Consumer knowledge on the destructiveness of palm oil production—found in everything from ice cream and crackers to detergents and . Palm oil is a popular oil found in many foods. While it may have some health benefits, its production has major environmental and ethical concerns.

One Green Planet has plenty of posts on the ethics of palm oil. We all know that palm oil is an environmental disaster; it is a major cause of . After trans fats were banned from snack foods, many companies began to use palm oil as a “healthy” alternative. The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) produces a big red fruit bunch that is rich with oil.

After they refine the oil it is called palm oil. Unsustainable palm oil development fuels widespread rainforest destruction, human rights abuses, illegal wildlife smuggling, climate change and the destruction . Of all the tropical oils, coconut oil gets the most attention while, up until recently, red palm oil has been relatively ignored by most folks in the U. Palm oil, however, doesn’t contain trans fats, which, like saturated fat, can raise your bad cholesterol level, and that’s a plus. I was surprised to see an ad in one of my cooking magazines promoting palm oil as a healthy fat. I thought it was supposed to be really bad for . Unfortunately, palm oil, found in hundreds of processed foods, could be threatening your health and that of one of the world’s most endangered .