17 ms·

>palm oil is less than ideal Why do you say this? Just curious. Palm oil is one of the better plant oils, no?

dghughes 4y ago
Massive harm of the environment by companies that farm it. Orangutans' habitat for one.
Swizec 4y ago
The main problem with palm oil isn’t health afaik, it’s the orangutan habitat destruction since most palm oil still comes from wild forests instead of farming. https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil
- supernova87a 4y ago
  Palm oil is full of saturated fats isn't it?
sph 4y ago
Massive amounts of inflammatory PUFAs. No, palm oil is terrible and everywhere in ultra processed food because it's extremely cheap. There are few healthy vegetable oils and they tend to be very expensive: olive, macadamia, coconut, etc. EDIT: I stand corrected, it has moderate amounts of PUFA, but terrible Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio (45/1), which is thought to have metabolic consequences.
- zerocrates 4y ago
  My understanding has been that it's cheap, saturated, and solid/stable, so it's a straightforward replacement for the hydrogenated oils that were previously being used in many of the same applications before the whole trans fat issue banished them.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Canola oil is cheap and it improves health outcomes in humans despite twitter sophistry.
scythe 4y ago
Palm oil generates an incredible amount of pollution in Internet comment sections whenever it is mentioned, because people don't realize that it's simply the most productive oil per unit acre by far. If not for Indonesian rainforest palm oil you'd need to cut down 2-3x as much Brazilian rainforest for soybeans or Phillippine rainforest for coconuts to meet the same demand. 71% of palm oil is consumed between the Caspian Sea and the Pacific. Approximately one-third is used for nonfood applications, particularly the Indonesian biodiesel industry, which if you wanted to do something about deforestation, you could pay them to stop doing that in particular. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/palm-oil-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/palm-oil... It is a saturated fat, but it's being mixed with highly unsaturated peanut oil, so the whole-product average is probably insignificant.
- lostlogin 4y ago
  I went searching regarding your claim about how productive various types of oil are per acre. It’s actually insane, and palm oil is at least 400% better than the next best. Edit: coconut oil production is variable depending on where you check. It might be half as good as palm oil. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-yield-by-crop https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-yield-by-crop https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-plant-oil-yield-showing-efficiency-comparison-among-different-major-oil-crops_fig2_325398464 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-plant-oil-yield-... https://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html https://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html
KingLancelot 4y ago
Palm oil harvesting is killing endangered orangutans.

Massive harm of the environment by companies that farm it. Orangutans' habitat for one.

The main problem with palm oil isn’t health afaik, it’s the orangutan habitat destruction since most palm oil still comes from wild forests instead of farming. https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil

supernova87a 4y ago
Palm oil is full of saturated fats isn't it?

sph 4y ago

Massive amounts of inflammatory PUFAs. No, palm oil is terrible and everywhere in ultra processed food because it's extremely cheap. There are few healthy vegetable oils and they tend to be very expensive: olive, macadamia, coconut, etc. EDIT: I stand corrected, it has moderate amounts of PUFA, but terrible Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio (45/1), which is thought to have metabolic consequences.

zerocrates 4y ago
My understanding has been that it's cheap, saturated, and solid/stable, so it's a straightforward replacement for the hydrogenated oils that were previously being used in many of the same applications before the whole trans fat issue banished them.
hombre_fatal 4y ago
Canola oil is cheap and it improves health outcomes in humans despite twitter sophistry.

scythe 4y ago

Palm oil generates an incredible amount of pollution in Internet comment sections whenever it is mentioned, because people don't realize that it's simply the most productive oil per unit acre by far. If not for Indonesian rainforest palm oil you'd need to cut down 2-3x as much Brazilian rainforest for soybeans or Phillippine rainforest for coconuts to meet the same demand. 71% of palm oil is consumed between the Caspian Sea and the Pacific. Approximately one-third is used for nonfood applications, particularly the Indonesian biodiesel industry, which if you wanted to do something about deforestation, you could pay them to stop doing that in particular. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/palm-oil-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/palm-oil... It is a saturated fat, but it's being mixed with highly unsaturated peanut oil, so the whole-product average is probably insignificant.

lostlogin 4y ago
I went searching regarding your claim about how productive various types of oil are per acre. It’s actually insane, and palm oil is at least 400% better than the next best. Edit: coconut oil production is variable depending on where you check. It might be half as good as palm oil. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-yield-by-crop https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-yield-by-crop https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-plant-oil-yield-showing-efficiency-comparison-among-different-major-oil-crops_fig2_325398464 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-plant-oil-yield-... https://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html https://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html

KingLancelot 4y ago

Palm oil harvesting is killing endangered orangutans.