Palm oil is good and bad

Reading the composition of various products, you can often find in the list of such an ingredient as palm oil. It is so loved by producers for their cheapness, the ability to improve taste and extend the shelf life of products due to their high oxidizing ability. Since palm oil in food can be found very often, you should know what effect it has on our body.

On the Benefits of Palm Tree Oil

Many people are interested in what palm oil is made of. Obtain it from the fruit of the tree of the oil palm, so it's nice to note that this exotic product is natural, which means that there are some useful compounds in it.

1. Vitamin E , contained in palm oil, has a special chemical structure - it refers to tocotrienols. Tokotrienols have a very high antioxidant capacity and penetrate even into the deep layers of tissues. This kind of oil is one of the few products-sources of tocotrienols.
2. Provitamin A, which is a part of palm oil, in our body is transformed into vitamin A, necessary to maintain vision, skin and hair in good condition.
3. Also, palm tree oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, which contribute to the reduction of "harmful" cholesterol in the blood.

What is harmful palm oil?

However, these are not all the features that palm oil possesses, the benefit from it is not great, and harm, according to most experts, is much more serious.

This type of oil contains a large number of saturated fatty acids and relatively low unsaturated fats, so the frequent use of palm oil leads to the development of atherosclerosis. In this regard, nutritionists do not recommend eating palm oil containing foods, people with high blood cholesterol levels, and women who have entered the menopause period, because of the hormonal changes that they have, the chances of developing atherosclerosis are significantly increased. On this, the harm of palm oil for a person does not end.

Palm tree oil is often added to a mixture for baby food. Today it is proved that it binds calcium in the intestine and removes it from the body. Thus, according to many pediatricians, palm oil can provoke the development of rickets in children. The consistency of this vegetable oil is dense and elastic, and the temperature at which it becomes liquid exceeds the temperature of the human body. That is, in the gastrointestinal tract, this oil remains dense, because of which it lingers on the walls of the intestine, prevents parietal digestion and absorption of nutrients.

As a result, we can conclude that the damage from the palm oil significantly exceeds its potential benefit. Experts agree with this, therefore, in some countries, the use of this oil is completely abandoned or at least limited to its import. At us it is actively used for preparation of a batch, confectionery cream and a glaze, ice-cream, chocolate, margarines, so-called fast food . Yes, palm oil contains vitamin E in active form, but it can also be obtained from rice or barley, incidentally, the same applies to provitamin A. Unsaturated fatty acids in this oil are very few, and in its composition it is more like animal fat. So you should pay attention to vegetable oils, which contain much more unsaturated fats (olive, corn) and try to choose products with them.