What are the effects of palm oil on blood cholesterol?
Recent studies have compared palm oil with other oils to understand the effect it has on blood cholesterol. An Australian study of twenty-one normocholesterolemic young adults (both men and women) compared the effects of palmolein and olive oil on plasma lipids. The total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (‘bad’ cholesterol) were nearly identical between palm olein and olive oil1. A double-blind crossover trial with thirty-eight Dutch males examined the effect replacing their usual saturated fat (animal fats and hydrogenated oils) consumption with palm oil and found no change in total cholesterol, but a 11% increase in HDL cholesterol (the ‘good’ cholesterol) compared to the control group2. Another crossover study consisted of 33 normocholesterolemic subjects who were challenge fed with a coconut oil-rich diet for 4 weeks and then provided with that test diet, either a palm olein-rich diet or an olive oil-rich diet. The results showed identical total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cho
