The short answer is absolutely not. So why did Harvard professor Karin Michaels call it poison and one of the worst foods we can eat? For one thing, although she does specialize in disease prevention, especially for tumors, she may not be an expert on nutrition. She focused on the fact that coconut oil is high in saturated fatty acids which have been shown in some studies to have an adverse effect on blood cholesterol levels and thus may damage cardiovascular health. What she left out, and may not even know, is that the “saturated fat” in virgin coconut oil is primarily made of medium chain triglycerides which the body uses very differently than the long chain triglycerides that have been found to raise cholesterol levels.
I wondered what research (if any) the professor may have used to base her statements about coconut oil on so I spent about 30 minutes on pub-med AKA the National Library of Medicine. Pub-med is the place to find studies on all kinds of health related topics from all over the world as well as the USA. Here’s what I found:
There were a few studies suggesting that coconut oil was bad for cardiovascular health. None of these studies were based on actual testing of coconut oil. The negative studies were all just making an assumption that coconut oil *must* be bad because it’s high in saturated fat (no mention of medium vs long chain triglycerides). The studies actually done using virgin coconut oil all seemed to reach one of two conclusions. Either that coconut oil consumption had no effect on blood lipid levels, thus no effect on cardiovascular health or that coconut oil consumption was actually beneficial. One study actually concluded that coconut oil is likely to *lower* total cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol!
The moral here is that we can’t just depend on the accuracy of someone’s statement just because they have impressive credentials. We need to check things out for ourselves (including things *I* tell you), especially if they don’t make sense. By the way, the studies showing good effects were done with “virgin” coconut oil, not processed coconut oil. To get the benefits and avoid harm we need to use coconut oil as nature intends it, not as humans think they can improve it!
Dr. Hogg
REFERENCES
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Coconut oil is associated with a beneficial lipid profile in pre-menopausal women in the Philippines.
Feranil AB1, Duazo PL, Kuzawa CW, Adair LS.
Indian Heart J. 2016 Jul-Aug;68(4):498-506. doi: 10.1016/j.ihj.2015.10.384. Epub 2016 Jan 13.
A randomized study of coconut oil versus sunflower oil on cardiovascular risk factors in patients with stable coronary heart disease.
Vijayakumar M1, Vasudevan DM2, Sundaram KR3, Krishnan S2, Vaidyanathan K4, Nandakumar S5, Chandrasekhar R6, Mathew N6.
J Diet Suppl. 2018 May 4;15(3):330-342. doi: 10.1080/19390211.2017.13
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Dietary Supplementation with Virgin Coconut Oil Improves Lipid Profile and Hepatic Antioxidant Status and Has Potential Benefits on Cardiovascular Risk Indices in Normal Rats.
Famurewa AC1, Ekeleme-Egedigwe CA2, Nwali SC2, Agbo NN2, Obi JN2, Ezechukwu GC2.
J Diet Suppl. 2018 May 4;15(3):330-342. doi: 10.1080/19390211.2017.1346031. Epub 2017 Aug 17.
Dietary Supplementation with Virgin Coconut Oil Improves Lipid Profile and Hepatic Antioxidant Status and Has Potential Benefits on Cardiovascular Risk Indices in Normal Rats.
Famurewa AC1, Ekeleme-Egedigwe CA2, Nwali SC2, Agbo NN2, Obi JN2, Ezechukwu GC2.
Exp Ther Med. 2015 Jan;9(1):39-42. Epub 2014 Nov 3.
Antistress and antioxidant effects of virgin coconut oil in vivo.
Yeap SK1, Beh BK2, Ali NM3, Yusof HM3, Ho WY4, Koh SP5, Alitheen NB3, Long K5.
