From: J. K. S. Weerasekera
Below is an article with favourable
comments on coconut and coconut oil.
My studied views on just one aspect
are these;
How or who gave coconut oil a bad
name?
A
University (not sure of ? Pensylvania in the early 1950s?) experimented on rats with intent to produce atheroma in blood
vessels of rats.
They deprived the rats of some essential
amino acids for
some weeks and then fed margarine in abnormal amounts to these rats.
Atheroma was produced in their blood vessels. They succeeded.
But
today we know that margarine in any form is bad due to hydrogenation creating transfats. Further, the rats were unhealthy being
deprived of some essential amino acids for weeks intentionally. And overfed.
So the university published it
(quite properly).
But we note that giving hydrogenated fats to
deprived rats was just an
artificially created scene.
Not normal dietary quantities
by healthy rats.
A similar
situation was 100 years ago when Russian doctor Anitshkov produced atheroma in
the aorta by feeding egg and also milk to rabbits.
But Rabbits are vegetarian!
So they got an unnatural diet just
as with the margarine given to sick rats!
( he did
not plan to criticize eggs. Only to produce artheroma somehow. It had not been
done before)
Rather late, today we know that
eggs are acceptable in spite of their cholesterol content. Exonnerated after
100 years. Perhap due to the clout of rich egg producers.
The rat experiment too was
(presumably) not
to run down coconut oil but somehow to create atheroma. By
hook or by crook. So they did.
Then the fun started.
The Oil producers Association
in the U.S. (not
petroleum)
jumped on the news. They
had prospered during the 2nd world
war 1939 to 1945 selling their local stuff(corn oil, sunflower oil etc)
since during the war cheap
coconut oil imports from Asia ran dry.
So they set about running
down the cheap coconut oil!
Soon the administrator of the university
got a top post at the Oil producers ASS. And the top man in the Oil producers Association
got the university post ensuring propaganda success for the American oil
producers.( not on
the net now)
Asian Coconut producers are not in the same league financially as rich egg and poultry producers. So Dr. Janaki Gunaratne’s research will be ignored by the rich oil merchants.
It is not difficult to get at some
of this information on the net, but now all the details cannot be got.
Shall write on coconut oil and
fibre another day.
Dr. jksweerasekera
Your views pals?on the article below
November
14, 2012
New Extensive Research From Sri
Lanka Shows Coconut Oil Has No Risk to CVD, and that Coconut Residue has Great
Promise for Treating Heart Disease
by Brian
Shilhavy
(Health Impact News) Results of an extensive study on coconut oil in the diet
of people iving in Sri Lanka were published today in the Sunday Sun Times of
Sri Lanka. Dr. Janaki Gooneratne, the head of
Food Technology at the Industrial Technology Institute in Sri Lanka, conducted
the research while analyzing the therapeutic value of coconut residue products
in relation to heart disease.
The report today speculates that Dr. Goonerante’s research,
which is described as “an extensive and rare kind of research – for the first
time in the world,” will soon be used in treating heart disease.
While all the details of her research were not revealed in the report, it is
centered around the high fiber coconut residue, called “Polkudu” in the local language.
Dr. Gooneratne did her PhD work on the active components of
the dietary fiber of the coconut meat.
The report today mentioned that the fiber in the coconut
residue contains 23% of “galactomannon.”
Galactomannon in recent years has also been studied in the
Philippines, particularly in the Makapuno variety of coconuts which has a more
gelatin characteristic in the meat of the coconut than the regular varieties of
coconuts have. Recently, researchers in the Philippines have begun using
galactomannon as a food stabilizer to replace imported stabilizers such as guar
gum.
Galactomannon is also reportedly a “good dietary fiber which
can enhance digestion and weight reduction.” (See: The Potential Health Benefits Of
Makapuno Coconut Byproduct) Previous
studies done on coconut flakes and coconut flour have also shown that the
dietary fiber of coconut can reduce cholesterol levels (e.g. see: The Cholesterol-Lowering Effect of
Coconut Flakes in Humans with Moderately Raised Serum Cholesterol)
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Dr. Goonerante’s
research that was referenced today, however, was her extensive research on
coconut oil in the diet of people living in Sri Lanka.
