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(ARA) - Keeping up with all the latest healthy eating information can be confusing, and reading food labels to look for “bad” ingredients can take time (not to mention bifocals). But it is worth the effort in order to make sure that you and your family are eating the right foods. For many years now, there has been a focus on fat in the American diet. First, nutrition experts warned consumers to severely limit the intake of all fat in their diet. Then came the revised advice to stay away from saturated fat, but to include “healthy” monounsaturated oils such as olive oil in the diet. Similarly, consumers were at one time advised to switch to margarine instead of butter, to avoid the high saturated fat content of butter. Then came word that margarine contains unhealthy trans fats, and consumers were urged to cut margarine from their diets.
While fat supplies various nutrients and functional properties, trans fats are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. In fact, a Nurses Health Study of 80,000 women conducted by Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, found that for each 2 percent increase in the amount of calories form trans fat, a woman’s coronary risk jumps by 93 percent
In their quest to eat a more healthy diet, consumers should look at palm oil as an alternative. “Because American consumers are unfamiliar with palm oil, they may have questions about is nutritional properties,” says Salleh Kassim of the American Palm Oil Council. Extracted from the fruit of the oil palm tree, palm oil is a balanced oil. It consists of about 50 percent saturated fat and 50 percent unsaturated fat. Palm oil, a trans fat free oil, has also been shown to be neutral in cholesterol raising and shown to increase “good” cholesterol (HDL) and promote cardiovascular health. In addition, palm oil is rich in antioxidants, including beta-carotene. The components of vitamin E, in particular the potent tocotrienols which defends against diseases like cancer and heart disease, is also present in substantial quantities in palm oil. The oil is readily digested, absorbed and utilized as a source of energy.
While new to United States, palm oil has been widely used for centuries in many parts of the world. Palm oil is consumed as a cooking oil; in margarine and shortening; and is also incorporated into a wide variety of food and baking products. American shoppers unfamiliar with palm oil may confuse it with tropical oils such as palm kernel oil and coconut oil, which are nutritionally different. Palm oil, like all vegetable oils, is classified as cholesterol free. And for most uses, it does not require hydrogenation, thus avoiding the formation of trans fatty acids found in hydrogenated oils.
While cooks in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia use palm oil for cooking, American shoppers are more likely to see palm oil listed as an ingredient in the prepared foods they buy. Palm oil can be found in everything from margarine to candy and ice cream, nondairy creamers and cake mixes. Major food companies such as Kraft and Kellogg’s have begun using palm oil in products that American consumers will recognize like Golden Oreo and Cracklin’ Oat Bran cereal.
American consumers can expect to see palm oil listed as an ingredient more and more. “It is rapidly becoming more popular due to the FDA’s ruling that trans fat content must be declared on product labels by 2006,” says Kassim. “Manufacturers are looking for alternatives to partially hydrogenated oils, and palm oil is a natural solution.”
For more information on palm oil, visit www.americanpalmoil.com or call (877) ask-palm.
Courtesy of ARA Content
