Here is some support from an article that appeared in the UC Berkeley Wellness Newsletter in Jan 2003:


Perhaps no episode in the great fats debate generated more hysteria than the fight over tropical oils in the late 1980s. Unlike other oils derived from plants, coconut oil, palm kernel oil and palm oil are high in saturated fats. All fats are mixtures of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, but tropical oils contain a higher proportion of saturated fats than unsaturated fats. Before the brouhaha, tropical oils were sometimes used for frying and in cookies, crackers, and other processed foods in the US.

At that time, concern was rising about the high consumption of saturated fats by the American public. Moreover, US soybean and corn growers objected to the competition from imported oils. Tropical oils come mainly from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and they have some advantages in extending the shelf life of foods. Actually, their use was not that widespread – tropical oils were never a major source of fat intake in the United States.

However, as some of you may recall, Phil Sokolof, the angry millionaire and victim of a heart attack, took out full-page newspaper ads in the late 1980s proclaiming that tropical oils were “poisoning America.” (Though no one has been able to connect Sokolof with the American corn and soybean lobby, he certainly served their interests.) He founded a group called the American Heart Savers Association, which along with the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, declared war on tropical oils. Eventually, the cause was taken up by the National Cholesterol Education Program and the US Congress.

Everybody shied away from tropical oils as if they were, well, poison. Health-conscious people stopped eating coconuts, even refused to go into Thai restaurants because a lot of Thai dishes use coconuts. They also avoided eating hearts-of-palm (which do not contain palm oil!). Now, tropical oils have all but disappeared from the American diet. However, they have been replaced with something worse – partially hydrogenated oils containing trans fats, which behave like saturated fats in the body, except that unlike saturated fats, trans fats actually lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Furthermore, manufacturers are not even required to list trans fat on food labels (the FDA did recently announce that it will begin to require the listing of trans fat content by late 2003).

In 1989, the School of Public Health of the University of California, Berkeley did warn about coconut, palm, and palm kernel oil because of their high saturated fat content (it cautioned about butter, eggs, and steak, too!). But it did say this: “The claim that tropical oils are ‘poisoning’ us is irresponsible, and such scare tactics only distract from more important issues. Tropical oils supply just a small portion of the saturated fat in the average American diet.”

Furthermore, research now indicates that palm oil behaves like an unsaturated fat in the body – that is, it may help reduce blood cholesterol levels. In other studies, palmitic acid (the main fatty acid in palm oil) has tested neutral – it doesn’t do anything to blood cholesterol. Coconut oil also seems to be neutral in most people. Older studies that showed coconut oil increasing the risk of heart attack were flawed. In addition, lauric acid (the main fatty acid in coconut oil) may have some health benefits. In lab studies, it seems to protect against liver damage, and it may even help quell inflammation. Finally, in countries where tropical oils make up a large part of the fats consumed (Nigeria and Costa Rica, for example, or Polynesia), heart disease rates are lower than in the United States, where little or no tropical oil is consumed.

The bottom line is this: Rather than you worrying about the coconut on top of the cake, worry about the sugar, shortening and empty calories. And watch out for those hydrogenated oils (and trans fats) that took the place of the tropical oils in those packaged foods imported from the United States.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter.com – January 2003