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Palm Oil
I think the question of if RBD (refined bleached deodorized) palm oil is safe is an important one since it is in many foods.
Crude palm oil is the highest food source of carotenoids yet palm oil is considered to have no carotenoids.
However, crude red palm oil that has been refined, bleached and deodorized, a common commodity called RBD palm oil, does not contain carotenoids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil
In the current technology of physical refining, the carotenoids in crude palm oil undergo thermal decomposition during deodorization-deacidification (240�C-270�C). As a result, the processed product, normally known as refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) palm oil, contains no carotenoids at all.
http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F152e/8F152E05.htm
While it is clear that there are no carotenoids in refined palm oil what is not clear from this statement is if there are carotenoid decomposition products still present in any significant amount. Are carotenoid decomposition products very problematic I wonder?
Sounds tricky. On things like this, is the proof in the pudding?
I avoid it like the plague organic or not. It contains harmful chemicals causing cancer, probably from the deodorization progress but the fat itself should be very inflammatory as well. My country has since then began to phase out palm oil. It was huge tabloids here some years back.
I bought a jar of the bright orange unrefined palm oil a while back and got a big yuck response from my taste buds.
However, I do buy water crackers with what must be the refined version in there. I was hoping it was better than other, more modern, fats like canola.
Quote from lil chick on June 25, 2019, 8:36 amI bought a jar of the bright orange unrefined palm oil a while back and got a big yuck response from my taste buds.
However, I do buy water crackers with what must be the refined version in there. I was hoping it was better than other, more modern, fats like canola.
Yeah the refined palm oil like is in those crackers is what I'm concerned with. It's fatty acid composition is similar to animal fat (a good thing). It is likely better than canola which is high pufa and contains erucic acid (in low amounts) which causes heart lesions in pigs. Canola does supply K without A though.
Ultimately I think that plant fats and dairy fats are inferior to animal fats like lard and tallow. From a practical perspective though I'm currently happy with eating foods that contain palm, canola, soya oil etc but will always give preference to lard and tallow where possible.
The USDA Food Database lists palm oil as having 0 VA however it doesn't sit easy with me given that a lot of 0 values are due to lack of an actual value.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/156482650002100213
If you look at Table 1 it shows carotenoid levels in different stages of refinement.
Red palm olein (Bleached palm olein sample from refinery, processed by molecular distillation at the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia (PORIM)) has 513 ppm carotenoids.
RBD palm olein (Sample obtained from palm oil refinery) has "Nil" carotenoids.
It looks like an independent measurement from the USDA data.
It is disturbing how high the carotenoids are in crude palm oil, if these are not actually removed but decomposed to carotenoid breakdown products that is concerning given how extensively palm oil is used in foods.
However this seems like pretty strong evidence that there are no pro-vitamin A carotenoids in RBD palm oil. My only concern is to whether high levels of carotenoid breakdown products are present.
https://www.karger.com/Article/PDF/212740
Carotenoids are widely used as important micronutrients in food. Furthermore, carotenoid supplementation has been used in the treatment of diseases associated with oxidative stress such as various types of cancer, inflammatory diseases or cystic fibrosis. However, in some clinical studies harmful effects have been observed, e.g. a higher incidence of lung cancer in individuals exposed to extraordinary oxidative stress. The causal mechanisms of harmful effects are still unclear. Carotenoid breakdown products (CBPs) including highly reactive aldehydes and epoxides are formed during oxidative attacks in the course of antioxidative action. We investigated the formation of CBPs by stimulated neutrophils (and at further conditions), tested the hypothesis that CBPs may exert mitochondriotoxicity and tried to prevent toxicity in the presence of members of the antioxidative network. Stimulated neutrophils are able to degrade β-carotene and to generate a number of CBPs. Concerning mitochondriotoxicity, we found that CBPs strongly inhibit state 3 respiration of rat liver mitochondria at concentrations between 0.5 and 20 μM. This was true for retinal, β-ionone, and for mixtures of cleavage/breakdown products. The inhibition of mitochondrial respiration was accompanied by a reduction in protein sulfhydryl content, decreasing GSH levels and redox state, and elevated accumulation of malondialdehyde. Changes in mitochondrial membrane potential favor functional deterioration in the adenine nucleotide translocator as a sensitive target. The presence of additional antioxidants such as α-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, N-acetyl-cysteine or others could mitigate mitochondriotoxicity. The findings reflect a basic mechanism of increasing the risk of cancer induced by carotenoid degradation products.
I've been living off oat biscuits since my low vit A diet. They contain palm oil. Now I'm worried that I've not lowered my vitamin A at all. I'm not sure how else to keep weight on without them.
Deleted post - sorry should have gone back and re- read the thread before posting.
Also if anyone wants to update me about if you have continued to eat product with palm oil and if you think that has an effect that would be appreciated.