Here in the US saturated fats, from meats (beef), are considered the main cause of heart disease, but it is shown in many many studies that this is not the case. In the US there is also a large imbalance in Omega-3 and Omega-6, with most Americans having a 1:6 ratio, when they should be balanced. This is due to our industrial feedlots that use corn to fatten everything -- beef, chicken, pork, trout, salmon, etc... Grass fed, cage free, natural meats have this all balanced. Meat grading standards are based on the marbling of fat within the meat and the more marbling the better quality! But, grassfed steaks have less marbling, are more tender, and have way more flavor than feedlot produced steaks. There is also a problem with the number of polyunsaturated fats that we eat that have been stabilized and made less healthy and hydrogenated oils. Saturated fats are necessary for healthy cholesterol levels which helps the immune system, make vitamin-D (which most people have very low levels of), and the development of normal cell walls. The French after all love their duck and goose fat, lard, butter, and cream (and so do I) and it is not the wine that solves the problem of eating so many saturated fats, it is just that saturated fats are not bad for you. The Masai are a cow based culture (meat and dairy) and have no heart problems, the Tibetans are/were based on Yak milk-butter, the Inuit are animal fat based and eat lots of fish and had no major problems until recently, etc.. Cytokine levels are more of an indicator in heart failure than cholesterol levels as shown by numerous studies. The palm oil report follows the typical point of view against saturated fats, but most of the paper is devoted to the environmental cause, which should be addressed adequately, but not by misinformation. They even state that palm oil plants " yield 10 times more pounds of oil per acre than soybeans" so why not attack soy production which is grown over a larger area of space and is being grown in biodiverse South American habitats? Aaron Floden On Fri, 10/16/09, J.E. Shields <jshields@indy.net> wrote: From: J.E. Shields <jshields@indy.net> Subject: [pbs] Off Topic. Was: Snacks with Sir Joseph Banks, palm oil To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Date: Friday, October 16, 2009, 3:30 AM I used to be a biochemist, but my speciality was diabetes, not lipids per se. I recalled the facts more or less as put forward in this: http://cspinet.org/palmoilreport/… Basically, palm oil contains saturated fats. These are the components in beef that make it less healthful as a major component of diets. Since these "healthy diet" things are epidemiological in basis, the Luddites with vested interests can quibble (but that does not make them right). Jim Shields retired biochemist At 12:09 PM 10/15/2009 -0700, you wrote: >Aaron asked "How is palm oil unhealthy?" > > >Because, here in the US, we tend to associate heart disease with meat >consumption, I was really surprised when an Indian friend called my >attention to the very high rate of heart disease in India (where so many >people are largely if not entirely vegetarians) and other parts >of southeastern Asia. She attributed to the high levels of palm oil >consumption in those areas. > >I took her word for it and have not researched this myself, so if you are >seriously interested in this, do some more research. > >Jim McKenney >Aaron asked "How is palm oil unhealthy?" ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA