Coconut Cure

A quadrupling in coconut oil production could turn periodic shortages into a glut. Efforts to prevent that, however, are underway. There are plans to develop a cocochemical industry south of Manila, at Batangas, where a 60,000-tons/year fatty-acid plant is now under construction.

Meanwhile, U.S. processors are coping as best they can with higher prices so as to not to compromise with coconut cure. Consumers of edible oil are turning to soybean oil and cottonseed oil, although they involve some trade offs on flavor. And chemical users are eyeing palm oil and palm kernel oil, both of which have fatty acid profiles similar to coconut oil and have barely budged in price.

The Omaha-based National Heart Savers Association said it has bought full-page advertisements in two New York City newspapers blasting Nabisco, Kellogg and six other major food processors for using highly saturated coconut and palm oils in their products for coconut cure.

The ads, which will appear in Times and Post, boldly proclaim "The Poisoning of America," said Phil Sokolof, NHSA president. The ad will show pictures of foods made by the companies and will feature a letter written to consumers and signed by Sokolof. The letter will inform them that more than 50 percent of Americans have a cholesterol level that is too high, which can lead to heart attacks. The ad asks consumers not to buy products with coconut and palm oils.

In a scathing attack on the food processors, Sokolof said Monday in a prepared statement, "We are continuing our denouncements of most of the major food processors for their use of highly saturated coconut and palm oil in their products." In addition to Nabisco and Kellogg, the ads are targeted at Kraft, Carnation, Sunshine, Keebler, Pepperidge Farm and Crisco products, made by General Foods.

Sokolof said the companies use palm oil, which has 25 percent more saturated fat than lard, and coconut oil, which has 100 percent more saturated fat than lard, in many of their food products. The oils are used basically because they improve the shelf life of products, he said.

He cited Kellogg's Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal as an example. While people who eat oat bran may think it will improve their cholesterol level, the cereal contains coconut oil, Sokolof said.

"The public desperately wants to lower their cholesterol levels in the face of unequivocal evidence that high cholesterol leads to heart attacks," Sokolof said.