Coconut Oil Miracle

Sokolof, a Omaha businessman who formed the National Heartsavers Association, said his campaign had an impact like a coconut oil miracle. "Tropical oils are a small portion of what we eat. I never said anything else," Sokolof said. He rated his biggest accomplishments as getting people to read food labels and to think about saturated fat, regardless of its source.

In fact manufacturers who removed tropical oils usually reduced saturated fat, more in some cases than others. For example, when Keebler replaced palm kernel and coconut oils with soybean oil, the saturated-fat content of its Townhouse crackers declined 30 percent and 15 percent in its Club crackers, said company spokesman Stuart Greenblatt.

Pepperidge Farm's Ann Davin said saturated-fat content of its products "changed substantially" when tropical oils were dropped from its cookies and crackers. Nevertheless, the total amount of fat hardly changed, she said. "Nowadays, people (worry) about total fat," Davin said. "Did we significantly change the products? No. It was much more a perception story than a true health advantage but it's what consumers told us they wanted."

Baltimore dietitian Colleen Pierre believes it "doesn't matter what kind of fat you consume. It's important to work at eating less fat overall." When people reduce total fat, saturated fat naturally decreases as well, added Suzanne McNutt of the George Washington University Lipid Research Clinic. Pierre said many people whose diets are high in fat are consuming too much meat.

A Philippine natural disaster has triggered gains in the coconut oil market, although US observers now suggest that concerns about Philippine supply will be fleeting. Two typhoons swept through the Philippines on December 6 and 11. A Philippine embassy representative confirms the typhoons inflicted heavy damage, killing an estimated 244 people, although he points out that officials are still assessing the disaster's aftermath. Conflicting reports have surfaced concerning the amount of damage inflicted upon the Bicol region, a Philippine center of coconut cultivation.

Although the embassy spokesman suggests the region was somewhat damaged by the typhoons, a US government analyst believes that the damage was isolated to an area far north of Bicol. He suggests portions of the Philippine coconut crop could even benefit in the long run from the increased precipitation brought by the typhoon. The US coconut oil market promptly reacted to the shock, as prices for crude oil climbed more than 5 cents per pound on news of the disaster.