PALM OIL - The Good, The Bad & The Oily

[@qream8]

I’m Nigerian and we use palm oil in many of our dishes. It’s grown locally but not in the fashion seen in countries where it’s mass produced. Our cuisine would not be the same without it. I’ve had to explain many times to others in the west that its use in our food and culture shouldn’t be scrutinized in the same way. Honestly it can be exhausting. Thank you for shining light on the subject. P.S, when you use red palm oil in a stew, put it on really high heat first before adding other ingredients. And open a window or turn on an exhaust fan because your smoke alarm might be set off.

[@WeirdExplorer]

thanks for the tip!

[@Ucceah]

do you have to wait untill it stops smoking, or throw in ingredients to cool it down, when it just starts? and what to put in first, meat, spices, or aromatics and onions? i'm really curious about trying red palm oil in my already eclectic cooking, but i dont knoe how to use it yet.

[@meerali5050]

Exactly! Oil palm is not from Malaysia or Indonesia, it's indigenous to West Africa. Oil palm was taken from Nigeria to those places by the Dutch to be a cash crop. Oil palm still grows wild in Nigeria/West Africa and is used by many West Africans as part of our cultures as it has been for thousands of years. The problems of the oil palm plantations are separate and will manifest anywhere plantations are planted, because it's an exploitative system. So blame the system that makes it profitable to destroy the environment to grow monocultures, not the plant itself, and stop supporting exploitative plantation palm oil. It can be grown differently

[@torotup3628]

@@meerali5050 Hit the nail on the head. Even the our cousins from brazil can attest to this fact. Plus its been a staple diet(i mean ritual procession) for african gods, even all the way to egypt. i dont know of any indo/asian sacrifices that uses palmoil but since they grow it, i guess our contribution to society has been distorted.

[@orianedroz5734]

I suppose your oil is also not refine . C est aussi un probleme politique en Europe . En Inde ,une consommation enorme quasi impossible de ne pas en consommer ...je cuisine tout depuis la base a La maison avec huile de coco locale ,donc jamais de petit plaisir a s offrir un repas au restaurant ...je ne mentionne pas l effet sur les corps des jeunes personnes ....😢

[@PureAsbestos]

The savory tomato-like flavor you mention is likely from the lycopene, which also gives it its red color. I have heard similar descriptions from other fruits high in lycopene.

[@apcolleen]

I thought that was going to be beta carotene.

[@LkandaOficial]

I'm from the state of Bahia, in Brazil, and red palm oil is essential to our cuisine. I can not imagine our regional dishes witout it (like Acarajé, Abará, Moqueca, etc.). Since we are the state with most balck people outside of Africa, I guess that explains a lot why this ingredient has so many uses here.

[@lopl4369]

Living in Ghana i can say, that Red Oil as you showed in your video really is an important cooking ingredient here. Also for "Palmnut Soup" for example you typically buy the palm fruit and grind it at home to break down the pulp. Also Palm Oil just is the most Sustainable and productive per ground local source of fat in tropical climates especially sub saharan West Africa. The issue: even here where it is grown localy the demand is higher than production now adays leading to imports from South East Asia that sadly can well compete in price with the local product. Little Fun Fact, we sometimes feed the raw Redoil like you chugged to animals to make them throw up, if they swallowed something they we're not supposed to or If they fell sick for example.

[@AnAcceptedName]

Thank you so much for this video. I have been defending the oil palm for years now and its horrible reputation. The plant itself is so overwhelmingly productive it's ridiculous that people demand other vegetable oils. If we are to keep pace with current consumption, the oil palm is the obvious choice. It's just that demand for oils has shot up so much in the recent decades that the sustainable agricultural processes can't keep up. Sadly, partly because the oil palm is so productive, the economic incentives are too much for people to care about the long term environmental and social damages. It's such a shame that a wonderful palm, with so much going for it, will be the face of such wanted destruction of our planet's natural beauty.

