How Did Coconut Oil Get Such a Bad Reputation?
Beginning in the 1950s, public opinion towards saturated fats in general, and then later towards coconut oil in particular, began to turn negative. This history of the edible oil industry in the US has been well documented by Dr. Mary Enig, Ph.D., and can be read at www.coconutoil.com or at the Weston Price Foundation website (www.westonaprice.org). Her articles �The Oiling of American� and �Coconut: In Support of Good Health in the 21st Century� provide in depth analysis of the saturated fat research, and the negative campaigns that have been waged against coconut oil.
The anti saturated fat theory apparently began in the 1950s, with the steep rise of heart disease. While heart disease probably caused no more than 10% of all deaths in the U.S. prior to the 1920s, by the 1950s it had risen to more than 30% of all deaths. Researchers were looking for the cause of this new threat to the nation�s health. Some researchers suggested that cholesterol levels were the problem, and that saturated fats raised cholesterol levels. One such study was based on examining the artery plaques found in American soldiers who had died in Korea. With high levels of cholesterol found in artery plaques, some started looking at cholesterol levels found in foods as a possible cause. Cholesterol is found only in animal foods such as meat, fish, cheese, eggs and butter. Soon a �lipid hypothesis� was formed that stated �saturated fat and cholesterol from animal sources raise cholesterol levels in the blood, leading to deposition of cholesterol and fatty material as pathogenic plaques in the arteries.� So the traditional foods of butter, eggs, and fat from meats were �out�, and the new vegetable oils were seen as heart-healthy replacements. However, research now shows that cholesterol levels in food have little or no effect on blood cholesterol levels, and the whole lipid theory of heart disease has been rejected by many researchers and doctors. Malcom Kendrick M.D., Dr. Mary Enig Ph.D., Uffe Ravnskov M.D., Ph.D (author of The Cholesterol Myths), George Mann M.D., Sc.D, and many other top researchers have written extensively on the flaws of the �cholesterol theory� of heart disease.
So what was the cause of the rapid rise of heart disease in the US? While there are many factors to consider, one thing we know is that after World War II there were some significant dietary changes in the American diet, including that kinds of fats Americans were eating. As Mary Enig reports:
Butter consumption was declining while the use of vegetable oils, especially oils that had been hardened to resemble butter by a process called hydrogenation, was increasing�dramatically increasing. By 1950 butter consumption had dropped from eighteen pounds per person per year to just over ten. Margarine filled in the gap, rising from about two pounds per person at the turn of the century to about eight. Consumption of vegetable shortening�used in crackers and baked goods�remained relatively steady at about twelve pounds per person per year but vegetable oil consumption had more than tripled�from just under three pounds per person per year to more than ten.
What we know today, but was not known well in the 1950s, is that hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils create trans fatty acids that have been linked to heart disease. (see below)
Coconut Oil: the Center of Attack
The saturated fats/cholesterol scare soon became mainstream thinking, however, and before long certain groups began taking aim at the saturated fats found in coconut oil. At one time coconut oil was a significant part of the American diet. Suddenly, we were told to avoid anything with tropical oils�from theater popcorn oil to packaged snack foods, which was a complete turn from when the food industry considered coconut oil to be an excellent dietary oil for use in baking and food preparations.
Dr. Mary Enig states:
The coconut industry has suffered more than three decades of abusive rhetoric from the consumer activist group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), from the American Soybean Association (ASA) and other members of the edible oil industry, and from those in the medical and scientific community who learned their misinformation from groups like CSPI and ASA. According to one of CSPI�s own press releases, "In 1984, CSPI organized the first national campaign to pressure fast-food restaurants and food companies to stop frying with beef fat and tropical oils, which are high in the cholesterol-raising saturated fats that increase the risk of heart disease. After six years of public pressure�including full-page newspaper ads placed by Nebraska millionaire and cholesterol-crusader Phil Sokolof�the industry finally relented in 1990.�
Congress held hearings in 1988 to discuss the safety of tropical oils. Dr. George Blackburn, a Harvard medical researcher, testified that coconut oil has a neutral effect on blood cholesterol, even in situations where coconut oil is the sole source of fat. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop dismissed the entire attacks on coconut oil as �Foolishness,� and continued to say �but to get the word to commercial interests terrorizing the public about nothing is another matter.� However, with no strong political influence in Washington from the coconut-producing countries, the ASA and CSPI prevailed and soon coconut oil almost vanished from the American diet. At one time a significant part of the American diet, today it has been replaced by the so called �healthier� vegetable oils.
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