Palm Oil is NOT a Healthy Replacement for Partially-Hydrogenated Oils
As most everyone knows by now, the partially-hydrogenated oils used in commercial food products are high in unhealthy trans-fats. Now that trans-fats must be disclosed on nutrition labels (at least in places where they’re not banned outright), many manufacturers have replaced them with natural sources of saturated fat.
Palm oil is one of those substitutes. It’s a highly popular cooking oil worldwide that’s high in saturated fat, so it’s a natural replacement for partially-hydrogenated oils.
There’s only one problem: although palm oil is technically “trans fat-free”, according to an article in the USDA’s Agricultural research magazine, it may be just as heart-unhealthy for some people as the trans-fat-laden oils it’s replacing.
In terms of daily diet, the type of fat one consumes has a greater effect on heart disease risk factors than the amount of fat. And both trans fatty acids and saturated fatty acids are associated with elevated risk, according to authors of an ARS-supported study. The clinical trial was designed to compare the effect—on plasma lipoprotein profiles—of four different oils as they are commonly consumed.
…Fifteen adults, both male and female, volunteered for the study. All were aged 50 or older. Their levels of LDL “bad” cholesterol were moderately high at 130 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL) or above. Palm oil was studied because it has been touted as a potential substitute for hydrogenated fat.
The volunteers consumed each of four experimental fat diets for 35 days. The fats tested were partially hydrogenated soybean oil (moderately high in trans fat), palm oil (high in saturated fat), canola oil (high in monounsaturated fat), and soybean oil (high in polyunsaturated fat).
At the end of each phase, the volunteers were tested to obtain plasma lipoprotein and fatty acid profiles and other measures related to heart disease.
The findings suggest that consuming either of the diets enriched with equivalent high amounts of palm oil or partially hydrogenated soybean oil resulted in similar, unfavorable levels of LDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein B (a protein that carries bad cholesterol throughout the bloodstream). That’s when compared to consuming either of the diets enriched with canola oil or soybean oil, which are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, respectively.
The results suggest that palm oil would not be a good substitute for trans fats by the food industry, the study authors wrote.
One possible downside to this study is that the subjects were not consuming a variety of fat sources, unlike people eating normal diets. Thus, it’s unclear whether the same changes seen in the test diet would occur under free-living conditions. Still, it’s a little disturbing to see palm oil-containing products touted as “natural” and “trans-fat free” – which implies these products are healthier than their trans-fat-containing counterparts. At the very least, this is something that has yet to be established.
Looks like the food processors are caught between a rock and a hard spot. But rather than wait for them to come up with a safer alternative, I’d just as soon take the K.I.S.S. approach and limit intake of higher fat, processed foods altogether. That way, I don’t have to worry about either palm oil or trans-fats.
‘Nuff said.
February 10, 2010
Much of the propaganda being put out by the medical establishment, especially the FDA, and the food processing industries is poppycock. This applies to both unrefined, virgin palm oil and unrefined coconut oil. Use common sense for just a moment here: if these oils were so atherogenic as big industries and the FDA are now claiming, how come there are numerous cultures where people have consumed them in large quantities for thousands of years with practically no incidence of heart disease?? Besides which, the medical establishment itself is now having to back away from all this nonsense, now that the huge differences between the fat composition of coconut oil and other high saturated fat sources has become clarified (coconut oil consists of MCTs, which are metabolized very differently from other fats) and now that we know that virgin palm oil is loaded with very potent antioxidants that reduce cancer and other disease risks.
Do not believe the hype: use the Precautionary Principle. It is little wonder that novel new chemicals like artificial trans fats, to which humans were never evolutionarily adapted, are dangerous. But things we’ve been eating for thousands of years? They ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, the FDA does not operate on this commonsense principle. Instead it gives the benefit of the doubt to artificial products produced by big business interests, but routinely subjects natural, unpatentable substances to the most gruelingly rigorous cross-examination (cf the story of stevia sweetener for an abject example of this hypocrisy).