But not so healthy - Frequently used coconut oil a veritable poison?

Is the superfood coconut oil seriously harmful to health?

"Coconut oil is one of the worst things you can eat!" Dr. Karin Michels in her day before saying this sentence, a murmur goes through the crowd. The nutrition expert wants to educate about the superfood marketed coconut oil. It is the pure poison, she judges about the popular oil.

Professor Dr. Dr. Karin Michels is Director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology of the University Medical Center Freiburg. In a public lecture series on "Prevention - for a healthy life", the expert commented on the alleged panacea coconut oil. Her talk was published on YouTube and had over 700,000 viewers within a very short time.

Coconut oil is marketed in many shops as very healthy. Professor Dr. Dr. Karin Michels titled the oil as pure poison. It contributes significantly to a blockage of heart disease. (Image: Picture Partners / fotolia.com)

Myth coconut oil

As Michels reports, advertising in particular paints a very positive picture of coconut oil. Common claims include making it less thick due to the lauric acid it contains, containing especially high levels of healthy medium-chain fatty acids, and having antimicrobial activity. Is coconut oil really the healthier alternative? According to Professor Michels, not a single positive aspect of coconut oil is proven by a human study.

Worse than lard

"Coconut oil is pure poison," says the director. It's even worse than pork lard. As the nutritionist explains, coconut oil is one of the saturated fats and shares its place with butter, lard and palm fat. These fats are instrumental in clogging the coronary arteries, increasing the risk of developing heart disease and premature cardiac death.

Avoid hardened fats

Among other things, hardened fats are known to become solid at room temperature. Such fats should be avoided as possible, advises Michels. Worse are only the trans fats, which are artificially hardened to make many industrially produced products crispy.

Which oil should you use??

Professor Michels recommends using monounsaturated fatty acids for heating or frying. Conventional olive oil and rapeseed oil are very well suited for this purpose. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, on the other hand, should not be heated strongly, as they will lose the benefits of these oils.

These oils are very healthy

Furthermore, the nutrition expert advises polyunsaturated omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. In particular, the omega 3 fatty acids, which are contained for example in linseed oil and fish oil, are very good for the health. Even if you need both Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, you should eat more and more Omega 3 fatty acids, according to Michels.

Hit the nerve

"We are pleased that thanks to the social media, we can make the content of a public event accessible to so many people," says Benjamin Waschow, Head of Corporate Communications at the University Hospital Freiburg, in a press release on the widely acclaimed presentation. "We probably hit a nerve with the topic." The university perceives it as enriching that the topic continues to be discussed controversially. As the university reports, after the publication a veritable flood of e-mails was triggered. (Vb)