[@theyazankelly226]

Poverty and capitalism breeds greed and ecosystem destruction 😢 as you said, it’s not the fruit that’s the problem, it’s the context

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

The problem it's the oil demand, not a healthy food, as any refined oil, on top of that saturated and omega 6 fats. Only potentially sustainable system would be something similar to masarang sugar palm system, but that's not profitable, so, such a conondrum

[@Dewe196]

What about rapeseed I heard it good oil source and animal food

[@AnAcceptedName]

@@Dewe196 rapeseed is a good oil producer as well, hence why it was a major crop for such a long time, with canola especially being a game changer in the 70's. Yet, oil yields are only a third to half that of the oil palm. And it requires more intensive harvesting measures (but can be done with industrial equipment). The oil palm can easily be productive for 30+ years if it's not destroyed during errant harvesting/disease.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

@@Dewe196 At 5:29 rape in on the diagramm third from below. It's only ~20% as space efficient as oil palm.

[@larissabrglum3856]

I'm actually interning with a woman who's assisting in research to develop a sunflower that produces seeds that are high in saturated fat, with the goal of being a more sustainable alternative to palm oil.

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

What we need is less oil consumption, not healthy anyway. More useful would be high, rancidity resistant omega 3, IP free, open pollinated sunflower

[@StuffandThings_]

I mean but the thing is nothing will ever beat the raw yield of palm oil. Its by far the most productive oil crop. People are going to grow things in the tropics no matter what, and its better to use comparative advantage and grow high yielding oil palm as opposed to grains or something which would be better suited for temperate climates. The biggest issues are a lack of access to fertilizers (hence the constant need to burn rainforest), poor farming practices which lead to low biodiversity and lots of herbicide use, and high global consumption driven by a vast array of products that use plant based oils and our exploding population which puts too much pressure on the planet. The oil palm is fine, great actually, you really couldn't ask for a better plant. Its the way we use it that's the problem.

[@sentropez1337]

@@StuffandThings_ "you really couldn't ask for a better plant" I dunno, it kind of looks like a lot of plant per fruit, to me; with rather small, somewhat tough fruits that require high amounts of processing to extract. Even if it's constantly fruiting, it feels like oil palms right now are where tomatoes were before we began applying scientific cultivation methods to them: good eating, but _inefficient_ as an input to mass-production of various blended and distilled extracts. For flavor, the "heirloom" oil palm would continue to be preferable, so there's not much we need to do to the oil palm for those seeking that flavor. But for just raw output per hectare of flavorless vegetable oil, we could definitely aim toward a more "beefsteak tomato" kind of oil palm cultivar. Something smaller in size, less spiky, requiring less fertilizer, producing less fibrous fruit, larger fruit, easier to machine-harvest without tearing down and threshing the tree. Less a palm _tree_ , more a palm _bush_ . Is anyone working on that? Or is forest land in Malaysia and Indonesia still considered "cheap" enough by those governments, that there's no pressure to get high-CapEx scientific investment involved to further optimize for yield (not just per hectare, but also per man-hour and per watt!) yet?

[@StuffandThings_]

@@sentropez1337 From what I know, the Austronesian peoples managed to breed much smaller coconut trees (closer to coconut bush, like you described). Additionally, being a tree is actually really promising for trying some sort of permaculture, establishing multiple layers of oil producing crops (there are some canopy/emergent trees that produce oily seeds, as well as many, many herbaceous plants). I definitely agree that there is a colossal amount of untapped potential for breeding or genetically engineering better varieties though. The fact that even just the generic version of oil palm is so popular and successful says a lot. There's probably an ungodly amount of money to be made by making even marginal improvements to the oil palm or to oil palm cultivation methods, right now the incentive seems to still be to burn more rainforest but my bet is that something will happen soon.

[@chrissonnenschein6634]

@@danielpicassomunoz2752 Healthy Omega- 3 oils are Monounsaturated which also means that it will oxidize (turn rancid). Polyunsaturated oils are what the hybridized plants company select because these dont spoil as readily, can ship but lacks the desired specific benefit of the monounsaturated fats. Saturated fats solidify and once again lacks the monounsaturated.

[@twothirdsanexplosive]

It's so great that there are content makers like you and Adam Ragusea who can get into the nuance and challenges of palm oil. Internet isn't that great with nuance but there are those like you who do a phenomenal job and you were still able to give your own twist to the conversation. The ecological disaster is bad for nature and for people so I do hope were figure this out ASAP.

