Palm oil is obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree and is used for cooking throughout the world. However, its production can be harmful to the environment, which is why products labeled “palm oil-free” have begun to appear in Western countries.
In Russia, such a mark also appeared, but for a different reason. Horror stories about palm oil are popular here: you can hear from journalists, State Duma deputies and even representatives of the food industry that palm oil is not digested and is not excreted from the body, prevents children from absorbing calcium, harms blood vessels and even causes cancer.
Let's deal with these myths separately.
"Not digestible"
Palm oil, like any other oil or fat, breaks down in the intestines into glycerol and fatty acids. “If a person is healthy and his pancreas produces enough lipase, digestion and absorption approaches 100 percent,” says gastroenterologist Alexey Paramonov. - If there is little lipase, excess oil will come out in the feces.
An example of oils that are not absorbed in the intestines are Vaseline and machine oil. But they are called oils only because of their external similarity, chemically being hydrocarbons. Nature did not expect us to ingest petroleum products, and provided enzymes only for oils and fats of plant and animal origin.”
“Deteriorates the quality of baby food”
Is it harmful for children to eat formula with palm oil? It is not the oil itself that is added to baby food, but palmitic acid isolated from it, and this is done to reproduce the composition of human breast milk, where this acid is also present.
There are studies showing that formula with palmitic acid from palm oil is less digestible than baby food without it. Acid from palm oil forms insoluble compounds with calcium, which are excreted from the child’s body in feces.
But the following position is no longer a myth:
Harmful to the environment
Russian media rarely remember that palm oil production is associated with a serious environmental threat.
To expand oil palm plantations, South Asia is destroying tropical forests that are home to endangered species such as orangutans and Sumatran tigers. People also suffer due to the fault of unscrupulous manufacturers. In Malaysia, while clearing new forest areas, farmers burned trees and drained peat swamps, which ultimately led to terrible fires on the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java.
Palm oil is a product of plant origin, extracted from the fruits of the fleshy part of the oil palm. It is actively used in baking and confectionery. It is also necessary to increase shelf life, since it is resistant to oxidation. So is palm oil harmful?
This product is used in the food, biochemical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and metallurgical industries.
What products does it contain:
- Chocolate;
- Gingerbread;
- Chips;
- Fast food;
- Butter rolls;
- Cakes;
- Sauces;
- Mayonnaise;
- Baby food;
- Fermented milk products;
- Ice cream.
Palm oil can be found in various products, this is due to its affordable price, long shelf life and pleasant taste.
Types of palm oil
Vegetable fat extracted from palm fruits is divided into types depending on the cleaning methods. Types of this product and what dangers do they pose?
Palm oil is:
- Red. It is extracted in an environmentally friendly way, so it retains most of its positive properties. It has a red color due to the presence of carotenoids, a nutty taste and a creamy smell. It does not last long and is considered one of the most expensive.
- Palm kernel. Solid oil, white or yellow in color. Used in the production of confectionery soap products. Extracted from oil palm seed.
- Pericarp oil. Yellow or dark yellow. Used for food and obtained by cold pressing.
- Refined. During processing, it loses its beneficial qualities; with the help of deodorization, the product loses all its taste and color properties. Used for frying potatoes and other food in public catering areas. Tasteless and transparent.
- Technical. Used in cosmetic products and produced in low purity. The entry of such oil into human nutrition negatively affects health; when accumulated in the body, it is modified and leads to serious consequences. Such a product is considered cheap, which pushes manufacturers to use it in different formulations.
What are the benefits for human health?
Are there any benefits from vegetable oil? Let's look at the composition and highlight its beneficial qualities for an adult body.
Includes:
- vitamins E, D, K;
- carotenoids;
- triglycerides;
- provitamin A;
- phospholipids;
- coenzyme Q10;
- unsaturated fats.
These components have a beneficial effect on the body.
Benefits of palm oil:
- Removes toxins;
- Improves heart function and vascular condition;
- Reduces blood cholesterol levels;
- Has a beneficial effect on the digestive tract;
- Accelerates the healing processes of internal and external wounds;
- Increases visual acuity;
- Improves the condition of the skin, hair and nails.
Vegetable fat is included in medicines. What ailments can this product protect against?
