Palm oil is a paradox. On the one hand it contains a healthy vessel components, on the other – contains other components that are harmful to the cardiovascular system. Almost everyone has heard about palm oil, at least about the fact that it is often a part of many food products. But few understand what the benefits and harms of palm oil, without excessive horror stories. Most, if possible, try to avoid products containing palm oil in its composition. Are they right? Now we’ll figure it out.
Palm trees are different – coconut, banana, oil. The last of the fruits and produce palm oil. It is from the fruit. No trunk, no leaves. Unlike other vegetable oils, palm oil is not liquid. It’s solid, and there is a good reason: the palm oil rich in saturated fats. In this it is reminiscent of the famous all butter (animal) oil. Palm oil is relatively cheap, so in the era of import substitution of many products on the shelves of Russian stores began to precisely contain palm oil. For example, the vast majority of cheap cheese composed only of palm oil but not milk fat. Palm oil is found in many famous patisseries and even in infant formula. Bad or not, this will be discussed below.
The use of palm oil
Palm oil contains no TRANS fats. TRANS fats are formed during hydrogenation of liquid vegetable oils in the process of curing. Palm oil and so its consistency is solid, so there is no need to subject it to hydrogenation. And this is a definite plus, because this reduces the negative effects of the consumption of palm oil for vascular health, or as exogenous carcinogenic factors.
Palm oil is a direct competitor of olive oil. Olive oil, besides taste (which, by the way, on the fan), valued for the large amount in its composition of monounsaturated fatty acids omega-9, presented in the form of oleic acid. These acids in olive oil as much as 75%! However, as it may seem strange that palm oil contains at least and less oleic acid (40%), but this is much more than other liquid known to contain oil. But oleic acid reduces the level of bad cholesterol in blood, strengthens immunity, is important for carbohydrate metabolism and even reduces the risk of developing cancer.
Palm oil contains essential fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are not able to be produced in the human body and must come from food. Palm oil contains in its composition of about 10% of these acids, presented in the form of omega-6.
Palm oil is an antioxidant. Any product containing vitamin E, in fact, is an antioxidant. Palm oil is no exception.
Palm oil – a source of vitamin A. Palm oil is a bright red color. And almost all of the products yellow or red contain some amount of vitamin A. Palm oil contains large amount of vitamin A, thereby creating a problem: an excess of vitamin A is extremely harmful to their toxicity. Having examined the beneficial properties of palm oil, which turned out to be unexpectedly high, let us consider the hazardous properties of the product.
Harm palm oil
Palm oil is a source of saturated fat. Saturated fats are harmful to the body because they increase the number of circulating in the bloodstream low density lipoprotein (LDL), which is considered the main reason for the development of atherosclerosis. One could argue that butter also contains saturated fats, but no calls to abandon it? It’s not the presence of saturated fat, but their numbers, which gets into our body with food. Because of the extremely high distribution of palm oil in the ingredients of various foods we eat much more saturated fat than is recommended. Just recommended amount of saturated fat in the diet did not exceed a day 10% of the total caloric content of the diet. Otherwise, increases dramatically the chance of dying of atherosclerosis and its consequences.
Palm oil reduces the body’s absorption of calcium. Cheap infant formula, normally where there is palm oil in palm olein, the problem occurs with the absorption of calcium by children from the same mixture, which may adversely affect the health of children, because the calcium is vital for the formation and growth of bone structures and is used in muscle contractions. In the more expensive blends that use palm oil with a slightly modified structure, this problem is successfully solved.
Palm oil contains cholesterol. Despite the fact that palm oil is a vegetable oil, it contains little cholesterol due to the large presence in the composition of saturated fat. And though the per 100 grams the amount of cholesterol is quite small, but coupled with the atherosclerotic threats, which carries a large amount of saturated fat, drinking large quantities of palm oil in food dramatically increases the risk of formation of cholesterol deposits.
