Coconut Was Innocent: My Journey from Doubt to Discovery

I grew up in a home deeply rooted in Nature Cure and Yoga. My father, a biochemistry professor by profession, was also a passionate Naturopath and Yoga exponent. He taught tirelessly without charging a fee and would invite experts from around the world to conduct workshops and share their wisdom. I watched people come in with chronic ailments and walk away with newfound health. Without realising it, I absorbed those teachings, and they quietly became a part of me.

Later, after my Master’s in Food and Nutrition, I began to sense a disconnect because of the foundational understanding I already had. The reductionist approach of mainstream nutrition, breaking everything in the Human system and Food into its components to deal with disease, didn’t sit well with me. While it was important to learn the fundamentals of both food and the human body, something felt incomplete.

The problem is in trying to isolate and fix parts rather than seeing the whole. The human body isn’t a collection of separate parts — it’s a dynamic, interconnected system. Similarly, food isn’t just nutrients on a label; it’s a living, whole entity when derived unrefined from plants. These are two complex systems, and they need to be understood in relation to each other, not in isolation.

One area where I saw this conflict play out vividly was with the coconut. Time and again, clients would come to me, saying their cardiologists had warned them against eating coconut. It baffled me. Coconut has always held a special place in traditional Indian food philosophies. Why then, this stark contrast in opinion?

So, I decided to study it. I wanted to research coconut not just as a nutrient profile, but in its whole-food form, and the context of the human system as a whole. When I shared my Proposal with Dr. H.R. Nagendra ji, the Founder Chancellor of SVYASA Yoga University, he listened intently. To my joy, not only did he approve the research project, but he also became my main research guide. That marked the beginning of a pioneering study — one that sought to bridge traditional wisdom with scientific inquiry. Dr. Manjunath, head of Research at SVYASA, was appointed as my co-guide and played a pivotal role in facilitating funds for the project and guiding me throughout, and Dr. Indu Mani, a wonderful Lipidologist from St. John’s Research Institute, became my external guide as we worked in collaboration with St. John’s Medical College.

That was the beginning of a journey—one that deepened my understanding, not just of coconut, but of what it truly means to study food through the lens of wholeness and integration.

As this is the first study on fresh coconut, we had to take only healthy subjects and adhere to many research norms. We recruited 80 participants and randomly divided them into two groups. One group was provided meals and snacks prepared exclusively with coconut and coconut oil, while the other received food made using groundnut and groundnut oil. The intervention was designed to last three months.

The biggest challenge was ensuring strict compliance, so that even a small deviation didn’t occur, consciously or accidentally. We had to keep the participants constantly engaged and motivated. This meant preparing interesting and palatable meals, educating them about the study’s importance, and staying in close touch to track their adherence.

A dedicated kitchen and dining facility was set up at SVYASA Yoga University under the able guidance of Dr. Nagaratna ji, Co-Founder and Medical Director. This allowed us to maintain complete control over the ingredients, preparation, and meal timings. The experience of designing identical dishes for both groups, nutritionally matched but made with different fats, was deeply satisfying. I worked closely with the kitchen team to ensure consistency, often joining the participants at mealtimes to build rapport and make the journey feel collaborative rather than clinical.

We selected groundnut and its oil as the comparator because of its fat composition, primarily monounsaturated fat, which is recognised by modern nutrition science as “heart-healthy.” In contrast, coconut oil, with its saturated fat content, had long been labelled harmful, particularly for heart health. Yet, from the perspective of Nature Cure and traditional systems like Yoga, the coconut is viewed as nourishing and healing. This contradiction between the Western scientific view and traditional Eastern wisdom had always troubled me, and I felt compelled to explore it through a proper scientific lens.

We monitored several important health markers—lipid profiles, blood pressure, blood sugar, weight, and other metabolic indicators—focusing on parameters that influence cardiovascular and overall health.

As with any study involving real people and lifestyle shifts, challenges cropped up. One incident I remember very clearly involved a young participant who developed severe gut discomfort and constipation just a couple of weeks into the study. He started passing blood in his stools and was eventually diagnosed with haemorrhoids. I had cautioned all participants right from the beginning about the sudden increase in dietary fibre and the importance of drinking plenty of water and chewing food thoroughly. While most adapted well, a few developed constipation at the beginning of the study.

He felt the dietary changes were the cause and chose to leave the study. Much later, he shared that the condition persisted and troubled him for years. In truth, haemorrhoids don’t develop within days—they’re a result of long-standing issues. It was likely an existing problem got aggravated by the sudden dietary shift without the necessary lifestyle adaptations. It was an unfortunate incident, but it also taught me an important lesson: transitions toward healthier eating need to be made gradually with care, especially when fibre intake rises suddenly in individuals unaccustomed to such diets.

Throughout the study, I was supported by Dr. Venugopal. While the intervention was hands-on and fulfilling, my real challenge began during the data analysis phase. Numbers and statistics have never been my strength, and to add to the pressure, Dr. Nagendra ji was clear—we were not to outsource the analysis to a professional statistician. He believed in internal rigour and encouraged us to own every part of the process. I struggled through it, but realised how important it was to understand my work.

And the findings were worth every bit of the effort.

Coconut was innocent.

Our results showed no harm from consuming coconut. Some parameters showed improvement. This was not just a scientific confirmation; it was a moment of validation for traditional wisdom that had long been misunderstood in the modern nutrition world.

I wrote a brief article summarising our study when the research was published, and it was this work that earned me my Doctorate. But more than the degree, what stayed with me was the journey of asking the right questions, staying curious, and being willing to bridge the gap between ancient wisdom and modern science with honesty and rigour.