Palm oil is harmful: Myth or truth

The role of fats, especially palm oil, in health and industry is complex. While studies don't directly link saturated fats to CVD, high fat intake remains a concern. Palm oil is versatile and efficient to produce, but its cultivation raises serious ethical and environmental issues.

The history of fats

For about 40 years, there has been an anti-fat agenda in the food industry, where fats from food are blamed for cardiovascular diseases (CVD).

The hypothesis is based on the following dogmas:

• Fats contain more calories per gram (9 kcal / g) than proteins and carbohydrates (4 kcal / g). Therefore, overconsumption of calories is more likely with a high-fat diet.

• Fats - especially saturated ones - contain cholesterol, and high cholesterol in the blood is the cause of CVD.

For these reasons, palm oil, which is 50% saturated fats (1), is an “undesirable” product in the human diet. Despite this, palm oil remains the most common oil used in the food industry (2). Why is that?

Fats and CVD

Going into the details of the latest research, it becomes clear that the stigma of fats and their association with CVD is not a modern view of healthy eating. A meta-analysis that included 347,747 subjects from cohort studies showed no direct association between saturated fats and CVD (3). In addition, the authors of a 2018 systematic review of the association between palm oil and CVD conclude: ”The current review cannot provide convincing evidence for or against palm oil consumption regarding the risk and mortality of cardiovascular diseases.” (4). However, the association between high fat intake and mortality remains consistent in modern studies (5). It can be concluded that fats, including saturated fats, do not “cause” diseases in themselves, but can contribute to their development.

Why is palm oil found in many products?

There are several reasons:

• Palm oil cultivation is a very efficient process. A hectare of palm oil plantation can produce 3.3 tons of oil, while a hectare of sunflowers produces only 0.7 tons (6).

• Palm oil is an extremely versatile oil. It is resistant to oxidation, so it can extend the shelf life of foods; it is stable at high temperatures, so it helps give fried foods a crispy texture;

Ethical Issue

Palm oil is produced from the Elaeis guineensis plant, which grows in Africa. Due to high global demand for palm oil, the plant has been grown in countries such as Malaysia, creating over 490,000 jobs and increasing GDP (7). However, this trend has also had negative consequences, including the clearing of healthy forests for palm plantations. This, in turn, provokes changes in the ecosystem and the extinction of animals such as orangutans (8). In addition, the production of palm oil increases carbon dioxide emissions, and the workers are often children. For these reasons, The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created to make production as environmentally friendly and ethically acceptable as possible.

Benefits

Human studies show that vitamin E in palm oil can help protect delicate polyunsaturated fats in the brain (9), slow the progression of dementia (10), reduce the risk of stroke (11), and prevent the growth of brain lesions (12).

In the food industry, palm oil is used mainly to replace animal fats and trans fats (13).

Conclusion

Palm oil is a very versatile product that does not contain any unique harmful effects than any other fats. The main complaints about palm oil are its high fat content and the moral aspects of its production. An adequate diet and the purchase of products with the RSPO label will help to avoid the above-mentioned problems and get only the beneficial properties of the oil.