Humans have been using palm oil since ages, it’s been used from over 5000 years.
Firstly, palm oil was more popular in Central and Western Africa as a cooking oil but it only became prominent when the British started using it as an industrial lubricant. 
Palm oil is indeed one of the most incredible ingredients known to mankind, it’s present in almost every other items we use and consume on a daily basis. It is widely used in the commercial food industry because of its low cost and remarkable property of high oxidative stability after deep frying and increasing its shelf life.

Due to the rising popularity of palm oil over the past years, there has been so many suspicions and doubts surrounding it. So, In this post let me share some information about the palm oil and clear the answers and debunk the misconceptions.

Firstly, let’s talk about the health and nutrition benefits of Palm oil. It is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp of the fruit of the oil palms. The nicest thing is it’s completely free from cholesterol and it has a saturated fat content of 50% in comparison with coconut oil which has 85% At room temperature palm oil is semi-solid and can be easily liquefied. Also, palm oil is a very good alternative to butter as it contains zero trans fat. 

Palm oil is a very good source of antioxidants and beta-carotene, it has a midrange smoke point and so, it can be used in several things like cooking, sauteing, baking and frying. 

A tablespoon of palm oil contains 119 calories, 13.5-gram fat, 2.2 milligrams of vitamin C and 1gm of palm oil = 9 kilocalories of energy. It is very rich in natural chemical compounds, vitamin B, vitamin A, carotenoids and 100% free from genetic modification (GM)

Palm oil has so many health benefits like

~ Reducing cholesterol, prevention of atherosclerotic lesions and good for heart health.

~ Inducing hair growth.

~ Improving bone health and protecting against osteoporosis.

~ Increasing skin moisture, elasticity and reducing wrinkles. It helps in keeping skin healthy by protecting against harmful UVA rays.

~ It helps in preventing the gastric ulcer disease and gastric lesions.

~ Stimulating Immunity and increasing concentration.

•Palm oil helps in food security•

For the developing world and coming generations, food security is utmost critical, with high population and everyday increasing growth, we are running short of land for food production. 
Palm oil is a saver for the developing world, It is more efficient, less land, fertilizer and fewer pesticides are used. Oil palm is, in fact, the highest vegetable oil yielding perennial crop. The cost of cultivation is less compared to other oil seeds. 
~ It can be grown in almost every soil types and varying climatic conditions.

~ Return is high from the unit area in comparison to other plantation crops.

~ Even the palm leaf can be used as fodder and the risk of theft is less compared to other cash crops.

~ On average, 8-12 bunches can be harvested from a single palm per year.

•Palm oil and it’s various uses•

Due to its extremely versatile nature and different properties, it’s in almost 50% of the packaged products we buy, use or consume on a daily basis. Right from chocolate, pizza, doughnut to shampoo, toothpaste and lipstick, palm oil is present in so many things. It is also used in animal feed and as a biofuel in a few parts of the world.

•Food products – palm oil is the largest cooking oil to be consumed in India and globally, It is widely used in cooking as it is very stable at room temperature and also, it is completely vegan and neutral in flavour. It is specifically used in sauteing, baking. It is best for deep frying as it has inherent ability to remain stable (resist oxidation) at high heat.
• Non- food products – It is largely used in personal care, makeup products and In household cleaning products.
– Palm oil is one of the best oil amongst the others available in the market due to its versatility, sustainability and affordability.

Generally, businesses & people don’t like anything ‘too good’ and highly competing product. so, they always come up with something to clash with the goodness in order to make a way for other products to sell, palm oil has been wrongly named so many times by its market competitors but we really need to that Palm oil is actually very good for overall health and it is available at very affordable price than the rest of the oils in the market.

Palm oil is clean, vegan, health-friendly and environment-friendly. It has been used from over 5000 years and even the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) have approved and acknowledged the significance of palm oil.

So, as a smart consumer, we really need to be aware of our individual and environmental responsibilities and make a switch to using palm oil if we aren’t already doing it. Palm oil is indeed the best and it is here to remain!

Stay tuned for new posts coming up on the blog!

you can also check out – Creamy Coconut sandwich recipe

– Riddhi Jhala