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Norma Thompson is a former hospital dietitian and lifetime member of the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Before we end our discussion on fats, we need to include another tropical oil with benefits. Used primarily in Southeast Asia and West Africa, palm oil is the main source of dietary fat for millions of people and as much a part of their diet as olive oil is in the Mediterranean.
Today palm oil is one of the most widely used oils in the world and has been used as both a food and a medicine for thousands of years. It was prized by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt as a sacred food. Most people in North America know little about it. Doctors advise against palm oil because it is saturated.
Palm oil is known as a functional food. This is a food that has health promoting and disease fighting properties. Children all over the world are malnourished with poor development and eyesight because vitamin D, A, K, and E deficiencies. Palm oil contains these along with COQ10 for the heart.
Palm oil comes in two forms: virgin, which is bright red and has all the nutrients, and refined, which is white. All palm oil is stable under heat and can be used for cooking.
For more information on palm oil, read the book “Palm Oil Miracles” by Bruce Fife.
