What exactly is palm oil?

A heavy tropical oil extracted from the African palm growing in Northern Brazil. One of the basic ingredients in Bahian or Afro-Brazilian cuisine, it adds a wonderful flavor and bright orange color to foods. There is no equivalent substitute, but it is available in markets specializing in Brazilian imports.

And yes it is fine to cook with. Cooking with red palm oil is an easy way to make sure you%u2019re getting several different carotenoids.

It is grown in other countries as well; it is being used in Colombia as a alternative crop in development projects that transition coca farmers to other crops. Production and consumption of palm oil is expanding worldwide.

Hi Joli,

Palm oil is the the oil from trees from the Palmacea family. The Palmacea family of trees includes the coconut and other typically tropical palm trees such as the babacu, the acai and the dende that you can find, for example, in Brazil, my home country. Palm oil fat is mainly composed of palmitic acid which is a saturated fat with 18 carbons. It’s a long fatty acid. Everything bad that you hear about saturated fat also applies to palm oil as a saturated fat. Whether it is good or bad for digestion…? I don’t know.

I wouldn’t take palm oil as a supplement because of its deleterious effects on your health. Many vascular and neurovascular diseases show a high correlation with saturated fat intake. I would use it on my legs, to make them feel very soft. If you go into the sun with it, you will get burned very easily, but it is very moisturizing. I use it for this. I hope you try it and enjoy it in this way!