India's horticulture commissioner asks Harvard to retract statement calling 'coconut oil pure poison'

India’s horticulture commissioner Dr BN Srinivasa Murthy wrote a letter to Harvard University on a recent lecture claiming coconut oil was ‘pure poison’ and ‘one of the worst foods you can eat’.

The letter askes the dean to take ‘corrective measures’ and to retract Michels’ statement which have made ‘negative statements against the revered crop of billions’

Murthy told the Post: “There was a little bit of anguish.  I wondered what had made her make this statement.”

Nutrition experts agree that Michels’ statement went too far. Some even point out its impact on cholesterol level is better than butter but worse than olive oil VS Sunil Kumar, Kerala’s minister of agriculture said he planned to write a letter to Harvard seeking an explanation, and had said: “Our lived experience is that coconut oil is not a poison. Without coconut, there is no life in Kerala. That is true

Earlier, Sadiya Pagarkar, a freelancing dietician from the satellite town of Navi Mumbai, pointed out how there are problems surrounding research ethics in food and nutrition as well. She cites a study by Dr Karin Michels, a professor at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, that claimed coconut oil is 'pure poison,' even calling it "worse than lard."

While the study made headlines globally last week, Pagarkar had told DNA, "One appreciates new research in nutrition, but this particular one only raises questions about its basis. Coconut oil has been used across South India and many parts of South and South East Asia for centuries. If it was indeed harmful, many would have been affected by now. Similarly, there was a time when eggs were given a bad name. But now, it is being said that they help reduce cholesterol."