4 ms·

Palm oils in particular are not very healthy and are suspected to be a leading cause of diet-induced heart disease. Not all fats are created equally, or in equa

Palm oils in particular are not very healthy and are suspected to be a leading cause of diet-induced heart disease. Not all fats are created equally, or in equal proportions. Palm oils are high in specific saturated fats that are linked to cardiovascular disease. Palm oils are some of the most common fats found in prepared foods, especially foods that need solid fats at room temperatures. The majority of peanut butter preparations on shelves in the US have had all of their peanut oils removed and then replaced with palm oil for "better" texture and to prevent separation. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil#Nutrition_and_health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil#Nutrition_and_health

Godel_unicode 4y ago
What an interesting, and dare I say nuanced, point. Let’s add to it how good fats can become bad through releasing free radicals, which happens at approximately the same temperature that a lot of animal fats are cooked at.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  A few years ago, I did some reading on PubMed to figure out what fats are best to cook with. Came to the conclusion that extra virgin olive oil, which papers use the acronym "EVOO" for, is best for frying, whether that's pan or deep frying, and cooking in general. It's high in monounsaturated fats and studies found that various compounds in EVOO prevent the formation of free radicals, volatile organic compounds, aldehydes like formaldehyde, etc compared to other cooking oils. One study looked at the use of frying oils over time, since the longer the oils are heated, the more they decompose into harmful compounds. EVOO won out on that, too, and significantly inhibited the creation of harmful products. This would be relevant for restaurants, which tend to reuse oils over long periods of time, or anyone that cooks big meals for themselves or others. If you're going to be standing over a pan cooking for hours at a time, it's worth reducing the amount of harmful compounds you'll inevitably breathe in. Typically refined oils are preferred for frying because they can be used at higher temperatures, but I've found cooking with EVOO to be just fine, just don't cook things at temperatures where it might start smoking.
  - User23 4y ago
    I fry most everything in ghee these days. It’s delicious and the smoke point is north of 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
    - avereveard 4y ago
      Ghee is like 30% palmitic acid. I use it for cooking everything that doesn't call for oil, but people on a palm oil crusade might want to steer clear.
      - airstrike 4y ago
        I recently bought ghee for the first time from Organic Valley. Looking at their website, I don't see how it's 30% palmitic acid, could you please clarify? https://www.organicvalley.coop/products/butter/ghee/clarified-butter-ghee-13-oz/ https://www.organicvalley.coop/products/butter/ghee/clarifie...
        avereveard 4y ago
        Palmitic acid is called like that because it was first isolated in palm oil but it's naturally occurring in animal fat and breast milk because it's naturally produced by them. Its not they are adding palm oil to butter and ghee, it's the because palmitic acid is not unique to palm oil (well some unscrupulous producer do adulterate ghee with palm oil but let's not go there yet what I'm saying apply to pure ghee) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fatty-acid-profiles-of-ghee-olive-and-sunflower-oils_tbl1_259166046 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fatty-acid-profiles-of-g... 16:0 is the acid you're looking for.
  - q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y ago
    Very interesting point. Do you have any of your preferred research papers handy? I went searching just now out of curiosity and did find this one [1] which indeed affirms what you're saying. Personally, I reach for ghee when I want a neutral oil (e.g., for cooking scrambled eggs). And, like you, I reach for some fancy EVOO for everything else. I have to confess my approach to get here was a lot less scientific though; I mostly settled on these two using the metric of deliciousness.
avereveard 4y ago
Your body produces palmitic acid on its own, 30% of your fat is palmitic acid yourself produced. Reducing consumption of palmitic acid mostly reduces your quality of life, a balanced diet with a good biscuit and noeccessive calories does much more than eating dry, sandy biscuits and excess on sugar later on.
- goldenkey 4y ago
  Thank you, I did not know that. > Excess carbohydrates in the body are converted to palmitic acid. Palmitic acid is the first fatty acid produced during fatty acid synthesis and is the precursor to longer fatty acids. As a consequence, palmitic acid is a major body component of animals. In humans, one analysis found it to make up 21–30% (molar) of human depot fat,[16] and it is a major, but highly variable, lipid component of human breast milk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid
- drtz 4y ago
  High-palmitic acid diets and dry, high-sugar diets are hardly the only two options.
  - avereveard 4y ago
    Yeah but I bet people that are sold on palm oil is evil are on low fat diet. And that the calories from fat they don't consume come from carbohydrates, not proteins.
    - heavyset_go 4y ago
      That's a strange assumption and certainly isn't true for me. I limit carbohydrates as much as possible. The majority of my calories come from fat and protein.
      - avereveard 4y ago
        so wht fat you add to your diet? animal fats are, like, 30% palmitic acid.
rendang 4y ago
I don't know where you're getting that idea about peanut butter and palm oil, it isn't true of the major US peanut butter brands https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter/creamy https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter/creamy https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/creamy/creamy-peanut-butter https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/creamy/creamy-peanut-butte...
- fuzzfactor 4y ago
  Same major manufacturers, different SKUs, palm oil in the "natural" versions since hydrogenated vegetable oil is not exactly natural: https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter-spread/natural-creamy https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter-spread/natural-cr... https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/natural/creamy https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/natural/creamy Seems like a good time to remind people that if the oil is not domestic, it most likely comes in chemical tankers: https://www.agflow.com/commodity-trading-101/a-guide-to-chemical-tanker-types-for-palm-and-edible-oils/ https://www.agflow.com/commodity-trading-101/a-guide-to-chem... Your previous cargo might have been benzene or acrylonitrile.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  Plenty of Skippy's products have palm oil in them instead of peanut oil, and when I've looked, the "creamy" varieties of peanut butter tend to use palm oil for texture and stability. Store brands do the same thing in my experience.
  - rendang 4y ago
    Adding a little for texture is very different than removing the peanut oil and replacing it with palm oil. If that were the case, the saturated fat/total fat ratio would be much higher and the palm oil wouldn't be the 3rd ingredient listed after sugar.
Bud 4y ago
Fine, true, palm oil is one of the rare exceptions. But the point is, this is not a tremendously complex issue. A person of average intelligence can learn about partially hydrogenated trans fats, and one or two other fats to avoid, and master this whole issue in a few minutes.

