Spreading awareness about palm oil in my own small way. [palm oil, harmful effects, nutrition, diet, perfect woman magazine, Anjali Peswani]

 preading awareness about palm oil in my own small way. [palm oil, harmful effects, nutrition, diet, perfect woman magazine, Anjali Peswani]

The food industry has so many products to choose from. There are stacks of food products especially in the packaged section to choose from. Most of these products use Palm oil which has suddenly come into the limelight a lot recently. The good, the bad and everything you need to know about this oil is mentioned below. Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of plan trees. Palm oil is available in abundance in countries with tropical climates.

– Why is palm oil harmful?

Compared to other liquid oils, palm oil is relatively high in saturated fats. Palm oil is about 49% of saturated fats while olive oil is less than half of that.

– Why are saturated fats bad?

Saturated fats boost “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides, both of which are risk factors for heart disease and chronic conditions.

– In what products is palm oil found?

Palm oil is cost effective and is found in a number of packaged products like packaged foods, detergents, shampoos etc. It is mainly used as a natural preservative which extends the shelf life of products. It is found in more than half of all packaged products we consume. Bread, frozen desserts, potato chips, instant noodles, biscuits, chocolates all contain palm oil.

– How can we lower the intake of palm oil?

We can first reduce the consumption of packaged food products which use palm oil. Some substitutes which are trustworthy that can be used instead are ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, soybeanoil and sunflower oil.

Dr Anjali