Palm | Kelapa Sawit

The history of palm oil is very interesting, as it has led to many misunderstandings of what it can and/or can't cause, as well as several myths associated with it. In fact, in the mid-eighties, some organizations advocated that palm oil was unhealthy for several reasons that were not correctly justified. An example of such organizations is the CSPI. The organization "The Palm oil Truth Foundation" states that, NGOs like The Center for Science in The Public Interest campaigned against palm oil, and only after medical and scientific research proving the opposite were undertaken did they recognize their wrongdoings. 

The Palm Oil Truth Foundation supports that there are several benefits to palm oil, one of them being that it can produce 30% of the world's edible oil needs and yet only make up for 0.22% of the world's agricultural lands. Also, unlike some earlier assumptions, palm oil is actually very healthy because it contains certain fatty acids that make it a nutritional and healthy choice (i.e., red palm oil has 45% of oleic acid, found in olive oil).