Application in medicine:
- For diabetes mellitus;
- Cold infections;
- Women's diseases (menopause, menstruation, cystitis);
- Prevention of attention disorders;
- In the complex treatment of diseases of bones and joints;
- Skin diseases.
The properties that the oils have have a positive effect on the course of pregnancy and improve the mother's breast milk.
The oil is also useful for children; its positive properties affect the formation of bones, teeth, visual acuity, brain and nerve centers.
Palm oil is a sought-after product in the cosmetics industry. It is included in creams, shampoos and shower gels, has softening and moisturizing properties, which has a beneficial effect on the skin and hair.
Palm oil, also called palm fat. How is it harmful to health? With the accumulation and excess of such a product in the body, its dangerous properties may manifest.
Harm to health:
- Increases cholesterol levels (clogs blood vessels, which leads to atherosclerosis and thrombosis);
- Increases the likelihood of cancer;
- Impairs the functioning of the cardiovascular system;
- The accumulation can cause a heart attack or stroke.
The price-quality ratio plays an important role; the cheaper the product, the lower the quality of the oils included in the composition. The inscription: “with milk fat substitute” indicates the dangers of the product, not the benefits.
Growing oil palm has a negative impact on the environment. A large number of tropical forests are being cut down, and with them all wildlife, birds and animals that are classified as endangered species.
What harm is it for the child?
Palm fat is found in many foods and is included in various infant formulas. In newborn babies, it can cause digestive discomfort and colic. What else is harmful about oil for a child?
Symptoms of poisoning:
- Stomach ache;
- Bloating, abnormal stool;
- Calcium deficiency;
- Not absorbed by children's bodies.
Myths about palm oil
Due to the frequent use of palm fats in various industries, myths have formed around it.
Myths about oil:
- Harmful, you should not buy food that contains it. Certain types of oil have a negative effect, but the lightly processed red product also has many beneficial properties.
- Approved for use in the chemical industry. It is actively used in the food industry and undergoes thorough customs control before importation into the country.
- Banned in some countries. It is used intensively around the world and has not yet been found to ban the oil in any country.
- It is impossible to distinguish harmful fat from healthy fat. For example, products such as ice cream and chocolate can be tested for the presence of harmful fat. If the products melt quickly, then they do not use vegetable fat, and if they do not melt and have a long shelf life, then most likely it is a harmful analogue.
Based on the above, palm oil is divided into different types and, depending on this, is classified as harmful or beneficial. During your next trip to the store, look at the ingredients of the products you purchase.
Video: is palm oil beneficial or harmful?
Palm oil has gained immense popularity among confectionery manufacturers and in the fast food system. The shelf life of products to which it is added is significantly increased, the presentation is improved, the cost is reduced, and the taste becomes refined and refined. But cheap exotic oil, which is beneficial for commodity producers, is harmful to human health.
What is palm oil, how and from what is it produced?
The oil is produced from the oil palm. When the fleshy part of the fruit is processed, a thick red or yellow-orange liquid is obtained, which has a pleasant sweet taste and the aroma of milk cream. The main component of this product is palmitic acid. It also contains a mixture of glycerol esters and fatty acids (triacylglycerides). The chemical composition is similar to butter. It is produced in various types, they all differ in melting point and quality.
Types of Edible Palm Oils
Over the past twenty years, global production of this oil has increased 4.2 times.
Where is it used?
Palm oil is part of all of our favorite food products: Large quantities of it are added to chocolate, various candies, cakes, muffins and other confectionery products that children love very much.
This is interesting! How to check what vegetable fats are contained in a chocolate bar? To do this, you need to pick up a piece of chocolate. If it does not melt, this indicates that palm oil has been added to the chocolate as a vegetable fat.
It is added to margarines and spreads, fast food products, processed cheeses, yoghurts, baby formula and other products.
Palm oil is a cheap substitute for animal fats, so it is indispensable in the preparation of fast foods, cheeseburgers, chips, and fries.
Because of their special taste, people fell in love with these products and can no longer do without them.
Why is palm oil harmful?
Most buyers were happy to buy inexpensive, beautiful confectionery products that did not spoil or lose their shape even in the heat. But gradually rumors began to spread about the dangers of palm oil.
