Palm Oil: Benefits, Controversies, and Environmental Impact

Palm oil is a very controversial product. Some health advocates restrict its use in food products, while others consider it useful and even beneficial.

We decided to figure out what the palm tree is and how much it is useful or harmful to humans.

Unexpectedly, palm oil is used both in the food industry and in manufacturing cosmetics, detergents, and even biofuels.

The palm tree does not need fertilizers and pesticides; it is rich in fruits and gives two crops a year — this explains its cheapness in comparison with sunflower oil, for example, and is the main reason for the growth in demand and global palm production.

Unrefined palm oil contains vitamins A, E, coenzyme Q10, B6, D, and F. Processed oil is often used in food production.

Palm oil is specially treated (hydrogenation process), and after that becomes a solid substance like wax. All the useful properties come to naught. But there are "bad" fatty acids, which are the cause of cholesterol growth.

In addition, according to studies, palm oil in baby food leads to a decrease in calcium absorption (approximately 1.5 times).

It is acceptable to use palm oil in small quantities. Frequent use of the "palm" leads to the blocking of receptors that are involved in the processing of polyunsaturated fatty acids. For example, you ate a product in which palm oil is present, and then decided to take fish oil, but then you will not get any benefit from fish oil.

Reading the composition of the product, you can find there an ingredient such as vegetable fat, vegetable oil, or palm olein — all of that is palm oil.

Recently, laws have appeared regulating the volume of "palm" in products. In Europe, palm oil with a purity of 0.5 is allowed to be added to foods. And for the countries of the former CIS, the permissible indicator is 10 (the higher the degree of purification, the worse the oil).

We advise you to pay attention to the presence of RSPO markings. This is a certificate that confirms that all the requirements for the extraction, refining, storage, and transportation of palm oil are met.

Let me add another spoonful of tar:

More and more rainforests are being destroyed in order to increase the area of ​​oil palm plantations. This has a devastating effect on some species of plants and animals. Destroyed territories were often the habitat of rare and endangered species or served as corridors of wildlife between areas of genetic diversity.