Is it true that palm oil is dangerous to health?

It is believed that it is better not to buy products containing palm oil, since their use can harm the body. We decided to check whether such fears have reasons.

Articles that palm oil provokes cancer increases cholesterol and in other ways it has a negative effect on health, you can Meet On news resources, in the glossy magazines, on the portals about diets And nutrition, sites About modern technologies. There are on the Internet Lists "Palm oil that can never be eaten." Write about its possible harm and Internet users on blogs on "Zen" And "Pulse". Similar discussions are frequent on the portals of services questions And answers. Some researchers even Compare The actions of producers of palm oil with the operation of tobacco and alcohol lobby, when the harmful product is obvious (in the case of cigarettes and alcohol), thanks to marketing, becomes popular.

Palm oil Received from the fruits of oil palms. This is the most popular vegetable oil in the world, since for its production it is necessary several times less than agricultural vehicles than to obtain the same amount of sunflower, rapeseed or soybean. In addition, palm oil has a number of advantages: it retains a semi -hard consistency at room temperature, which is convenient when preparing various spreads (for example, chocolate pasta), it does not oxidize for a long time (which means that products with it are stored longer), does not have a pronounced color, taste and smell (that is, does not affect the appearance and organoleptic characteristics of the finished product). It is not surprising that palm oil is popular in the food industry: in 2020, the global volume of its production achieved 73 million tons, and by 2050, experts predict an increase in this indicator to at least 264 million tons. And all this, despite the no better reputation of this product.

Palm oil Includes There are several types of fatty acids: saturated (49 g per 100 g of the product), polyunsaturated (9 g) and mono -saturated (37 g). For comparison, c Olive only 14 g of saturated fatty acids, and in Sunflower - 10 g. It is this type of fat counts The most harmful to health, with the exception of, perhaps, transfiners, which are even more harmful. It is interesting that it is precisely the rejection of trans fats in connection with their adverse effects on the body CALL In the 1990s, such an active spread of palm oil in countries where it was not previously used.

American Cardiological Association warns From the use of a large number of products containing saturated fats, recommending to limit 13 g per day. Otherwise, the level of "bad" cholesterol (scientists Distinguish Two types of this substance: low density lipoprotein, the same “bad”, accumulating on the walls of blood vessels, and high density lipoprotein, which, on the contrary, reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases) in the blood may increase and create a threat to health. The same opinion about saturated fats adhere to and experts of the US National Medical Library (although they indicate the permissible norm of use of 22 g). True, such fats are contained not only in palm oil, but also in red meat (beef, pork, lamb), in fat and poultry (especially if it is with the skin). Harvard Medical School experts Markthat palm oil is a healthier choice than trans fats or butter (There are also a lot of saturated fats - 51 g per 100 g), but it is better to give preference to olive or rapeseed.

In addition, there are studies confirming that the repeatedly heated palm oil used in cooking or included in semi -finished products further increases the risk of atherosclerosis than “fresh”. Malaysian scientists (and Malaysia is one of countries - leaders for the production of palm oil) in 2012 experiment: Laboratory rats were divided into three groups, one of which was fed with fresh oil, the second - heated five times, the third - heated ten times. Six months later, the researchers saw that the most powerful atherosclerotic changes were prone to blood vessels of rats, which received re -heated oil from food.

By data Sanitary supervision of the quality of food and US medicines (FDA), refined palm oil contains Glycydyl ethers (impurities formed as a result of heating of vegetable oils above 230 ° C). Unlike unrefined (that is, just squeezed from the bone), refined (or peeled) oils pass several degrees Processing: refining itself (all impurities are removed from fatty acids, including useful ones), whitening and deodorization (oil steaming at a temperature of 240–260 ° C for cleaning from odors). Actually, this last process leads to the formation of glycydyl ethers. In large concentrations, they, in turn, become a carcinogen for animals and a probable carcinogen for people. European food safety department (EFSA) NotesThe grounds for anxiety for health when using products containing these ethers are really. This is especially true for those in whose diet they are contained in large quantities, and young children. IN research, which EFSA spent in 2016, in rats that received glycydol (a substance into which glycydyl esters are converted when it enters the gastrointestinal tract), various tumors were more often formed. Nevertheless, data confirming that the use of palm oil can provoke a person’s development of cancer or other tumors, so far.

Moreover, since 2019, the European Union has been Standardssetting the maximum allowable amount of glycydyl ethers in food products, so the conditional Nutella (producing its company Ferrero Faced With a fall in sales after the publication of the aforementioned study on rats), most likely, is quite safe. In Russia, this is standard Not yet, although conversations about its introduction are periodically conducted.

In 2018, authoritative Spanish experts in the field of dietetics, nutrition, toxicology and related disciplines met in Madrid to develop a consensus opinion about the influence of palm oil on human health. Having studied the results of various studies, they came to conclusionthat at that time there was no sufficiently convincing evidence that the use of palm oil somehow increased the risk of cancer in humans. Some studies that revealed this relationship were carried out on animals, to project these results on a person unfounded.

As for the potential effect of palm oil on the development of obesity in comparison with other oils, here the researchers failed to detect a direct relationship. This is confirmed results A review of scientific research conducted in 2018 by experts of several medical organizations at the Ministry of Health of Malaysia.

Thus, today there is no convincing scientific evidence that the use of palm oil in the composition of food increases the risk of cancer in people, although in animals this effect was really recorded. Due to the high content of saturated fats, this oil is really not too good for health and can contribute to the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, the same effect has a high level of use, such as red meat and fatty poultry. Experts advise generally less foods with a high content of saturated fats. So, most likely, a reduction in the amount of palm oil in the diet and replacing it with olive or rapeseed, which contain much less this type of fat, will be a good idea.

Half truth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. The Conversation. How Palm Oil Became the World’s Most Hated, Most Used Fat Source
2. The Guardian. How the World Got Hooken On Palm Oil
3. Is it true that the use of GMO products can change your genetic code?
4. Is it true that the use of soy is harmful to health?