Palm Oil - All the Goodness of Olive Oil and More!

Olive oil is touted as the gold standard among all edible oils today; a reputation that has been gained primarily from its association of a lower incidence of heart disease among the Mediterranean populations who have traditionally consumed olive oil as their main dietary fat. The component of interest is the monounsaturated oleic acid content of olive oil, which on average is about 70% of its composition.

Some major players in the food industry, are discovering red palm olein, a liquid derivative of palm oil, as a more nutritious, healthful and versatile alternative.

Nature has been generous in endowing palm oil with a composition that is uniquely balanced between the saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Even when programming this higher level of saturates in the oil, nature’s consideration for optimization was already apparent – the biology of the oil palm dictates that this saturate be in the form of palmitic acid (C16:0) ... more
 

Globally, current dietary recommendations are geared towards assisting consumers choose low fat, low-saturated fat diets that are thought to be beneficial for cardiovascular health. Recommendations have traditionally focused on fat quantity and composition as a means of lowering total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), which are independent risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) [1]. To achieve these end-points dietary modulations ... more

Trans fatty acids (TFA) are produced when oils and fats containing unsaturated fatty acids are hydrogenated in the presence of a catalyst. Hydrogenation primarily increases the melting range of the unsaturated fats and thereby enables their incorporation into many solid fat formulations. When an unsaturated fat or oil is fully hydrogenated, all the unsaturated fatty acids are converted into their saturated analogues. Since unsaturation in most vegetable oils is largely 18-carbon fatty acids, namely oleic (18:1 n-9), linoleic (18:2 n-6) and linolenic (18:3 n-3), full hydrogenation of such oils would result in a steraic acid (18:0), high melting block of fat. Partial hydrogenation, in the presence of catalysts results in the formation of TFA. These are the geometrical isomers of unsaturated fatty acids containing ... more