question: I keep hearing Palm Oil is bad for your health. Just why is it worse than other oils such as sunflower, soybean etc?
comment: Palm Oil is high in saturated fat, which is taught to be bad for cardiac health. Whether or not saturated fats are bad or not is highly contentious- those who follow the Keto diet (high fat, low carb) often test for lower cholesterol levels after starting the diet as it trains the body to use fat as its fuel source.
passages: Contributing significant calories as a source of fat, palm oil is a food staple in many cuisines. On average globally, humans consumed 7.7 kg (17 lb) of palm oil per person in 2015. Although the relationship of palm oil consumption to disease risk has been previously assessed, the quality of the clinical research specifically assessing palm oil effects has been generally poor. Consequently, research has focused on the deleterious effects of palm oil and palmitic acid consumption as sources of saturated fat content in edible oils, leading to conclusions that palm oil and saturated fats should be replaced with polyunsaturated fats in the diet.
   Section::::Palm oil substitute.
  
  Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil extracted from the fruit of oil palms, mainly from "Elaeis guineensis", some 60m tonnes of oil being produced annually. It has low production costs, a high melting point, is rich in saturated fats, and is widely used in the food and cosmetics industries. The high demand for palm oil has led to the establishing of vast palm plantations in South East Asia, causing deforestation and habitat erosion over large areas, water pollution, and increased greenhouse gas emissions over the affected region.
   The highly saturated nature of palm oil renders it solid at room temperature in temperate regions, making it a cheap substitute for butter or hydrogenation vegetable oils in uses where solid fat is desirable, such as the making of pastry dough and baked goods. The health concerns related to trans fats in hydrogenated vegetable oils may have contributed to the increasing use of palm oil in the food industry.
   Flora contents includes palm oil. The global demand for palm oil is blamed for the loss of tropical hardwood forests which are being cleared for palm oil plantations. This clearance leads to the destruction of orangutan habitat in places such as Borneo and Sumatra. Some food manufacturers have attempted to source sustainable sources of palm oil but these are too few in number and account for about 1% of production.
   Social and environmental impact of palm oil
  
  Palm oil, produced from the oil palm, is a basic source of income for many farmers in South East Asia, Central and West Africa, and Central America. It is locally used as a cooking oil, exported for use in many commercial food and personal care products and is converted into biofuel. It produces up to 10 times more oil per unit area than soybeans, rapeseed or sunflowers.
   BULLET::::- Palm oil: Palm oil is a vegetable oil found in literally thousands of products ranging from soaps and cosmetics to countless foodstuffs including chocolates, cereals, dairy products and crisps. Its popularity is due to its comparatively low cost to produce and ready availability – but palm oil production is widely linked to deforestation, illegal logging, human rights abuses and biodiversity loss.
   Compared to algae (which can be grown in salt and freshwater), however, the per unit area yield of palm oil is still 10 to 23 times lower. IUCN maintains that replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils would lead to greater land spoilage, negatively affecting biodiversity. The IUCN advocates better practices in the palm oil industry, including the prevention of plantations from expanding into forested regions and creating a demand for certified and sustainable palm oil products.
  
  Section::::Social and environmental impacts.:Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
   In some states where oil palm is established, lax enforcement of environmental legislation leads to encroachment of plantations into riparian strips, and release of pollutants such as palm oil mill effluent (POME) in the environment.
  
  More environment-friendly practices have been developed. Among those approaches is anaerobic treatment of POME, which might allow for biogas (methane) production and electricity generation, but it is very difficult to maintain optimum growth conditions for the anaerobic organisms that break down acetate to methane (primarily "Methanosaeta concilii", a species of Archaea).
  
