Council accuses WHO of ‘cherry-picking’ in study against palm oil

The Malaysian Palm Oil Council says palm oil has been proven to have no association with risk of heart disease. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) has lambasted the World Health Organisation (WHO) over its claim that the palm oil industry is deploying tactics similar to those of the alcohol and tobacco industries to influence research on the health effects of its products.

Describing the study published by WHO as biased, MPOC CEO Kalyana Sundram said the editor of the report had slipped the findings through an otherwise stringent peer review process, causing concerns among academics.

“The authors from Unicef and the UK academia cherry-picked their arguments against palm oil to create these sensational effects.

“Even more troubling is that WHO, a most respected entity, has allowed itself to become a tool for forces actively manipulating against a proven food commodity that feeds millions globally,” he said in a statement today.

The authors of the study, published in WHO’s bulletin, claimed they had found nine pieces of research showing overwhelmingly positive health associations, but that four of them were authored by MPOC.

Kalyana said in the 1980s, palm oil was said to pose a risk for heart disease because of its higher saturated fat content, and that the industry had to step in and sponsor a global research to learn the truth.

“This industry-funded pursuit of the truth is now condemned in the report.

“The palm oil research outcomes from more than 150 publications in health and nutrition science journals rested the fact that palm oil consumption at recommended levels of fat intake was not a risk for heart disease.

“The authors conveniently ignored key palm oil publications in respected journals and cherry-picked a handful that fitted their hypothesis,” he said.

He said the findings were supported decades later when a debate on saturates took an independent turn and palm oil was proven to have no association with risk of heart disease.

Kalyana also asked the authors of the report and WHO to provide evidence to support their claims.

He said MPOC would give an official science-based response to the article as well as to WHO’s director-general. - FMT