They come from the same plant: coconut oil comes from the seed, and palm oil comes from the fleshy fruit of the palm tree. Like coconut oil, palm oil is one of the best and safest oils to cook with (refer to the chart in my blog Fat: The Healthy Kind). When talking fatty acids, it is 50% saturated, 40% monounsaturated, and only 10% polyunsaturated. And as far as omegas go, it has a 6 to 3 ratio of 10:1, but almost half the product is composed of omega-9, a neutral.

Fun Fact:

Many places in Africa used red palm oil as a remedy for almost every illness until western medicine practices arrived.

Why Is Palm Oil Red?

The dark red color of palm oil comes from all the carotenes (beta-carotene and lycopene). It’s the same reason tomatoes are red and carrots are orange, it’s just that palm oil has a TON more carotenes than carrots and tomatoes--15 times more than carrots, and 300 times more than tomatoes, to be exact!

Health Benefits:

The best thing about red palm oil is it contains more nutrients than any other oil, even coconut. It’s chock full of vitamin E and A, both of which have great health benefits including:

Remove plaque buildup in the arteries (i.e. reverse atherosclerosis) 

Lower blood pressure

Reduce the risk of cancer

Protect against blindness, lowered immunity, weakened bones, and lessened mental function

Reduce free radical damage and lower inflammation throughout the body, especially the skin and brain

Improve blood flow

The cool thing about vitamin E in red palm oil is that there are actually TWO kinds in found in this oil: regular and tocotrienol. Tocotrienol has 60 times the antioxidant power of regular vitamin E. That’s a lot of vitamin E going on in there.

When carotenes are ingested, the body converts them into vitamin A, but it only works when fat is present. What luck--palm oil is a fat! One teaspoon of red palm oil can provide the full daily recommended dose of vitamin A for a child. Studies show that breastfeeding mothers can double or even triple the amount of vitamin A in their milk but adding red palm oil to their diet.

Cooking with Red Palm Oil

As I mentioned above, palm oil is one of the best fats for your frying pan. It has a smoke point of approximately 425 degrees (pretty high) and has a shelf life of two to three years in the fridge or pantry. It is semi-solid at room temperature, and does not leave any sort of taste behind when you cook with it.

How to Purchase Palm Oil
Red palm oil can be found in almost every grocery store these days. As with any oil, look for words such as Cold Pressed, Organic, Raw, Virgin or Unrefined, Certified Sustainable Palm Oil and Fair for Life Fair Trade. These will lead you to purchasing the purest product available.