What does Palm Oil mean to you?
To me it means devastation of habitat, in particular rain forest, and the possible extinction of Urang Utans, Elephants and a lot of other animals that require access to large tracts of rain forest.
But having said that it wins no brownie points for health either being a saturated oil it has the ability to cause coronary artery blockages and strokes. Because it is cheap and we are disgustingly greedy we will choose Palm Oil over more sensible oils because of price, the plantation owners couldn't care about anything other than profit margins, they have even got an American Naturopath to endorse their product as a health food, I wonder how much they paid him for that?. See for yourself.....
"The Palm Oil Miracle by Dr. Bruce Fife N.D. states: "Palm oil has been used as both a food and a medicine for thousands of years. It was prized by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt as a sacred food. Today palm oil is the most widely used oil in the world.
Palm oil is one of the world’s healthiest oils. As a natural vegetable oil, it contains no trans fatty acids or cholesterol. It is currently being used by doctors and government agencies to treat specific illnesses and improve nutritional status . "
Look for Palm Oil in your cakes, biscuits and off the shelf items, and do yourself, the planet, Urang Utans, Elephants etc a favour and leave them on the shelf.
Once again a sensible piece of advice from HealthCastle back in 2004
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Gloria
post Jul 6 2004, 11:48 AM
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Thanks Alex for asking this question. Virgin coconut oil is another mystery which has been puzzling me for a while. I noticed that there are many websites promoting that "Virgin Coconut Oil is the healthiest oil on earth". We know that coconut oil is high in saturated fats and low in mono- and poly-unsaturated fats. We also know that saturated fats are considered the "bad fats" as they raise total blood cholesterol and mono- & poly-unsaturated fats are considered the "good fats" as they can lower LDL cholesteorl and raise HDL cholesterol. So if coconut is high in the bad fats and low in the good fats and they have not been modified, how can it be the healthiest oil on earth?
Coconut Oil: 87% saturated; 6% mono; 2% poly
Canola Oil: 7% saturated; 58% mono; 29% poly
Corn oil: 13% saturated; 24% mono; 60% poly
The manufacturers claim that their coconut oil is high in lauric acid, a type of medium chain fatty acids. There is no scientific evidence yet to prove that lauric acid is health promoting for normal and healthy individuals other than for HIV patients and patients on ketogenic diets or with GI diesease or premature babies. So health benefits of virgin coconut oil for healthy individuals is yet to see.
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Gloria Tsang, RD
Forum Moderator & Administrator
Once again,as if there was ever any doubt, this proves you can rely on advice from this forum as soon as it is validated.
Cheers
