What can you use palm oil for?
Red palm oil: if you are a real health freak, you have undoubtedly heard of this versatile product. It belongs to the saturated fats, and you can lower your cholesterol by baking in it. You can even smear it on your skin. Even though some say that saturated fats are not good, in recent years it has become increasingly known that these saturated fats do provide health benefits. It has long since become obsolete that low-fat food is the best.
Use the red variant
It is recommended to use the red version, because the white variant has been processed. This processed version is widely used in supermarket products, such as cookies, chips and sauces: not very healthy products. The processed variant is also used in shampoos and many cosmetic products. In the white palm oil, all the good things have been removed, such as vitamin E. It therefore adds nothing positive to your body. It is as been said above, best to buy the organic version of the red palm oil. This is pure natural and also contains all its valuable nutrients. The oil has not been bleached, refined or deodorized, and it is also unhardened.
Some disadvantages
There are some drawbacks to palm oil. For example, many rainforests are cut down in Asia, Africa and Latin America to create palm oil plantations. Some workers are underpaid. Be well-informed as a consumer, so that you can make good choices with regard to which brands you buy. Buy it in a good health food store or in a webshop and make sure to get the biological variant. Then you can ensure that you too are able to enjoy the many health benefits of red palm oil!
Good for the heart and vascular diseases
Finally: red palm oil is good for cardiovascular diseases. Various studies have shown that the oil has good effects on the risk factors of heart disease. Think of lowering bad LDL cholesterol and increasing good HDL cholesterol. A diet high in trans fats, on the other hand, is not good for your heart, according to various studies. For example, trans fats are in margarine, which is a processed product. Some studies even claim that the disease process of people with heart disease can be slowed down by consuming palm oil.
Different views
It is clear that there are many different views when it comes to the use of red palm oil. When you visit a cardiologist in the hospital, he or she will indicate that you should eat as little fat as possible. A naturopath will tell you something completely different and will certainly recommend products such as palm oil. Native people also ate a lot of saturated fat and this has come in a bad light in recent decades, while humans naturally ate fatty products. We say, you can safely buy palm oil products and you don’t have to worry about your cholesterol!