In modern day Sri Lanka, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is
the leading cause of death among adults, and coconut oil is usually implicated as a reason for this
high rate of CVD. Coconut is second only to
rice in food consumption in Sri Lanka, and there have been attempts to
discredit and undermine the value of coconut.
However, Dr. Gooneratne said that according to
research, heart diseases are traditionally uncommon among high coconut
consuming populations.
In fact, Dr. P. Rethinam and Muhartoyo wrote in the Jakarta
Post, on June 18, 2003, that before 1950, heart attacks were not common in Sri
Lanka. However, hospital admission rates for heart attacks grew dramatically
from 1970 to 1992. On the other hand, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka had
determined that the coconut consumption has gone down from 132 nuts per person
per year in 1952 to 90 per person per year in 1991. Because of the saturated
fat scare of recent years condemning coconut oil, people ate fewer coconuts and
heart disease and the associated weight gain actually increased.
H. Kaunitz wrote in 1986 that the 1978 edition of the Demographic
Yearbook of the United Nations reported that Sri Lanka had the lowest death
rate from ischemic heart disease, while
coconut oil was their main dietary fat. (See: Medium chain triglycerides in aging
and arteriosclerosis)
Before undertaking the time to study and research the
medicinal effects of coconut fiber therefore, Dr. Goonerante had to deal with
the current bias against coconut oil as a saturated fat.
She carried out an extensive research project to establish
whether there was a relationship in the consumption of coconut oil with
cholesterol, in the Gampaha District of Sri Lanka – an area coming under the
“Coconut Triangle”-
adopting a random sampling of a target group of 957 people.
A group of 957 volunteers (males 340, females 617) between 18 and 65 years of
age were enlisted for the research, and all the factors such as
socio-demographic data, family history of disease and lifestyle were assessed.
Anthropometry and arterial blood pressure were measured, and lipid profiles
were determined. The nutrient intake was measured by 3-day dietary records, and
they were grouped as either high fat or low fat.
Associations between selected CVD risk factors and Coconut
Fat (CF) intake were investigated by Dr. Goonerante using Chi-square test, and
further examined in a multivariate model adjusting for potential confounding
variables. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software.
The results of this extensive research concluded that
consumption of CF at 16.4% of total energy per day had no CVD risk on the study
population. (Note: for a standard 2000 calorie diet that would equate to about
2.5 tablespoons of coconut oil a day.)
Dr. Goonerante believes that this extensive research
is one of the first studies of this magnitude on dietary coconut oil ever
conducted anywhere in the world. Since coconut oil is not a product that can be
patented, it is highly unlikely that such studies like this will ever be funded
in western nations, and
it is now up to the coconut oil producing countries to
carry out this research to vindicate coconut oil from the attacks levied
against it over the past several decades in western nations.
She believes her research will give great value to a
product that up to this time has been simply a waste product, the coconut
residue, but which in fact has great therapeutic value at the fraction of the
cost of expensive western medicines.
Conclusion:
As I predicted on the last day of 2010 in my blog post “Significant Research and News from
2010 Regarding Coconut Oil and Saturated Fats,” 2011 is seeing some major research being committed to the health
properties of coconut oil from the coconut producing countries.
Last month (January 2011) a study was published in Malaysia
showing how Virgin Coconut Oil helped prevent liver damage. (See: Hepatoprotective Activity of Dried- and
Fermented-Processed Virgin Coconut Oil) As the foundation of the
lipid theory of heart disease and the prejudices against saturated fats and
coconut oil in particular continue to crumble, more and more research will
validate the truth of what is already known by millions of coconut oil
consumers around the world: coconut oil is the healthiest dietary oil on earth!
References:
1. ‘Polkudu’ treatment for heart ailments The Sunday Times – Sri Lanka, Sunday February 6, 2011
edition
2. The Cholesterol-Lowering Effect of
Coconut Flakes in Humans with Moderately Raised Serum Cholesterol – Trinidad P. Trinidad, Anacleta S. Loyola, Aida C.
Mallillin, Divinagracia H. Valdez, Faridah C. Askali, Joan C. Castillo, Rosario
L. Resaba, Dina B. Masa. Journal of Medicinal Food. June 2004, 7(2): 136-140.
doi:10.1089/1096620041224148.
4. Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) in
aging and arteriosclerosis. - - J
Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol. 1986 Mar-Apr;6(3-4):115-21.
©2011
Health Impact News Daily – All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to
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