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'This could be the holy grail to replace palm oil' – research team

21 points by swores 3y ago

swores 3y ago
More info from the university involved here: https://www.qmu.ac.uk/services-for-business-and-industry/sme-and-industry-case-studies/case-study-palm-alternative/ https://www.qmu.ac.uk/services-for-business-and-industry/sme...
Georgelemental 3y ago
> And with 80% less saturated fat [...], they are also hailing PALM-ALT as a significantly healthier option. Doesn't sound healthy at all.
- Bjartr 3y ago
  Can you go into some detail as to why?
  - eindiran 3y ago
    Because there is plenty of evidence that saturated fats are much better than the polyunsaturated fats that will be replacing them in this arrangement. Because people are tired of the "food science"-agriculture-industrial complex selling them magic bullets to a health epidemic of our own making than end up just getting more people obese every time. Because nutrition is one of the most fraudulent sciences at present, and no one can agree on which 90% of the literature is wrong. Because the last 70 times articles in popular nutrition were published beginning with "This could be the holy grail to ..." they were wrong.
    - jeezfrk 3y ago
      except you are really sure about saturated fats.
- joe-collins 3y ago
  Saturated fats convert to cholesterol, high values of which is a common health problem. So this sounds like a great health improvement? The only possible downside I see in this very thin reporting is the usual feel of ickiness some folks get out of an appeal to nature fallacy.
  - Nelkins 3y ago
    There is emerging evidence that high cholesterol on its own is not sufficient to cause heart disease. See https://cholesterolcode.com/ https://cholesterolcode.com/ .
  - Georgelemental 3y ago
    > Saturated fats convert to cholesterol, high values of which is a common health problem. High blood cholesterol levels is a common health problem, but it doesn't follow that consuming too much cholesterol causes high blood cholesterol levels—it could be that the body can normally handle any amount of cholesterol/cholesterol precursor consumption within a wide range, but a dysfunction in the regulation mechanism results in health problems. And in fact, double-blind trials seem to support this theory: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000743 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.00000000000... "Evidence from observational studies conducted in several countries generally does not indicate a significant association [of dietary cholesterol] with cardiovascular disease risk." > An appeal to nature fallacy The theory of natural selection predicts that human metabolism is best adapted to consuming food similar to what was available for most of our evolutionary history.
    - Kirby64 3y ago
      GP said nothing about dietary cholesterol. It's well researched that high levels of saturated fats increases blood cholesterol, though. The conversion is dietary saturated fat to blood serum cholesterol.
netsharc 3y ago
TL;DR: Something a university research team made, they labelled PALM-ALT: > It is made from a by-product from the linseed industry, plus natural fibre and rapeseed oil.
- ToDougie 3y ago
  Yeah I am going to stay away.
  - mint2 3y ago
    Massive amounts of palm and coconut oil are used for soaps and lotions. Any reason it wouldn’t be great to replace those?
    - op00to 3y ago
      better to externalize the costs of your decisions than take a minute risk that the franken-palm-oil will zombify us all.
    - ToDougie 3y ago
      I stay away from palm oil and I love coconut oil. Not going to use some weird concoction until overwhelming evidence (lifetimes) convinces me otherwise.
      - mint2 3y ago
        I wasn’t talking about food, but anyway in terms of food Nearly all of food these days contains many ingredients that have not had lifetimes of evidence to back up their safety. Even basic foods have changed substantially from a lifetime ago. If that makes it a weird concoction then that’s all the supermarket sells.
Ekaros 3y ago
Did not notice how much cheaper is it? As that is what really matters. Not the health benefits.
lifechoseme123 3y ago
I hate articles that hide key topic. I am not spending time on an article that is trying to hook me into reading. Articles exist to share knowledge, not obfuscate it. Why "This" in the headline?" Why not "<ProductName> could be the..."?
ruffrey 3y ago
On the soap side of things, Genomatica is already scaling up to replace palm oil for many of the major producers.
c_o_n_v_e_x 3y ago
Having lived in SE Asia for a while, it's hard to defend the palm oil industry. Cutting down rainforests, burning peat lands which transform into huge wildfires, haze, monocrop plantations as far as the eye can see. That's just the growing side of the business. The milling side is pretty bad too, dumping effluent from the mills. All that being said, the Malaysians and Indonesians are very nice people. It'd be sad to see them adversely impacted.
qwertyman2 3y ago
I actively seek to buy products containing Palm oil. Why? From my understanding. Saturated fats are highly stable and the other ones sold are not and therefore require more processing. In the end, and due to reasons too long to write here, I believe saturated fats are the healthiest alternative for use in packaged products. We’re being funneled into eating these polyunsaturated fats that in their on the shelf state, have no resemblence to anything humans have eaten in the past. It’s not like were homomodernus, were still homosapien and it’s gonna take millennia for the human race to adapt to these foods. Not 10 years because climate change told us so.

