All About Palm Oil

The claim that palm oil, palm kernel and coconut oil should not be classified as a 'vegetable oil' and that they should be labeled as 'tropical oils' is biassed. The principal allegation use to discredit the tropical oils is that 'tropical fats are the worst possible fats to consume in terms of achieving the goal of serum cholesterol reduction'.

The crux of matter is that 'tropical fats' per se certainly is 'bad' but palm oil does not behave like saturated fats simply because it is not in the first place! Palm oil is obtained from the fruit or mesocarp which is not to be confused with palm kernel oil which is obtained from the seed. Palm oil is not fully saturated oil; it contains equal amounts of saturated fatty acids. It is best described as partially saturated.

Palm oil does not require hydrogenation in almost all product applications. The use of palm oil thus directly reduces the consumption of trans fatty acids. Anyway, the prevailing dietary guide recommends we consume balanced amounts of all three types of fats. But no fats on earth comes in perfect combination. The nearest is palm oil. Its balanced composition of saturated and unsaturated fats has 40% monounsaturates and ten percent polyunsaturates.

Extensive tests prove palm oil is so safe, even for babies. It is easy to absorb and digest and its fatty acid characteristics are similar to breast milk, which is why palm oil is such a common ingredient in many infant milk formulations today. Housewives using palm oil for cooking find it a boon. It does not smoke, foam, splutter or spit in your eyes, ruining your make-up and staining clothes. This is because gums and polymers do not form easily in palm oil, making it a superior frying medium. It also possesses strong oxidative stability, so in cooking it can be used over and over again for ages before it becomes rancid.

Palm oil has more or less replaced tallow and lard in manufacture of instant noodles in Japan, Korea and China. In Australia and New Zealand, it has replaced beef fat. Should you for any reason feel a 100 per cent palm oil solution is not convenient, it can always be blended. Palm oil is the perfect partner for blending with any other oils.

New findings using human subjects show that palm oil does not increase but reduce blood cholesterol levels. Incidentally, it is a fallacy to regard cholesterol as a villain, pure and simple. After all, a high percentage of our brain's dry matter is cholesterol. It is present in every tissue of the body and many of our hormones are derived from cholesterol, including vitamin D. Excessively high levels of cholesterol are associated with coronary heart disease.

Unfortunately, excessively low levels of cholesterol also end up with coronary heart disease in the form of haemorrhagic shock. According to the Council for Cholesterol Education of America, one should aim for a cholesterol level between 180 and 220 mg/dl. Do not go above 250 mg/dl nor sink below 159 mg/dl.