Foreign fast food loves palm oil and has been criticized by experts: as reliable as other vegetable oils.
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Zhejiang online news website
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Zhejiang Online November 19th (Reporter Zuo Baichang) Fried instant noodles, cheese cakes, delicious ice cream, fried chicken wings …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. However, do you know what these delicious foods are fried with? Tell you, most of them are palm oil! However, palm oil seems to be the target of public criticism all the time. Many people talk about the discoloration of palm oil, thinking that its saturated fatty acid content is higher than lard, and it is easy to get coronary heart disease, hypertension and even cause cancer.
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What is the truth? On November 17th, the "Palm Oil Health and Nutrition Forum" jointly organized by Zhejiang Nutrition Society, Malaysian Palm Oil General Administration and Malaysian Palm Oil Committee was held in Hangzhou. At the forum, nutrition café including Hua Jinzhong, vice chairman of Zhejiang Nutrition Society, discussed the safe application of palm oil in the food field.
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? ? ? ? The hydrogenated vegetable oil containing trans fatty acids was hated by people after the FDA requested to label the trans fatty acid content in food. McDonald’s and other western-style fast food restaurants have declared that they have replaced the oil of fried chicken and French fries with palm oil. Palm oil has become the new favorite of food manufacturers because of its low price, less cooking fume, good taste and bright and beautiful color when making food. Zhejiang Online reporter specially interviewed Professor Hua Jinzhong and explained in detail people’s misunderstandings and even rumors about palm oil.
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Proverbs 1: Palm oil is cheap because of its poor quality!
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Rumor: Palm oil is cheap and has nothing to do with its quality. The reason why it is widely used in food industry is that its physical properties are very stable, it has good natural oxidation resistance and it does not harm human health. In addition, palm oil production is high, so its price is low. Malaysia alone has 5.22 million hectares of plantations, and one hectare of land can produce 4 tons of palm fruit, so the output is high.
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Myth 2: Palm oil is not suitable for frying food!
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Myth: Palm oil contains moderate unsaturated fatty acids, does not contain linolenic acid, and is rich in natural vitamin E and triene tocopherol. Therefore, compared with other oils, palm oil is more suitable for frying and barbecue foods, such as western-style food chips, fried chicken, barbecue and Chinese breakfast fritters.
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Myth 3: Palm oil will increase the cholesterol content in the human body!
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Rumor: As a kind of oil with high saturation, palm oil was once mistakenly thought that it might increase the content of serum in human body, but after many studies by nutrition experts, it was found that eating palm oil not only did not increase the cholesterol in serum, but also played a role in lowering cholesterol. The reason is that a large number of data studies show that different saturated fatty acids have different effects on blood lipids. It is rich in more than 40% neutral fatty acids, which will promote another fatty acid that is easy to increase cholesterol in palm oil. On the contrary, palm oil is rich in vitamin E, tocopherols, carotenoids and linoleic acid, which can protect and soften the cardiovascular system of human body.
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Proverb 4: Palm oil has a short shelf life and is easy to solidify and deteriorate!
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Rumor: Palm oil, peanut oil and other oil products, like most liquid products, will appear flocculent precipitation or even large-scale solidification when the temperature is lower than a certain temperature. But this is only a physical process, just like water will form ice below zero and gradually turn into water above zero. After crystallization and solidification, it does not destroy the quality of oil, nor does it affect the edible value, and it is harmless to human body.
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Myth 5: Food fried with palm oil is not easy to deteriorate, and may contain something like "preservative"!
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Myth: Compared with other edible oils, palm oil contains more monounsaturated fatty acids with high oleic acid properties. In cooking, especially after frying food, even if it is not eaten immediately, the food will not go bad quickly. In addition, palm oil has another advantage. After frying, it will not leave a strong taste in food, and it is easier to be digested, absorbed and utilized by the human body, especially for those who have special dietary requirements.
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Myth 6: Eating palm oil in solidified state is harmful to human body!
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Rumor: On the contrary, this is the advantage of palm oil. Palm oil can be "graded" manually. In other words, palm oil can be divided into different products. Some of these products concentrate on saturated fatty acids in palm oil, which are more semi-solid or even solid at room temperature; Some products also contain more unsaturated fatty acids, which are liquid at room temperature. Those liquid palm oil components, which contain more monounsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E, are often added to various blended oils to balance the proportion of fatty acids.
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Proverb 7: Palm oil is easy to solidify, so it can’t be kept fresh, which will also affect the quality!
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Rumor: This is a misunderstanding. At present, there is an edible palm oil product with low melting point in small package on the market. The edible palm oil comes from freshly squeezed palm fruit, which not only ensures the freshness of the product, but also retains various nutrients to the maximum extent, and will not solidify before peanut oil under the same conditions, which is more acceptable to the people. More and more families have used it as a cooking necessity.
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How to eat oil to be healthy? Expert: advocate the diversity of oil products
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So, what oil should we eat? Professor Hua Jinzhong believes that fresh liquid vegetable oil that can be seen by the eyes is better. If possible, it is safest and healthiest to buy your own oil and make your own food.
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In addition, edible oils should be diversified, regardless of plant oils such as palm oil, olive oil, peanut oil and soybean oil, or animal oils, the nutritional elements are different. It is not advisable to eat only one oil, and you can mix them together or change an edible oil every once in a while. Try to ensure that all animal and vegetable oils are eaten.
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Of course, it is not good to eat oil in moderation, too much or too little. According to the Nutrition Guide of China, it is appropriate for adults to eat 25 grams of edible oil per person per day. In fact, every day’s food and vegetables can be completely satisfied.
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How to control excessive oil consumption? Usually, you can eat less snacks, desserts, cold drinks, snacks, shortcakes, shortbread, puffed food and fried food that contain a lot of oil. In fact, it will be safer for your heart, not because the oil is bad, but from the perspective of protecting your health, you will be less at risk of getting fat!
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Knowledge Link: Understanding Palm Oil
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Palm oil is a tropical woody plant oil, which has the largest production, consumption and international trade volume in the world at present. It is also called "the three largest vegetable oils in the world" with soybean oil and rapeseed oil, and has a history of more than 5,000 years.
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Palm oil is squeezed from palm fruit of oil palm tree. Palm oil and palm kernel oil are produced from pulp and kernel respectively. Traditionally, palm oil only contains the former. Palm oil can be refined and separated to obtain products with different melting points, which are widely used in catering industry, food industry and grease industry respectively.
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Refined palm oil is golden and transparent in color, good in nutrition and light in taste. Besides being used as home cooking oil, it is also the main frying oil for instant noodles, western-style fast food and snacks, and can also be used to make cakes with various flavors. Palm oil is generally processed into shortening, margarine, Tsinghua palm oil, frying oil and special oil.
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At present, China has become the largest importer of palm oil in the world, and the consumption of palm oil is about 6 million tons per year, accounting for 20% of the total market.
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