palm oil/ palm kernal oil

[c]

I understand one or the other is bad for you, which one is it and why? Or are both just as bad? Thanks!

[Joseph E]

Both types of tropical palm tree fats are high in saturated fat. Most doctors and scientists believe saturated fats are related to atherosclerosis, heart disease and the like. Most of the research was done on animal fats (like lard, hamburgers and butter), but it seems to extend to saturated fats from plant sources, and even artificial fats. "Trans-fats" like margarine and shortening seem to have the same bad effect on cholesterol levels and your arteries.

I would recommend using palm oil only on occasion. The same is true of coconut cream, butter, margarine, lard and shortening, and hamburgers and chicken thighs and sausage for that matter. But if you feel free to cook with or eat those other things at times, just use moderation. And remember to get your cholesterol levels checked when you see your doctor sometime this year.

See Epicurious:

"palm oil; palm-kernel oil
The reddish-orange oil extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the African palm. It's extremely high in saturated fat (78 percent) and has a distinctive flavor that is popular in West African and Brazilian cooking. Palm-kernel oil, though also high in saturated fat, is a different oil extracted from the nut or kernel of palms. It's a yellowish-white color and has a pleasantly mild flavor. Palm-kernel oil is used in the manufacture of margarine and cosmetics. It's usually listed on labels simply as "palm oil." "

Link: http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/how...

[paulj]

These saturated tropical oil have the useful property of being solid at higher temperatures than most other oils, and even butter and lard. For example it is easier to make puff pastry with such fats, because the temperture control isn't a critical.

For a number of years we were told how bad they were because they are saturated. What is unclear is how much of that message was promoted by their temperate fat competitors (soy and corn oil producers). Now transfats (made from soy and similar oils) are the bad boys, and these tropical fats don't appear to be quite so bad.

However large scale production of palm oils is one of the factors driving tropical deforestation. But soy production in Brazil has the same problem.

Given current knownledge on these fats, my inclination is to use 'responsibly grown' palm oil sparingly, as an alternative to Crisco, in situations where its temperature characteristics are desirable.

paulj

[Robert Lauriston]

The supposed expets who tell us to avoid tropical oils are the same ones who just a few years ago were telling us that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil was healthier than butter. It's not clear to me that their judgment on coconut and palm oil has any more basis in fact.

Unfortunately most of the research on this matter is funded by the tropical oil industry.

[toodie jane]

I've read that the post-WWII push toward veggie oils (corn, etc.)away from lard and butter was done by studies funded by the grain conglomerates in the 50's and 60's to find a market for the huge amounts of oil that could be refined from those subsidised commodities. Always a vested interest behind 'scientific' studies, it seems.

[Spoony Bard]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that red palm oil is a powerhouse of carotene. Its richest natural source, in fact. And, as mentioned in the epicurious piece, it is sorely missed when omitted from your lamb mafé.

That's just to say- stop leaving out the red palm oil for squeamish, oil-phobic, dietary-spastic Americans! I'm talking to you, 116th St.

Thank you.

[Melanie Wong]

You might enjoy this old thread on dende.

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...