What is the real problem with palm oil

Palm oil is similar to handwriting: a widespread phenomenon that some condemn, others praise, and others are used as the basis of a large and profitable industry. The Russian government discuss how to ban palm oil - in whole or in part. Among the arguments for and against the ban, as well as in newspaper notes that explain its meaning, there are often conflicting, sometimes just false allegations.

The employee receives palm oil at the factory in Colombia.

Getty Images / Bloomberg / Alejandra Parra

Why do they want to ban it in Russia?

Mainly because with the advent of antisanctions and the disappearance of European products, Russian foods began to add it too much to dairy products.

According to Rosstat, the import of palm oil in October 2014 increased by 74% compared to October 2013, and in January and February 2015-by 37% compared with the same period of 2014. If we take into account that the import of milk and cream was reduced by 34%, and their own production in Russia was reduced by 2%, it can be assumed that palm oil replaced milk fat in Russian -made products by about a third.

Representatives of the Rosselkhoznadzor say that palm oil is “not so safe”, since it contains some harmful fatty acids. Many Russian doctors say the same thing. This, to put it mildly, has not been proven by anyone.

How harmful is it actually?

There are no and unlikely to ever be trustworthy evidence of the harm of natural palm oil for health. All studies proving the connection of the consumption of palm oil with the risk of heart attacks and strokes have many disadvantages: small scale, poor design, and most importantly, statistical correlations in them are equated with causal connection. For example, a group of authors from Stanford University in 2011 published a study in which the statistics of palm oil consumption in different countries were compared with the statistics of heart attacks and strokes. Scientists stated a direct connection: the more, the more. The fact that palm oil is more eaten in poor countries, where the standard of living and the quality of food in general, the authors left the brackets.

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