Indeed, in pursuit of profit, some manufacturers seek to increase the amount of palm oil in their products, since it gives them a pleasant taste, looks more appetizing and lasts longer. But due to the high content of saturated fatty acids in this ingredient, products containing it become harmful. And due to the high heat resistance of the oil, in the body it acquires the consistency of plasticine, which makes it difficult to process. Most of this food remains in the body in the form of waste.
Therefore, the World Health Organization released an official document in 2005 that contained recommendations to reduce palm oil additives in foods.
The impact dose promotes the accumulation of fatty acids in cell biomembranes. Because of this, their transport functions gradually begin to be disrupted. This leads to vascular and heart diseases, and sexual dysfunction.
It is especially harmful when combined with carbohydrates, which is why delicious sweets or cakes often lead to the development of obesity and atherosclerosis.
Are palm oil products dangerous for children?
Many baby formulas contain palm oil. After all, it contains palmitic acid, which is found in breast milk. It does not cause allergic reactions, and it also contains a lot of very useful vitamin A. In addition, these are unusually tasty products, babies drink these baby formulas with pleasure, thanks to them they gain weight well.
But the child’s body is not able to extract useful substances from the oil, this is due to its high melting point. In addition, it actively removes calcium necessary for the proper formation of the child’s skeletal system. Therefore, pediatricians recognized that such mixtures are dangerous for newborns.
The consequences of such feeding may be as follows:
- frequent regurgitation;
- constant colic;
- constipation;
- loss of calcium.
Despite these consequences, some parents believe marketers' claims about the benefits of this product and continue to feed their children formulas that contain palm oil. But most scientists believe that the child’s body is not ready for the stress that this product brings.
Is it okay to eat or avoid foods that contain palm oil?
This is a relatively new product for Russia; debates about its harms and benefits have not subsided for several years. It truly has unique beneficial properties. But this only applies to expensive red oil. It does not end up in common food products. The commercial interests of manufacturers do not allow the use of expensive raw materials, so they add technical oil to their products, which is dangerous for humans.
Why did they start adding palm oil to all products? Properties of palm oil, what causes its harm to humans. Why is palm oil harmful to humans?
In Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, a plant such as oil palm is very common. This is a very cheap product, and the composition of palm oil is very close to butter. Both palm oil and butter contain the same amount of saturated fatty acids, but palm oil has twice the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids. There is also a difference in texture; at a temperature of 45 degrees, palm oil remains creamy, so it is convenient to use for the production of dairy products and confectionery products.
Palm oil for domestic use in producing countries is different from what is exported, including to our country. In order to obtain high-quality palm oil, fresh fruits are needed; the pressing process takes place no later than 24 hours after harvesting the fruits from the palm tree. Raw materials undergo multi-level preparation and cleaning, then are packaged in sealed containers for sale. Processing and packaging must occur very quickly; the seal of the packaging must not be broken, otherwise the oil will undergo oxidation processes. Oxidized palm oil poses a huge health hazard; this product is toxic and can cause cancer. In Russia there is a regulation on the food industry; according to the document, only high-quality palm oil should be allowed into production, but despite this, manufacturers often use oxidized palm oil.
There is an opinion that palm oil cannot be broken down in the human body due to its high melting point, but this is not true. A special lipase enzyme works in the human intestine; it performs the function of breaking down fats and can cope with palm oil, as with other oils. However, the high melting point will affect the digestion time, the process will take longer.
Why is palm oil dangerous?
Palm oil, like many other common foods, contains saturated fatty acids; their excessive consumption leads to damage to the integrity of the walls of blood vessels. This is just one of the reasons leading to such consequences, but it is very common. The American Heart Association does not recommend exceeding the daily allowance of saturated fat - this is 7% of the total daily calorie intake, and if you consume palm oil, it will be very easy to exceed the allowance.
By using palm oil, the manufacturer is misleading the consumer. It is beneficial to add a low-cost product to dairy products and confectionery products instead of butter, to fry chips and other snacks with it, and it can also be omitted from the composition. According to the rules of the current legislation, cheese using palm oil should be used as a cheese product, cottage cheese – as a curd product, but this recommendation is constantly violated.
There are several criteria by which you can identify the palm oil content in products. The first and main one is cost; palm oil products are significantly cheaper. Cheese costing 250-300 rubles per kilogram and cottage cheese costing 100 rubles per kilogram cannot be natural; they are made cheaper by palm oil. If we are talking about dairy products, then they should not contain vegetable fats, so if you find such a component in the composition, you should know that palm oil is veiled.
