It might be all downhill from here for coconut oil. The beloved superfood/ kitchen staple for anyone who follows wellness trends and diets like Whole30, Paleo, and Keto might actually be terrible for you.
At least, that’s what one Harvard professor is saying. During a lecture at the University of Freiburg in Germany, Karin Michels, a professor at the department of epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health proclaimed that “coconut oil is one of the worst foods you can eat” and is “pure poison” despite its reputation as a healthy food, as reported by Business Insider.
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The professor went on to say that there’s no studies that show coconut oil has significant health benefits, and that saturated fatty acids can clog your arteries.
This isn’t the first time that the popular oil has stirred controversy. The truth is that coconut oil is full of saturated fat. So much so that in 2017 the American Heart Association issued a warning against it, claiming that a diet high in saturated fat can put you at a greater risk of heart disease.
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On the opposite side of the hysteria, another Harvard professor has said that coconut oil might not be great for you, but eating it isn’t exactly going to kill you. In a post on Harvard Medical School’s website, Walter C. Willett, M.D. Harvard School of Public Health, department of nutrition said that “what’s interesting about coconut oil is that it also gives “good” HDL cholesterol a boost. Fat in the diet, whether it’s saturated or unsaturated, tends to nudge HDL levels up, but coconut oil seems to be especially potent at doing so.”
Before you go and chuck that jar of coconut oil you were planning on cooking with tonight, take a deep breath and think rationally. The concept of saturated fats being bad for you is nothing new. Like with other fatty foods, enjoying coconut oil minimally isn’t going to lead to heart disease later on. Just choose when to use coconut oil wisely.
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