  Section::::Environmental issues.:Greenhouse gas emissions.
   Palm oil is typically considered the most controversial of the cooking oils - for both health and environmental reasons. Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny for social and environmental harm, particularly because rainforests with high biodiversity are destroyed, greenhouse gas output is increased, and because people are displaced by unscrupulous palm-oil enterprises and traditional livelihoods are negatively impacted. Especially in Indonesia, there is also growing pressure for palm oil producers to prove that they are not harming rare animals in the cultivation process.
   The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), founded in 2004, works to promote the production of sustainably sourced palm oil through involvement with growers, processors, food companies, investors and NGOs. Beginning in 2008, palm oil that meets RSPO introduced standards has been designated "certified sustainable palm oil" (CSPO). Within two years of implementation, CSPO-designated palm oil comprised 7 percent of the global palm oil market. As of October 2012, 12 percent of palm oil has been certified by the RSPO. However, in the first year of CSPO certification only 30 percent of sustainable oil was marketed as CSPO.
   Previously, palm oil could be listed as "vegetable fat" or "vegetable oil" on food labels in the European Union (EU). From December 2014, food packaging in the EU is no longer allowed to use the generic terms "vegetable fat" or "vegetable oil" in the ingredients list. Food producers are required to list the specific type of vegetable fat used, including palm oil. Vegetable oils and fats can be grouped together in the ingredients list under the term "vegetable oils" or "vegetable fats" but this must be followed by the type of vegetable origin (e.g., palm, sunflower, or rapeseed) and the phrase "in varying proportions".
   Section::::Social Implications.:Dangerous Working Conditions.
  
  Pesticide and herbicide use is a common practice among palm oil plantations, including paraquat, an herbicide banned throughout Europe.Personal protective equipment is not always provided to workers. Some companies in Indonesia do not provide any equipment, while others do not replace the equipment after excessive use. Workers are found to have no knowledge or information regarding the health risks posed by the chemicals they use.
  
  Section::::Social Implications.:Mental Health Impacts and Health Rights Violations.
   In 2011, Malaysia began developing a national certification, the "Malaysia sustainable palm oil" (MSPO) certification, to improve involvement in sustainable palm oil production nationwide. The certification program, aimed at small and medium-sized producers, is expected to be launched in 2014. Malaysia has initiated its own environmental assessment on oil palm industry based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approaches. LCA has been applied to assess the environmental impact of production of oil palm seedlings, oil palm fresh fruit bunches, crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil and refined palm oil. The assessment on downstream industries such as oil palm plywood and bio-diesel, was also conducted.
   Section::::Markets.:Food label regulations.
   The use of palm oil in the production of biodiesel has led to concerns that the need for fuel is being placed ahead of the need for food, leading to malnutrition in developing nations. This is known as the food versus fuel debate. According to a 2008 report published in the "Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews", palm oil was determined to be a sustainable source of both food and biofuel. The production of palm oil biodiesel does not pose a threat to edible palm oil supplies. According to a 2009 study published in the "Environmental Science and Policy" journal, palm oil biodiesel might increase the demand for palm oil in the future, resulting in the expansion of palm oil production, and therefore an increased supply of food.
   Food and cosmetics companies, including ADM, Unilever, Cargill, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Kraft and Burger King, are driving the demand for new palm oil supplies, demand was partly driven by a need for a replacement for high trans fat content oils.
  
  Although palm oil is used in the production of biofuels and proposals have been made to use it in large installations, a 2012 report by the International Food Policy Research Institute concluded that the increase in palm oil production is related to food demands, not biofuel demands.
  
  Section::::Increasing demand.:Biodiesel.
   Palm oil
  
  Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm "Elaeis guineensis", and to a lesser extent from the American oil palm "Elaeis oleifera" and the maripa palm "Attalea maripa".
   Industrial palm tree plantations also impacts negatively the quality of soils, water and the air because they often rely on the use of agrochemicals products, such as pesticides or fertilizers.
  
