artery-clogging plaque and consuming food with high saturated fat would raise the risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases. This led Michels to proclaim that coconut oil was “one of the worst things” people can eat.
Coconut oil and other coconut products have been maligned in the past by so-called experts from Western countries. But calling it pure poison is a different matter altogether because the claimant is telling consumers to stay away from coconut oil as it is fatal to human health. This claim is deplorable and malicious. It does not only harm the livelihood of more than 3 million Filipino coconut farmers but may cause the demise of the entire coconut industry. The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has clarified that such irresponsible statement was based on “old and flawed research.”
It also appears that those attacking coconut oil have conveniently overlooked other studies that presented its health benefits. For one, the PCA noted in a BusinessMirror report (See “Pure baloney: PCA hits new smear drive vs coconut oil”) that coconut oil raises levels of good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), which counters the bad effects of LDL cholesterol. The PCA also said recent studies conducted abroad showed that dietary cholesterol is not the root cause of cardiovascular disease but inflammation.
Citing Dr. Dwight Lundell, a world-renowned heart surgeon who has performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, the PCA said the biggest culprit of chronic inflammation is the overconsumption of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all their by-products) and of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods. The agency said the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health and the British Medical Journal are replete with overwhelming number of studies proving coconut oil to be one of the healthiest foods on Earth.
The latest attack against coconut oil came at a time when promotions from health food shops and endorsements from celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, have boosted sales of coconut oil in the United Kingdom. According to The Guardian, consumer research group Kantar found that sales of coconut oil in the last four years surged to £16.4 million, from £1 million, as a result of said endorsements. In the United States, Kantar said sales peaked at $229 million in 2015.
The revived attacks on coconut oil seem to have affected shipments in the first six months of the year. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that revenues from coconut-oil shipments fell by nearly 29 percent to $596.62 million in the January-to-June period, from $839.26 million. If the trend continues, Filipino exporters could end the year with a double-digit decline in earnings from coconut oil. If this is the goal of critics, then it appears that they are succeeding.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano