A case for ‘pure poison’ coconuts

In your opinion, what is the most vilified food item or ingredient that ever is and does not deserve the hate?

Let’s see. There’s dietary fat, where two whole generations reduced its consumption because the FDA said so. There is an ongoing phobia of gluten, and an entire section of society avoids consuming it because it’s bad for a tiny fraction of humanity. Ajinomoto (monosodium glutamate) might deserve to be notorious, but the Jury is still divided on this one.

There are also sugar or high fructose corn syrup, which were adequately proven to be the reason behind the current obesity pandemic. However, these do not attract sufficient regulation to control consumption.

Anyway, I was referring to the Coconut. This has a tragic story. Coconut is called all the names and has been condemned for a few decades now.

In the 90s, urban south Indians, with their infinite wisdom, stopped eating coconut products and oils and switched to sunflowers. Thanks to a few “scientific” articles by modern food gurus, Indians chose to abandon the natural food ingredients they had been using for centuries, if not the millennium. A few Southeast Asian countries made a fortune exporting palm oil to India, catering to the newfound coconut phobia of Indians. India is the largest importer of Vegetable oils. India still does meet more than 70% of its cooking oil demand through imports.

Over a couple of decades, there were sporadic epiphanies in the food-science world that Coconut might actually be good. Additionally, it’s not just ‘good’ it’s a superfood. There was a flood of articles comparing its smoking temperature, fat composition, etc., with the celebrated Olive Oil. It stands at the same level as olive oil and other Indian products such as ghee and butter.

Even then, a small section of food experts continued their campaign against Coconut. One of the recent examples I can give is a Harvard professor called Coconut is pure poison. I am not paraphrasing; I am actually using her own words, “pure poison.”. So, Coconut fearmongering continues for another generation.

I am going to leave you with a rebuttal by Eric Berg. Enjoy.