  Section::::Environmental impact.:Carbon Sinks.
   Palm oil, a natural oil extracted from the fruit of oil palm trees that is semi-solid at room temperature (15–25 degrees Celsius), can potentially serve as a substitute for partially hydrogenated fats in baking and processed food applications, although there is disagreement about whether replacing partially hydrogenated fats with palm oil confers any health benefits. A 2006 study supported by the National Institutes of Health and the USDA Agricultural Research Service concluded that palm oil is not a safe substitute for partially hydrogenated fats (trans fats) in the food industry, because palm oil results in adverse changes in the blood concentrations of LDL and apolipoprotein B just as trans fat does.
   Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth oppose the use of palm oil biofuels, claiming that the deforestation caused by oil palm plantations is more damaging for the climate than the benefits gained by switching to biofuel and using the palms as carbon sinks. While only 5% of the world's vegetable oil farmland is used for palm plantations, palm cultivation produces 38% of the world's total vegetable oil supply. In terms of oil yield, a palm plantation is 10 times more productive than soybean, sunflower or rapeseed cultivation because the palm fruit and kernel both provide usable oil. A 2018 study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) concluded that palm oil is "here to stay" due to its higher productivity compared with many other vegetable oils.
   Section::::Social and environmental impacts.:Carbon balance.
  
  Oil palm production has been documented as a cause of substantial and often irreversible damage to the natural environment. Its impacts include deforestation, habitat loss of critically endangered species, and a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
  
  The pollution is exacerbated because many rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia lie atop peat bogs that store great quantities of carbon, which are released when the forests are cut down and the bogs are drained to make way for the plantations.
   Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- 2015 Southeast Asian haze
  
  BULLET::::- Environmental issues with energy
  
  BULLET::::- Food vs. fuel
  
  BULLET::::- Southeast Asian haze
  
  BULLET::::- Sustainable biofuel
  
  BULLET::::- "The Burning Season", a 2008 documentary that highlights deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil plantations
  
  Companies:
  
  BULLET::::- Criticisms of Cargill
  
  BULLET::::- Wilmar International
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- Greening the World with Palm Oil? – an in-depth analysis on palm oil's impact on the environment, Mongabay.com, January 26, 2011
  
  BULLET::::- Cooking the Climate – a Greenpeace report on the palm oil industry
  
  BULLET::::- Palm oil publications from Greenpeace
   Palm oil is also used in animal feed. In March 2017, a documentary made by Deutsche Welle revealed that palm oil is used to make milk substitutes to feed calves in dairies in the German alps. These milk substitutes contain 30% milk powder and the remainder of raw protein made from skimmed milk powder, whey powder, and vegetable fats, mostly coconut oil and palm oil.
  
  Section::::Processing and use.:Biomass and biofuels.
   Fats and oils created by enzymatic interesterification provide several benefits to food manufacturers. These oils provide better health profiles than either palm oil or partially hydrogenated oil because they are trans fat free and lower in saturated fat. The wide plasticity range and more consistent solid fat content create less variability in firmness, which is beneficial in production.
  
  Most often created through domestically sourced soybean oil, they provide a better risk management profile than globally produced palm oil. Lastly, producing enzymatic interesterified oil typically uses less processing and no harmful by-products creating a more sustainable, green process.
   In "The Economist" in 2010, the RSPO was criticized for not setting standards for greenhouse-gas emissions for plantations and because its members account for only 40 percent of palm oil production. In a 2007 report, Greenpeace was critical of RSPO-member food companies saying that they are "dependent on suppliers that are actively engaged in deforestation and the conversion of peatlands".
  
raw_presuppositions: Palm oil is bad for your health. Palm oil is bad for your health. Palm oil is bad for your health. Palm oil is bad for your health. Palm oil is bad for your health. Palm oil is bad for your health. Palm oil is bad for your health.
raw_corrections: Palm oil is high in saturated fat, but it is highly contentious whether this is bad for your health. Palm oil is high in saturated fat, but it is highly contentious whether this is bad for your health. Palm oil is high in saturated fat, but it is highly contentious whether this is bad for your health. Palm oil is high in saturated fat, but it is highly contentious whether this is bad for your health. Palm oil is high in saturated fats, this is taught to be bad for our health but doesn't necessarily have to be in certain circumstances.  Palm oil is high in saturated fat, but it is highly contentious whether this is bad for your health. Palm oil is high in saturated fat, but it is highly contentious whether this is bad for your health.