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Coconut oil is ‘pure poison’, Harvard professor claims

Quote:

From the Independent
London, UK
21 August, 2018

Coconut oil is ‘pure poison’, Harvard professor claims

Coconut oil is heavy in unhealthy saturated fats, the professor warns

A Harvard professor has called the supposed health benefits of coconut oil into question by claiming that it’s just as bad for your wellbeing as “pure poison”.

The claim was made by Dr Karin Michels, professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumour Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg, during a speech titled: “Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors.”

In the speech given at the University of Freiburg, Dr Michels stated that coconut oil is “one of the worst foods you can eat” due to the damaging effect the saturated fatty acids in the coconut oil can have on your body.

This goes against the common belief that coconut oil is good for your health, as it’s previously been hailed as a “superfood” that can be used in the kitchen as a component of any meal.

Last year, the American Heart Association updated its guidelines in regard to the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil, advising that people should replace the saturated fats in their diets with unsaturated fats instead in order to lower their risk of developing cardiovascular disease later on in life.
According to Dr Michels, consuming coconut oil is far more detrimental than lard, as coconut oil is predominantly made up of saturated fatty acids, as reported by Business Insider.

The NHS states that eating foods that contain saturated fatty acids can increase your risk of developing coronary heart disease, due to a rise in the amount of bad cholesterol in your blood.

In addition to coconut oil, other foods that are high in saturated fat include butter, hard cheese, ghee, sausages and meat pies.

On the other hand, foods that are high in unsaturated fat include oily fish, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils and avocados.

Dr Michels’ speech regarding the harmful impact of consuming coconut oil has struck a chord with thousands of health-conscious individuals online, accumulating almost 800,000 views on YouTube.

However, while Dr Michels evidently believes strongly in the negative effects of coconut oil, health recommendations concerning whether or not to exclude saturated fats from your diet are less black and white.

Whether or not to reduce one’s fat intake as part of a healthy diet has been a source of contention for quite some time, with a study published in The Lancet last year stating that following a low-fat diet can increase your risk of an early death by a quarter.

The British Heart Foundation states that more research is required on different types of fatty acids, despite the fact that guidelines in the UK currently suggest swapping saturated fats for unsaturated fats where possible.

Some people believe that coconut oil can be used to treat Alzheimer's disease, although the Alzheimer's Society states that there isn't enough evidence to support these claims.

"It's only recently that the UK has gone coconut oil mad, with so many claimed health benefits from immune boosting properties to being hailed as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease," Lily Soutter, leading London nutritionist tells The Independent.

"However, we have to remember that coconut oil is almost all saturated fat and if consumed alongside a diet high in saturated fats, you may be consuming well over the government recommended 20g per day for women and 30g per day for men."

Despite this, Soutter states that there's nothing wrong with consuming coconut oil when done in moderation.

"Claiming that any one food is a poison can be dangerous as it instils fear around food. It's important to remember that no one food is inherently all 'good' or all 'bad'," she explains.

Many individuals, including celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, utilise coconut oil by carrying out a technique called "oil pulling" in order to prevent tooth decay, which involves swishing coconut oil around the mouth for up to 20 minutes a day.

The Independent has contacted Dr Michels for comment

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...o-a8500611.html

I dont know if I should laugh or cry.

"... and meat pies."

Ah! I can stay clear of those I think!

lol

Just made a batch of fat head dough to make meat pies !!

Since I've been using coconut oil for about 15 years now it's amazing I haven't dropped dead of this "pure poison".

And . . . . the lines of the nutrition wars have been drawn. Sounds like the backlash is real and challenging voices are becoming active. This should be interesting . . .

Her degrees are in statistics and epidemiology.

What are the chances that her funding comes from industrial seed oil companies?

Quote:

"However, we have to remember that coconut oil is almost all saturated fat and if consumed alongside a diet high in saturated fats, you may be consuming well over the government recommended 20g per day for women and 30g per day for men."

Cronometer gives my standard saturated fat intake at 130 grams a day. I guess I could bring that up a little by replacing butter with coconut oil, but my eggs wouldn't taste as good.

This eating healthy is hard. So many things to consider.

WHen I read that line the first time, I realized that I had stopped thinking in terms of how much fat, and how much is saturated. That argument was put to rest in my mind in 2000. Great LDL/HDL numbers for......years.

John Prine’s The Lonesome Friends of Science” has some great lines about so-called scientists:

“Those bastards in their white lab coats
Who experiment with mountain goats
Should leave the universe alone
It's not their business, not their home
I go to sleep and it never rains
My dog predicts hurricanes
She can smell a storm a mile away
That's all the news we have today
The lonesome friends of science say
‘The world will end most any day’
Well, if it does, then that's okay
'Cause I don't live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Where long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my family.”

The Shocking Origins of Vegetable Oil – Garbage 8-21-2018, Dr. Fung

Looking back over the last 40 years, it’s hard to understand how we could have been so gullible. We believed that fat, and more specifically saturated fat (found primarily in animal foods), was thought to increase cholesterol and cause heart disease. Instead, we should switch to ‘heart healthy’ vegetable oils, like cottonseed, corn, safflower and soy oils. But recent evidence suggests this was a Faustian bargain. The industrially processed seed oils were much, much worse. It was all a terrible mistake that began with Crisco.

. . .

They called this revolutionary new product Crisco, which stood for crystallized cottonseed oil.

All the vegie oils except one very small bottle is GONE from my house. Plenty of olive oil and coconut oil. heeheee. Otherwise....Toasted sesame for stir fries; and I am eyeing avocado oil and others, because surprisingly Walmart has a good variety to peruse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by s93uv3h

We were gullible because the metaphor of "plumbing" for our heart & blood vessels made sense: fat clogs kitchen plumbing, so of course it would clog our "pipes."

After my husband's heart surgery in 1995, I attended a class at the hospital on how to change our diet from high fat to low fat. They showed us cartoons of human "plumbing" getting clogged by the fat in the diet. And they gave us a bunch of low fat/high carb recipes. One of them was actually quite tasty - pumpkin oatmeal muffins (muffins sounds so healthful - they were actually cupcakes).

We give the medical profession too much credibility.

Well actually, when reading a very old book that was a collection of stories on medical gurus, the doctors themselves were too good to touch a patient. They started the medical profession as demi-gods.

Who says coconut oil is pure poison?

This idiot:

Quote:

"This important paper reaffirms the scientific evidence that saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol, a leading cause of atherosclerosis," Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont, said in a statement on the AHA's website at the time. "Furthermore, replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease."

https://www.businessinsider.com/har...e-poison-2018-8

Where is the "Caveman" when you need him :)