Is coconut oil bad for you? A Harvard professor recently declared that coconut oil, which has had a real boom in commercial interest in recent years and is often mentioned as a “good fat” is actually a food that is dangerous to health. Indeed, a real poison. But let’s go in order.

In recent days, Professor Kerin Michels, epidemiologist and teacher at Harvard University, declared that coconut oil is bad, indeed, it is poisonous to health: to be clear, it refers to food coconut oil, not for topical use.
In a video that has gone viral , Dr. Michels explains her point: coconut oil hurts because it is a mostly saturated oil (it is about 97% saturated), and explains it after the American Heart Association would have in fact warned consumers to limit their consumption. The reason is therefore that saturated fats should be limited, and monounsaturated (olive oil) or polyunsaturated (linseed oil) fats should be preferred instead. This becausethey increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
A big step back, for two reasons:
– Coconut oil does have saturated fats , but it is one of the few foods in nature to have medium-chain saturated fats . To be clear, not those of a sausage. These fats do not undergo the enzymatic hydrolysis of other saturated fats, reduce the production of lipoproteins and have a triglyceride-lowering effect. Now: when it comes to fats, chemistry (and chains) matter. These fats push the body to greater thermogenesis, and have a beneficial effect on both bacterial flora and intestinal regularity. Sources: 1 , 2, 3.
– saturated fats have been the subject of important scientific reviews in recent times: a study that appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition had in fact observed that those who consumed whole cheese and dairy products were not more likely to get cardiovascular disease. The study was conducted on a sample of three thousand people, and, coincidentally, even whole dairy products and cheeses contain medium-chain saturated fatty acids. Spanning over twenty years, the study found no significant association between consumption of these saturated fats and cardiovascular disease or death from them. And it’s not the only one.
A court study that appeared in the Lancet journal,out of a sample of 135,000 people, he pointed out that fat consumption was not significantly correlated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease, especially for medium-chain fatty acids. True, the current guidelines still recommend precaution, but the guidelines should be updated, and a large part of the scientific community is asking for it.

Things are not all black or all white. This does not mean eating coconut oil exclusively , but considering things without false alarmism. Coconut oil, or alternatively, whole dairy or cheese may very well be part of a healthy diet if this diet is also varied. And they have health benefits.