Never mind aubergine . . .

[french frank]

Sorry, FF - I got the wrong end of the stick; thinking in terms of "ingredient" rather than the "oil" itself.

The problem seems to be more with processed foods where the ingredient is described as 'vegetable oil' - an imprecise term which as often as not does appear to be palm oil.

[MrGongGong]

Well , they are wrong about palm oil
it's cheap , yes , but not good for you at all

[MrGongGong]

Well a simple Wiki search for a start

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil#Blood_lipid_and_cholesterol_effects

but the problem is , as you say, also environmental
because its a vegetable oil people think its somehow ok

why use something that's imported and causes damage when there are better , more sustainable alternatives ?

[umslopogaas]

Some facts about palm oil, from Purseglove, JW (1972) Tropical Crops: Monocotyledons. Longman.

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) fruit has a fleshy outside, which yields palm oil, and a hard centre, which yields palm kernel oil.

Palm oil has an unsaturated content which varies between 44 to 63% unsaturated components (oleic and linoleic acids). This is a higher unsaturated content than coconut oil or palm kernel oil. Kernel oil is used in soap and varnish, not food.

So, a saturated component content varying from 37 to 56%. This compares with about 12% saturated for sunflower oil (if I have the sums right from the numbers on my bottle of Flora),14% saturated for olive oil and 67% for butter.

Oil palm plantations are of course a commercial venture, you get much more money per hectare from plantation crops than native primary forest, especially when you've ripped out the best timber (in fact, timber is about all you can get of value, apart from a bit of hunting). As they mature the palm trunks do develop quite a diverse flora of epiphytes and associated small animals, though the diversity is nothing like as high as primary forest. There is rather little ground cover and massive rows of slowly rotting, ferociously thorny fronds, being the lower ones that are cut off to allow the bunches of fruit to be harvested. I visited one plantation in Malaysia where the managers had erected nesting boxes on tall poles, to encourage barn owls. I was very surprised by this, I had never thought of barn owls as living in the tropics, but they do. They are very good at controlling rats, which are a big pest in oil palm plantations and the boxes were mostly occupied, so it seemed to be working.

I cant get very worked up about saturated oil content in my food. The saturated content of palm oil is lower than coconut, and we dont hear wails of anxiety about the unhealthy life styles of Pacific Islanders, who live on the things. Well, OK, we do, but that's more about the amount of booze that they consume than the amount of coconut.

[vinteuil]

I cant get very worked up about saturated oil content in my food. The saturated content of palm oil is lower than coconut, and we dont hear wails of anxiety about the unhealthy life styles of Pacific Islanders, who live on the things. Well, OK, we do, but that's more about the amount of booze that they consume than the amount of coconut.

well, actually... I served in the South Pacific for a time - and the obesity problems connected with diet in Samoa, Fiji, etc are notorious.

Mind you, it is still the case that in Tuvalu - or it might be Kiribati - one of the main causes of death is the coconut - but by the nuts falling on your bonce rather than a diet of coconut oils...

However - like you - I think one shdn't get too worked up abt saturated oil content in food. That is - if like most middle-class, educated people (I imagine most of those on this board.... ) -we have a varied diet, fresh fruit and veg, home cooking - and don't live on a diet of fast foods, ready meals, and fry-ups...

[Pianorak]

. . . I cant get very worked up about saturated oil content in my food. . .

Quite. Just keep taking those statins.

[Boilk]

So what, you may ask, it's "vegetable". Actually it's highly saturated fat and it seems doctors have been warning for ages that it's consumption is an elevated risk of a.o. coronary heart disease.

Yes, doctors have been (and are) warning about saturated fat because most effectively know sod all about nutrition - courtesy of NHS training.

There is no direct correlation between saturated fat and cholesterol levels - never has been, never will be ... but, as with so much "health" information, it serves big pharma interests to perpetuate such myths.

Here's a 3-minute primer and there's plenty of more academic stuff online.