Palm Oil products: Who doesn’t like eating chips, kurkure, chocolate, namkeen-biscuit or ice cream, but do you know that their excessive consumption is harmful? Not only because of salt and sugar, the oil in which they are fried or cooked is also a reason to avoid them. More than 95 percent of packaged food items used in India are not made in mustard, coconut or olive oil but in palm oil, which is the cheapest available in the market. In such a situation, it is important to know whether this palm oil is really the worst oil in the world?
Recently, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition guidelines also say that packaged food is the worst for health. The reason behind this is the salt, sugar, preservatives and oil used in them. You may not have noticed but the ingredients present in food items are also written on their packets. It is important to read them.
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Does palm oil increase cholesterol?
Excessive consumption of palm oil is harmful.
Former President of Endocrine Society of India and renowned endocrinologist Dr. Sanjay Kalra says, ‘It is said about palm oil that it increases the amount of LDL cholesterol or low density lipoprotein cholesterol. We know that an increase in the amount of LDL leads to more heart disease, but the research or evidence shows that the link between LDL cholesterol and heart disease and consumption of palm oil is not very strong.’
‘Our science earlier believed that eating more eggs or eating more cholesterol increases heart disease, but now we know that the amount of cholesterol we eat is only a small part of the factors that cause heart disease. Therefore, it is very difficult to believe that palm oil can be a major cause of heart disease.’
Some research also says that consuming too much palm oil can lead to kidney disease or male infertility, but these research are also not very strong.
These are two things about palm oil
Dr. Kalra says that two things work regarding any edible oil, the first is nutritional biochemistry. That is, what is the nutritional value of that oil or food. However, it is very difficult to measure how much effect a particular biochemical thing has on our health through which food item.
The second effect is that of politico-economic issues. According to this, a similar thing is prevalent not only about palm oil but also about the use of coconut oil. It is said that whatever is grown in hot climate is bad and whatever is grown in cold climate is good. It is difficult to believe this because the people who have been consuming coconut oil or palm oil in tropical areas for 5 thousand years, their species have become bad or have become extinct.
However, palm oil is used more in India because it is cheaper than other oils.
There is also confusion about mustard oil
Let us tell you that in India one cannot live without consuming mustard oil but mustard oil is banned in Canada, mustard oil cannot be used for cooking or eating there. On the basis of some small studies, mustard oil has been banned there by calling it poisonous while canola oil is being marketed as better. Now it is worth understanding that if mustard oil was bad or poisonous then half of India would have been destroyed but this did not happen.
Know important things about palm oil
Dr. Kalra says that no matter what oil or ghee it is, we should take everything in small quantities. According to the World Health Organization, an adult person should use 10 grams of oil or ghee every day, whatever the mixture may be. Consuming any oil or ghee more than this can be harmful. This is the standard for all oils and ghee. If we take one-third of it as palm oil, then there is no harm. For the rest of the oils, we can use mustard or soybean oil.
It is approved by FSSAI
Let us tell you that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has allowed the use of palm oil in 6 categories. In India, palm oil, palmolein, palm kernel oil, refined palm oil, refined palmolein and refined palm kernel oil can be used as edible oil. However, some quality parameters and standards have been fixed for these oils.
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Tags: Food, Food Safety Act, Health News
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 26, 2024, 19:28 IST