JAKARTA – Palm oil contains cholesterol. Such is the statement that certain groups want the public to believe. It is not the real fact, but just a myth as proven by the following facts.
Cholesterol has become a haunting specter as it is seen as the trigger of many dangerous diseases, such as cancer and heart disease. That is why health promotion organizations have continually encouraged the public as consumers to consume low cholesterol foods, while many producers claimed their food products as cholesterol free to win market competition.
The cholesterol has also become a health issue linked to the palm oil. So far, there has been a public perception that has become a myth that cooking oil from palm oil contains cholesterol. The myth is so influential that the public develop a phobia on consuming foods fried with palm cooking oil.
Such perception developed as a result of negative campaigns launched by ASA in early 1980. The negative campaigns were aimed to vilify tropical vegetable oils , especially palm oil, which started at that time threatening the soybean at the global market. ASA accused palm oil as containing cholesterol and proposed at that time to the USA government to ban palm oil in the country.
But actually, the accusation has never been proven by nutrition and health experts through researches in many countries. There has never been any nutrition expert stating that cooking oil from vegetable oils, such as palm oil, contains cholesterol. Cholesterol has only produced by animals and humans, while plants have no capacity to produce cholesterol (Calloway and Kurtz, 1956; USDA, 1979; Cottrell, 1991; Muchtadi, 1998; Muhilal, 1998; Hariyadi, 2010; Giriwono and Andarwulan 2016).
Conversely, the palm oil contains phytosterols as vegetable sterols that can function as bioactive compounds to reduce cholesterol content inside blood (Fauziati et al., 2019). It shows that palm cooking oil tends to be “net neutral” as it does not affect the content of cholesterol inside human body. Other bioactive compounds of palm oil, such as squalene and polyphenol, also function to block absorption, reabsorption, and cholesterol synthesis. (Longganathan et al., 2010; Hariyadi, 2020).
Source: Mitos & Fakta Kelapa Sawit –4th Edition | (Mitos 5-08)
