NEW DELHI – A Harvard University epidemiologist Karin Michels recently branded coconut oil as ‘pure poison’ and ‘one of the worst foods you can eat’, earning the ire of India.
The Harvard University professor made the comments in a lecture on nutrition in Germany this summer, without considering what could eb the backlash from India, which has now decided to fire back.
India lost its cool apparently due to the fact that the oil is consumed as a dietary staple here, especially in the south. One of the Indian states, Kerala can be translated as “land of the coconut tree.”
India’s horticulture commissioner B.N. Srinivasa Murthy emailed a letter to the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, terming the discovery ‘unsubstantiated and inconsiderate,’.
He also pressed the dean to take ‘corrective measures’ and retract the comments, saying Michels made ‘negative statements against the revered crop of billions,’.
In an interview, Murthy said the lecture by Michels came up at a meeting of officials from 18 countries.
“There was a little bit of anguish. I wondered what had made her make this statement.”
Kerala’s minister of agriculture, V.S. Sunil Kumar, also planned to write a letter to Harvard seeking an explanation of the comments by Michels.
‘Our lived experience is that coconut oil is not a poison. Without coconut, there is no life in Kerala. That is true.’ he elaborated.
The use and advantages of coconut oil have been a bone of contention between Indians and Americans.
Coconut oil is also high in saturated fat, which is a leading cause of heart disease and last year the American Heart Association advised against its use because consuming it raises a harmful form of cholesterol, much like butter and palm oil.
Coconut oil went from a little-known item in health food stores to a “superfood” that attracted US citizens as well, however, its health benefits are still under the wraps are becoming a new reason of engagement between India and America.
The Harvard University professor is yet to respond to the criticism.
