Is coconut oil "pure poison"?

A 50-minute German lecture becoming a viral hit on YouTube might sound unusual, but the title of the talk by Karin Michels, the director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg and a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, has caused a bit of a stir online.

During the lecture, titled "Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors," Michels has made herself very clear with regard to dietary recommendations, and underlined that coconut oil is not healthy.

Its superfood status had already come under scrutiny last year after the American Heart Association (AHA) updated its guidelines, which recommended that people avoid the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil.

Michels went a step further than to recommend avoiding the foodstuff, saying "coconut oil is pure poison" and "is one of the worst foods you can eat."

Read the full article on Science Alert here and watch the YouTube video here