Godel_unicode 4y ago

What an interesting, and dare I say nuanced, point. Let’s add to it how good fats can become bad through releasing free radicals, which happens at approximately the same temperature that a lot of animal fats are cooked at.

heavyset_go 4y ago
A few years ago, I did some reading on PubMed to figure out what fats are best to cook with. Came to the conclusion that extra virgin olive oil, which papers use the acronym "EVOO" for, is best for frying, whether that's pan or deep frying, and cooking in general. It's high in monounsaturated fats and studies found that various compounds in EVOO prevent the formation of free radicals, volatile organic compounds, aldehydes like formaldehyde, etc compared to other cooking oils. One study looked at the use of frying oils over time, since the longer the oils are heated, the more they decompose into harmful compounds. EVOO won out on that, too, and significantly inhibited the creation of harmful products. This would be relevant for restaurants, which tend to reuse oils over long periods of time, or anyone that cooks big meals for themselves or others. If you're going to be standing over a pan cooking for hours at a time, it's worth reducing the amount of harmful compounds you'll inevitably breathe in. Typically refined oils are preferred for frying because they can be used at higher temperatures, but I've found cooking with EVOO to be just fine, just don't cook things at temperatures where it might start smoking.
- User23 4y ago
  I fry most everything in ghee these days. It’s delicious and the smoke point is north of 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  - avereveard 4y ago
    Ghee is like 30% palmitic acid. I use it for cooking everything that doesn't call for oil, but people on a palm oil crusade might want to steer clear.
    - airstrike 4y ago
      I recently bought ghee for the first time from Organic Valley. Looking at their website, I don't see how it's 30% palmitic acid, could you please clarify? https://www.organicvalley.coop/products/butter/ghee/clarified-butter-ghee-13-oz/ https://www.organicvalley.coop/products/butter/ghee/clarifie...
      - avereveard 4y ago
        Palmitic acid is called like that because it was first isolated in palm oil but it's naturally occurring in animal fat and breast milk because it's naturally produced by them. Its not they are adding palm oil to butter and ghee, it's the because palmitic acid is not unique to palm oil (well some unscrupulous producer do adulterate ghee with palm oil but let's not go there yet what I'm saying apply to pure ghee) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fatty-acid-profiles-of-ghee-olive-and-sunflower-oils_tbl1_259166046 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fatty-acid-profiles-of-g... 16:0 is the acid you're looking for.
- q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y ago
  Very interesting point. Do you have any of your preferred research papers handy? I went searching just now out of curiosity and did find this one [1] which indeed affirms what you're saying. Personally, I reach for ghee when I want a neutral oil (e.g., for cooking scrambled eggs). And, like you, I reach for some fancy EVOO for everything else. I have to confess my approach to get here was a lot less scientific though; I mostly settled on these two using the metric of deliciousness.