Palm oil becomes even more dangerous when it undergoes hydrogenation, that is, when it is turned into a solid fat. In the process, trans fats are formed; they are structurally disconnected from those fats that a person needs.
The body uses fats to build cell membranes; it is very difficult to build them from trans fats, and if it does, the cell will become unviable.
Cells begin to deteriorate without reaching the end of their biological cycle, this accelerates aging and contributes to the development of age-related diseases.
Most often, palm oil is present in those products that already have enough harmful additives - these are chips and crackers, cookies and sweets, yoghurts and processed cheese with a large amount of dyes, flavors, stabilizers, salt and sugar. Palm oil is also used for frying; it is used for cooking in inexpensive fast food establishments. The frying process is the most harmful food processing, and even more so with low-quality oil. If you choose the most natural products for your diet, you will protect your body from the harmful effects of palm oil.
Palm oil so widely used in the food industry that today it is easier to name products where it is not present. Nowadays, a cheap substitute for traditional vegetable fats is added to confectionery products, semi-finished products, and puff pastry products. It is contained in chips, crackers, and almost all types of sauces. As well as processed cheese, butter, margarines, instant foods, sweets, chocolate. And this is not a complete list. Even baby food is not an exception.
At first glance, it may seem that if it is a product of plant origin, then it is harmless. It turns out not at all.
The harm of palm oil quite serious.
Where does it come from
Palm oil is obtained in several ways. The first is from palm seeds, it is called stone fruit or palm kernel. It is widely used in cosmetology and as a medicine.
The second is obtained from the fleshy part of the oil palm fruit. It is used for the production of stearin, in soap making, as a material for lubricating metallurgical and other equipment. Today it is also widely used in the food industry. It has a reddish-orange color, a pleasant smell, and a nutty taste. Despite its ability to enhance the taste of a culinary product, palm oil is harmful to health.
According to statistics, approximately 35 million tons of palm oil are produced per year. The largest producers are located in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Improves taste - clogs blood vessels
Palm and coconut oils are very high in saturated fat. Such fats from plant sources are very resistant to environmental influences. Therefore, the products that contain them are stored for a long time and do not lose their taste. In other words, it is a good preservative. Using it, the presentation of products is improved, the taste characteristics are enhanced, the shelf life is increased, and the cost of the product is reduced. But while this is economically beneficial for producers, it is very harmful for consumers.
Nutritionists explain that saturated fats contained in palm oil are harmful to human health. The human digestive system is not adapted to such food. Consumption of saturated fats leads to lipid metabolism disorders, increased cholesterol levels, as a result of which blood vessels are affected and atherosclerotic processes occur. The body wears out and ages faster.
Previously, it was believed that vegetable margarine was healthier than butter. But since manufacturers began to massively replace olive, sunflower, and corn oils with palm and coconut oils, margarine has become hazardous to health.
Palm oil is harmful to health
Many countries have refused to import this product and limited its use in the food industry, since its use causes serious harm to the health of citizens. Saturated fatty acids are poorly soluble in the human digestive system. They, like plasticine, have the ability to be deposited on the walls of blood vessels, forming atherosclerotic deposits and blood clots. This provokes the development of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, palm oil is a very strong carcinogen. Therefore, it can cause oncological processes.
The harm of palm oil is also its ability to cause some kind of addiction. It enhances the taste of the product, as if it makes you want more and more of it. Over time, it can be very difficult to give up your favorite foods, such as chips, hamburgers, some types of ice cream, sweets, sauces, and semi-finished products.
Nutritionists advise exclude from your diet foods containing this cheap fat substitute. When shopping at the grocery store, carefully read the information written on the label. If the product contains palm oil, do not buy it.
You should be especially careful when buying products for children. The dangerous ingredient can be used as a milk substitute or added to ready-made breakfast cereals.
Oils containing large amounts of linoleic acid are considered valuable. The greater its content, the more valuable the variety. Medium-quality vegetable oil contains approximately 70-75% linoleic acid. Olive, corn, and sunflower seeds are good for health. Palm contains only 5% linoleic acid.
Be careful what you eat! Don't eat foods that are harmful to your health!
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