21 points by swores 3y ago

More info from the university involved here: https://www.qmu.ac.uk/services-for-business-and-industry/sme-and-industry-case-studies/case-study-palm-alternative/ https://www.qmu.ac.uk/services-for-business-and-industry/sme...

Georgelemental 3y ago

> And with 80% less saturated fat [...], they are also hailing PALM-ALT as a significantly healthier option. Doesn't sound healthy at all.

Bjartr 3y ago
Can you go into some detail as to why?
- eindiran 3y ago
  Because there is plenty of evidence that saturated fats are much better than the polyunsaturated fats that will be replacing them in this arrangement. Because people are tired of the "food science"-agriculture-industrial complex selling them magic bullets to a health epidemic of our own making than end up just getting more people obese every time. Because nutrition is one of the most fraudulent sciences at present, and no one can agree on which 90% of the literature is wrong. Because the last 70 times articles in popular nutrition were published beginning with "This could be the holy grail to ..." they were wrong.
  - jeezfrk 3y ago
    except you are really sure about saturated fats.
joe-collins 3y ago
Saturated fats convert to cholesterol, high values of which is a common health problem. So this sounds like a great health improvement? The only possible downside I see in this very thin reporting is the usual feel of ickiness some folks get out of an appeal to nature fallacy.
- Nelkins 3y ago
  There is emerging evidence that high cholesterol on its own is not sufficient to cause heart disease. See https://cholesterolcode.com/ https://cholesterolcode.com/ .
- Georgelemental 3y ago
  > Saturated fats convert to cholesterol, high values of which is a common health problem. High blood cholesterol levels is a common health problem, but it doesn't follow that consuming too much cholesterol causes high blood cholesterol levels—it could be that the body can normally handle any amount of cholesterol/cholesterol precursor consumption within a wide range, but a dysfunction in the regulation mechanism results in health problems. And in fact, double-blind trials seem to support this theory: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000743 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.00000000000... "Evidence from observational studies conducted in several countries generally does not indicate a significant association [of dietary cholesterol] with cardiovascular disease risk." > An appeal to nature fallacy The theory of natural selection predicts that human metabolism is best adapted to consuming food similar to what was available for most of our evolutionary history.
  - Kirby64 3y ago
    GP said nothing about dietary cholesterol. It's well researched that high levels of saturated fats increases blood cholesterol, though. The conversion is dietary saturated fat to blood serum cholesterol.

netsharc 3y ago

TL;DR: Something a university research team made, they labelled PALM-ALT: > It is made from a by-product from the linseed industry, plus natural fibre and rapeseed oil.

ToDougie 3y ago
Yeah I am going to stay away.
- mint2 3y ago
  Massive amounts of palm and coconut oil are used for soaps and lotions. Any reason it wouldn’t be great to replace those?
  - op00to 3y ago
    better to externalize the costs of your decisions than take a minute risk that the franken-palm-oil will zombify us all.
  - ToDougie 3y ago
    I stay away from palm oil and I love coconut oil. Not going to use some weird concoction until overwhelming evidence (lifetimes) convinces me otherwise.
    - mint2 3y ago
      I wasn’t talking about food, but anyway in terms of food Nearly all of food these days contains many ingredients that have not had lifetimes of evidence to back up their safety. Even basic foods have changed substantially from a lifetime ago. If that makes it a weird concoction then that’s all the supermarket sells.

Ekaros 3y ago

Did not notice how much cheaper is it? As that is what really matters. Not the health benefits.

lifechoseme123 3y ago

I hate articles that hide key topic. I am not spending time on an article that is trying to hook me into reading. Articles exist to share knowledge, not obfuscate it. Why "This" in the headline?" Why not "<ProductName> could be the..."?

ruffrey 3y ago

On the soap side of things, Genomatica is already scaling up to replace palm oil for many of the major producers.

c_o_n_v_e_x 3y ago

Having lived in SE Asia for a while, it's hard to defend the palm oil industry. Cutting down rainforests, burning peat lands which transform into huge wildfires, haze, monocrop plantations as far as the eye can see. That's just the growing side of the business. The milling side is pretty bad too, dumping effluent from the mills. All that being said, the Malaysians and Indonesians are very nice people. It'd be sad to see them adversely impacted.

qwertyman2 3y ago

I actively seek to buy products containing Palm oil. Why? From my understanding. Saturated fats are highly stable and the other ones sold are not and therefore require more processing. In the end, and due to reasons too long to write here, I believe saturated fats are the healthiest alternative for use in packaged products. We’re being funneled into eating these polyunsaturated fats that in their on the shelf state, have no resemblence to anything humans have eaten in the past. It’s not like were homomodernus, were still homosapien and it’s gonna take millennia for the human race to adapt to these foods. Not 10 years because climate change told us so.