Yes, coconut oil is not healthy

Professor Karin Michels from Harvard University recently gave a talk in YouTube that stirred controversy around the world, especially from India. In the talk, Dr. Karin called coconut oil “pure poison”. That ‘pure’ adjective is superfluous for sure; ‘poison’ is an absolute quality. Seting that minor mistake apart, are her arguments valid?

There were torrents of resistance everywhere in India, especially from south Indian state of Kerala where coconut oil is part of their traditional culinary for thousands of years. Keralites, also called Malayalees, use coconut oil for almost entire of their dishes year round.

Resistance to Karin’s talk and associated media reports outrightly dismissed her talk as hypocrisy and even as “cheap marketing gimmick; Americans want us to buy their Canola oil!” Communists called it “a capitalist propaganda for American market hegemony”. Many Keralites vouch that they have been using coconut oil for many years and had no problem, and that it is part of their tradition for thousands of years.

Being something part of tradition does not make it valid or good. That is called “argumentum ad antequatum” (appeal to tradition) fallacy in philosophy. Sati was part of Indian culture, does it make it good? Something that is widespread in use also doesn’t make it good; fallacy is called “argumentum ad populum”.

Coconut oil is full of saturated fat, so virtually no unsaturated fat (neither monounsaturation, nor polyunsaturation) therefore bestows no health benefits. One among many studies that assessed health effects of coconut oil stated: “Rabbits fed a commercial chow diet containing 0.5% cholesterol and 14% coconut oil developed more severe hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis than rabbits fed the same diet containing olive oil in place of coconut oil.” (Van Heek, M., & Zilversmit, D. B. (1988). Evidence for an inverse relation between plasma triglyceride and aortic cholesterol in the coconut oil/cholesterol-fed rabbit. Atherosclerosis, 71(2–3), 185–192.)

Let us not forget that Kerala is the epicenter of two diseases in Inda; diabetes and heart disease. Incidence rate of heart disease and diabetes in Kerala are the highest anywhere in the world. Are there any connection? May be. Might also be related to their other food habits, including eating rice for 3 meals a day. But having lived in Japan for many years, Japanese eat rice for three times a day too, but they are fine. I’m also from Kerala. I love coconuts and this oil. So as I love sugar too. If it’s bad, it IS bad, that is the spirit of objectivism.

Most of the online reactions to Karins talk (for example, see comments on her youtube video) were anecdotal, like “my grandfather consumed coconut oil and lived till 99 years.” Sorry, anecdotal evidences are not science. There were many smokers and alcoholics who live past 90 years too, that doesn’t make smoking and drinking safe. Science need hard statistics-backed conclusions from hundreds of thousands of people. There are null hypothesis, P values and ‘significance testing’.

I know there exists scopes for conspiracy theories. Americans want us to buy there canola oil. Etc. But let’s don’t forget that these same Americans called our rice bran oil as good as Italian olive oil. Conspiracy theories never die out. I replaced coconut oil in my pantry with rice bran oil around 8 years ago. I am fine with that.