[Imfittt]

Hi all,

I came across a site that said palm oil is a heart healthy and unsaturated oil rich in MCTs (which supposedly speed up the metabolism) and antioxidants.

I've found some of their articles really interesting and am currently trying out the dark chocolate pie recipe I found there.

If it's a good fat, and I can eat chocolate pie with something that speeds up my metabolism, I'm all for it!

[InLimbo]

Oh that would be lovely - it would make my day. I will dig around but I am not overly hopeful.

Sue

[futuresurferchick]

Palm oil has some potential benefits but also some potential harmful ingredients (like a lot of saturated fat). Also the current popularity of palm oil is causing environmental problems and leading to species endangerment. So is it worth it? You decide. Check it out on wikipedia for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil

[InLimbo]

Saw the same things futuresurferchick. I just read an article in Prevention that said Grape Seed Oil is the way to go - as good for you as olive oil, but cheaper. I have not seen it around but need to find my way to a health food store for some decent veggies so I will check. Article also said to oil your food before frying instead of adding oil to the pan - it was an interesting read.

Sue

[LLV]

Palm oil has monounsaturated fats, yes, but there's more saturated than anything else.

And speeds metabolism? Be care of that. Everyone wants to claim their product speeds metabolism and if it does at all, I'm sure it's not enough to even worry about. Like Coke pushing their product, Enviga, saying if you drink so much of it a day, you can burn off so and so amount of extra calories. I laughed when I first heard that and told people not to believe it. Well, they ended up sued for false advertising, which I was waiting on because I knew it would happen. You could probably walk around the block or run in place for 5 minutes and burn off the calories these people are claiming their products burn.

Don't believe everything you hear. There are no miracle products out there. If there were, none of us would be overweight.

You're better off with canola or olive oil. Most of their fat content is monounsaturated. And like Sue said, grapeseed oil is also good. It has about 14 grams of fat per tablespoon and only 1.5 grams of that is saturated. But I've personally never used it, so I don't know what it would be like for baking.