avereveard 4y ago

Your body produces palmitic acid on its own, 30% of your fat is palmitic acid yourself produced. Reducing consumption of palmitic acid mostly reduces your quality of life, a balanced diet with a good biscuit and noeccessive calories does much more than eating dry, sandy biscuits and excess on sugar later on.

goldenkey 4y ago
Thank you, I did not know that. > Excess carbohydrates in the body are converted to palmitic acid. Palmitic acid is the first fatty acid produced during fatty acid synthesis and is the precursor to longer fatty acids. As a consequence, palmitic acid is a major body component of animals. In humans, one analysis found it to make up 21–30% (molar) of human depot fat,[16] and it is a major, but highly variable, lipid component of human breast milk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid
drtz 4y ago
High-palmitic acid diets and dry, high-sugar diets are hardly the only two options.
- avereveard 4y ago
  Yeah but I bet people that are sold on palm oil is evil are on low fat diet. And that the calories from fat they don't consume come from carbohydrates, not proteins.
  - heavyset_go 4y ago
    That's a strange assumption and certainly isn't true for me. I limit carbohydrates as much as possible. The majority of my calories come from fat and protein.
    - avereveard 4y ago
      so wht fat you add to your diet? animal fats are, like, 30% palmitic acid.

rendang 4y ago

I don't know where you're getting that idea about peanut butter and palm oil, it isn't true of the major US peanut butter brands https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter/creamy https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter/creamy https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/creamy/creamy-peanut-butter https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/creamy/creamy-peanut-butte...

fuzzfactor 4y ago
Same major manufacturers, different SKUs, palm oil in the "natural" versions since hydrogenated vegetable oil is not exactly natural: https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter-spread/natural-creamy https://www.peanutbutter.com/peanut-butter-spread/natural-cr... https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/natural/creamy https://www.jif.com/peanut-butter/natural/creamy Seems like a good time to remind people that if the oil is not domestic, it most likely comes in chemical tankers: https://www.agflow.com/commodity-trading-101/a-guide-to-chemical-tanker-types-for-palm-and-edible-oils/ https://www.agflow.com/commodity-trading-101/a-guide-to-chem... Your previous cargo might have been benzene or acrylonitrile.
heavyset_go 4y ago
Plenty of Skippy's products have palm oil in them instead of peanut oil, and when I've looked, the "creamy" varieties of peanut butter tend to use palm oil for texture and stability. Store brands do the same thing in my experience.
- rendang 4y ago
  Adding a little for texture is very different than removing the peanut oil and replacing it with palm oil. If that were the case, the saturated fat/total fat ratio would be much higher and the palm oil wouldn't be the 3rd ingredient listed after sugar.

Bud 4y ago

Fine, true, palm oil is one of the rare exceptions. But the point is, this is not a tremendously complex issue. A person of average intelligence can learn about partially hydrogenated trans fats, and one or two other fats to avoid, and master this whole issue in a few minutes.