Coconut oil is the latest reminder that there's no such thing as a 'superfood'
No studies suggest that coconut oil provides any superior benefit compared to other foods, especially other oils. Nevertheless, for the past decade, it has been touted as a “healthy fat.”
In a YouTube video that went viral last week, a Harvard nutrition professor gave coconut oil about the worst label you can give something edible: “Pure poison.” That’s a big change for a food item that many have categorized as a so-called superfood.
Foods that supposedly reach news headlines all the time. But categorizing foods as either good or bad—the way marketers do when they crown new “superfoods”—is not necessarily the best way to approach nutrition. In truth, any whole) food you eat is going to be nutritious, and claiming that some are superior to others is simply marketing.
