Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I've been looking into using red palm oil as a vitamin E "supplement," as vitamin E is the only nutrient I'm not hitting high levels on (according to Cron). Apparently virgin palm oil is super-high in tocepherols but I can't seem to find any actual (per-gram) nutrition facts. NutritionData has an entry for palm oil but it lists the vitamin E content as a mere 2mg/tbsp, so I'm inclined to believe virgin palm oil's content is higher. According to ND, a tbsp of palm oil has over a gram of omega-6, so I'm only going to consider red palm oil if it's vitamin E levels are high enough to make that an acceptable sacrifice (I watch my O-6/O-3 ratios very closely).

Does anyone have a link to a nutritional analysis of red/virgin palm oil? Or maybe just per-gram/tbsp vitamin E content? I'd be much obliged.

flag	asked Jan 11 2012 at 17:32 Dan 1,705●3●16

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Red Palm oil is a global evil. There's plenty of discussion about it here on PH. It all comes down to the fact that ANY use of palm oil, whether sustainable and fair trade, or not, causes demand for cheap palm oil, which is the kind that kills orangutans and forests and biodiversity, and destroys villages and pits neighbor against neighbor in the third world. Don't use it. – Futureboy Jan 11 2012 at 18:10

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The same argument could be made for beef. Are we then going to lump grass-fed, extensive production with CAFO beef and indict all consumption as supporting a "global evil" that causes rainforest to be mowed burned for rangeland? You could apply this same arguement to just about every food product (or product in general). Check out the book, or reviews of the book "Bananas!" for just one example. (articles.boston.com/2008-01-03/ae/…). IMHO a much more compelling case can be made for supporting the fair trade and sustainable producers. – FED at LiveCaveman.com Jan 11 2012 at 19:14

see my post here from last night on another thread: paleohacks.com/questions/89366/… . Futureboy, read the link from Jungle Products. It is regarding the "global evil" that you speak of. – Jack Kronk Jan 11 2012 at 21:07

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Wow I just saw FED's comment after writing mine. Basically the same point. – Jack Kronk Jan 11 2012 at 21:15

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Great abs think alike Jack. Seriously though, your abs would kick my abs' ass any day of the week! – FED at LiveCaveman.com Jan 11 2012 at 23:39

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FED at LiveCaveman.com · Answer 1 · 2012-01-11 19:19:17Z UTC

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Tropical Traditions has some information on their site that might help...http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/red_palm_oil.htm

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answered Jan 11 2012 at 19:19

FED at LiveCaveman.com
19.2k●20●60

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Hi FED, thanks for the links - I've seen those graphs on TT's site, but unfortunately the Vitamin E graph doesn't translate very well to mg or RDA's. Any idea how to convert ppm into something more meaningful? – Dan Jan 12 2012 at 2:33

Dan · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-21 04:10:37Z UTC

Weekend arrived and I did some deeper digging online. I found two charts (1, 2) that listed the Vitamin E content of palm oils. From the notes I gathered that the palm oils examined were either crude or extra-virgin. I did the math, here's what I got:

1 Tbsp. of Palm Oil (14g)

2.5mg-9mg Tocepherols (6mg Avg.)

7.5mg-12mg Tocotrienols (10mg Avg.)

There are no RDAs for mixed Tocepherols or Tocotrienols, but those are pretty high amounts (my numbers could be much lower than actual amounts: I wasn't sure if a "-" on the charts indicated a lack of tocopherols or that the amount wasn't measured, but I counted it as a zero value). The RDA/DV of Vitamin E is for Alpha-Tocepherol only, and ranges from 10g to 20g. Assuming an RDA/DV of 15g, 1 Tbsp. of palm oil contains:

2mg-4mg Alpha-Tocepherol (3mg. Avg.)

Which corresponds to 15%-25% RDA/DV (20% Avg.). 1 Tbsp. of Palm oil also contains 1.2g Omega-6 fatty acids (compare 0.25g for Coconut Oil, 1.3g for Olive Oil).

So, is red palm oil a viable source of Vitamin E? I'd say yes. It offers more Vitamin E per gram of Omega-6 than almonds or olive oil (17% RDA vs. 11% & 8%), and wheat germ oil is out of the picture for paleo eaters (7.5g PUFA per Tbsp. and it's wheat). It's a natural source of mixed tocepherols (understood to be more beneficial than synthetic, isolated tocepherols), has a ton of tocotrienols and caretenoids, and is fairly low in PUFA. I watch my 3/6 ratios very closely so I won't be eating more than a Tbsp. or two a day, but it'll be enough to provide a decent boost to my Vitamin E, something that's not too easy to get on a Paleo diet.

serena · Answer 3 · 2012-02-21 17:21:40Z UTC

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check out the book by dr bruce fife, it may help, it is all on palm oil. he also wrote about coconut oil, cookbook and coconut flour. good luck!

answered Feb 21 2012 at 17:21

serena
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gem · Answer 4 · 2012-06-22 15:43:57Z UTC

there is debate about many aspects of palm oil (many covered above including environmental, economic and social repercussions) and also about nutrition (such as saturated fat content and health benefits of the bioactives) if you want accurate composition information check out the WHO FAO website or the AOCS publications

Vitamin E content of Red Palm Oil?

4 Answers