You wouldn’t expect an hour-long German lecture to garner more than one million views on YouTube (the original video has since been removed), especially not when it’s a scientific lecture by an epidemiologist.

However, Karin Michels, epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, almost broke the Internet when she said that coconut oil is “pure poison”.

In the lecture titled “Coconut oil and other nutritional errors”, delivered at the University of Freiburg, Michels also called coconut oil "one of the worst foods you can eat".

The video sparked an uproar on social media, predictably among the proponents of coconut oil as a ‘superfood’.

In cultures that traditionally use coconut oil as a staple in the diet, there has also been outrage.

In India, B.N. Srinivasa Murthy, the national horticulture commissioner, has demanded for a retraction of Michels’ statement from the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, calling her claims “unsubstantiated and inconsiderate”.

According to Mary Easaw, chief dietitian at Malaysia’s Institut Jantung Negara, fats — which consist of animal fats and plant oils — are essential to the body. There is no oil that can be singled out as a villain or a saviour.

Coconut oil contains more than 80% saturated fats, which are mostly made up of lauric acids. The fatty acids are medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which are known to increase levels of bad and good cholesterol.

However, we do not know enough about how much of the MCTs are used and how much of the lauric acid is deposited in the body. What also remains unclear is the ratio of increase in the good cholesterol compared to the bad cholesterol.

While different types of oils and fats vary in terms of their fatty acid composition, all oils are identical when it comes to calorie content.

Therefore, Mary does not advocate drinking coconut oil daily, as it is high in calories. She advises that less than 30% of your total calorie intake should come from oil, so it should be used moderately in cooking or as salad dressing.

"We drink water, not oil," she stresses.

Listen to the podcast 'Is Coconut Oil Pure Poison?':

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