Coconut oil is no longer the healthy oil

In past posts, I’ve discussed how unhealthy processed oils are and that we should limit them, but people are still putting butter in their coffee and adding coconut oil to their smoothies (people drink soda and smoke cigarettes too, though). Some oils are worse than others. “…an adjunct professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…who is also the “…director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg in Germany” calls coconut oil “pure poison” (1). While that’s a bit of a stretch, coconut oil does have more saturated fat than lard (1). Fat is not bad, but saturated fats are definitely bad for our health (1).

Since avoiding processed oils altogether is unrealistic since most dishes just don’t taste good without a little bit of oil in them, better choices of oils include safflower, sunflower, canola, extra virgin olive oil, or avocado oil (1). Just limit the amount of oils you consume.

1. Source: May, Ashley. USA today. “Coconut Oil is ‘pure poison’ Harvard professor says in talk on nutrition.” Published and retrieved 22, Aug. 2018. Blog post. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/08/22/harvard-professor-coconut-oil-pure-poison/1060269002/