Often, consumers tend to think that palm oil is similar to coconut oil, which is also high in lauric and myristic acids. This misconception leads many to believe that palm oil consumption is "unhealthy". This gives palm oil a "bad name".
The following 16 health facts about palm oil will enlighten you on the nutritional properties of palm oil for human health. These facts are based on the findings of numerous research centers and reputable institutions around the world. The literature is listed in the hope that it will help everyone to get more detailed and accurate information about the nutritional properties of palm oil
16 Health Facts
CAC
Palm oil is one of 17 vegetable oils that have been labeled by the FAO and WHO under the leadership of the CAC.
Food
Palm oil has been used as a food for more than 5,000 years.
Saturated Fatty Acids
Palm oil is made from the pulp of the palm fruit by steaming and pressing. Because it does not contain significant amounts of capric, lauric, and myristic acids, the saturated fatty acid fraction is low, and it is distinctly different from palm kernel oil and coconut oil.
Unsaturated Fatty Acids
Palm oil contains a balanced ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, with approximately 44% palmitic acid, 5% stearic acid (both saturated), 40% oleic (unsaturated), 10% linoleic, and 0.4% alpha-linolenic (both polyunsaturated).
Cholesterol
Like other vegetable oils, palm oil does not contain cholesterol (4, 5).
Cooking oils
Today, palm oil is used worldwide as cooking oil, margarine, and shortening, and is also added to flavoring oils and various foods (6).
Trans fatty acids
For most foods, palm oil does not need to be hydrogenated and therefore does not produce trans fatty acids (7-8).
Vitamin A source
Refined palm oil is rich in tocopherols and tocotrienols, which have the functional activity of vitamin E when applied to foods. Red palm oil is rich in carotenoids and can be applied as having functional vitamin A source (9).
Cyclic polymers
Palm oil is a good frying oil without hydrogenation. It is not an unsaturated fat like, for example, soybean, corn and sunflower oils, which are less susceptible to oxidation and resist the formation of polar components and cyclic polymers (10).
Edible oils
Palm oil is a source of calories like other common edible oils and is also easily digested, absorbed and utilized (11).
Many recent studies in Europe, the United States and Asia have confirmed that total blood cholesterol does not rise significantly when palm oil is substituted for most other fats in the diet (12-18).
High-density cholesterol
In the studies mentioned above, the beneficial high-density cholesterol was either significantly increased or unchanged.
13
Lipoproteins in plasma, a major risk indicator for coronary heart disease, were significantly reduced when palm oil was used as the main dietary fat (19).
Improvement of cholesterol
Palm oil has been shown to be an essential component in today's dietary recommendations to achieve a balanced ratio between saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. When people have such a balanced ratio of fatty acids in their diet, it improves the overall cholesterol ratio (20).
Carotenoids
Other components contained in palm oil: carotenoids, tocopherols, and tocotrienols have properties that include antioxidant properties, anticancer properties, and cholesterol-lowering properties that are beneficial to health. In addition, carotenoids in palm oil have biological activity as a source of vitamin A (21-24).