[@endersn11]

High effort video!! I had no idea how efficient palm oil production was compared to other oils. If only it could be produced by more responsible companies. Seems like the answer is that the world needs to use less vegetable oil in general. That is probably not going to happen though. Producing it efficiently with much stricter regulations on those companies is probably the real world solution.

[@hokman1]

it aint the oil production companie's fault...it is the fault of all the merchandise companies and consumers that demand the production!! of course, the palm plantation companies would gladly accept the business...but at the lost of the home of the tigers!

[@WeirdExplorer]

for sure. tightening regulations and actually keeping companies to them would most likely help.

[@jonathanrovenstine3330]

Once again, Jared hitting it out of the park, proving time and time again that he is by far the most underrated KZbinr.

[@jambadonmusic]

The oil palm is completely uncontroversial in West Africa. It has been used for ever there. Palm oil is great! The West have given it a bad name.

[@Lia-ij5fn]

This is a complicatee subject to tackle. The palm oil plant is an incredible plant, but the way production is being approached is abysmal. That being said, the productivity of the plant itself makes it nearly impossible to replace without creating further definite environmental issues, and possibly more social and economic issues than palm oil carries.. I am happy you discussed red palm oil as well. There is a Ghanaian okra stew that uses red palm oil and there is something about it that is just amazing, at least for me. Perhaps it's simply that okra is one of my favorite foods. 😅

[@Unsensitive]

Very reasonable and nuanced view on palm. I also like to focus on it being one of the healthiest "vegetable" oils. The only real downsides have zero to do with the plant, but all to do with human actions, which could easily get worse if you tried to replace it.

[@cathyburrows8162]

Going to look up this recipe and give it try , love okra!

[@TheAnonymous4545]

I personally despise the palm oil industry. I live in a city that's surrounded by palm oil plantations and every few years or so large tracts of land always happen to "accidentally" catch on fire at the same time. The air quality becomes so bad that you can't see more than 100m in front of you. These plantation owners have friends in high places and they never face any consequences

[@andersjjensen]

What's the benefit for them to burn them down? I thought the palms took a long time to give a good yield?

[@adriangjonca680]

@@andersjjensen Burning down the natural forests to create clear fertile land (the ashes are surprisingly fertilising) for plantations . Done in many countries both illegally and legally. Often done to make way for pastures. It's sad because it's really easy to blame 'natural causes' and then you can say 'oh but we have this open fertile land! We might as well use it for farming ;)'

[@Frea_]

Do you live in Indonesia?

[@andersjjensen]

@Bro15263 Ah, that makes sense. 20 years is a pretty short cycle compared to many other types of trees. Walnut takes 15-20 years just to reach maturity, and they peak produce between 60 and 80 years old. Olive trees can still be in peak production after several hundred years.

[@anarita6355]

Not in Africa And BRASIL

[@muhammadsyafiq1004]

I'm from Malaysia. The problem with palm oil is that the whole world consumed it but you expect literally 2 countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) to shoulder the consumption. The two countries can't do much when there are hundreds of international companies pressuring them to not reduce production. Don't boycott it. Encourage more countries to plant it. Maybe then Malaysia and Indonesia can relax a bit. The whole of south east asia can grow it, africa can grow it, hell even some part of China can grow it, then why settle for just Malaysia and Indonesia when the consumption and demand are that HUGE? But of course EU would rather pick an agenda that suit their own vegetable oil rather than that. There is a clear advantage to palm oil. Replacing it is an idiotic move. Boycotting and not encouraging other countries to plant it is what cause the problem in the first place. You don't see the same problem with rubber tree cause more than two countries major in it. The international politic stuff we can do without, it's just complicate things.

[@erikdietrich2678]

I don't think anyone is "expecting" anything. Other countries are free to plant it - no one is stopping them. But plenty of countries can't. I'm from the US: we don't grow it here because the weather is wrong for it. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons (some bad - like cheap labor - and some good - like excellent weather) it's most profitable to produce palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia. It makes no sense for other countries to try to produce large quantities for export when the retail price of Indonesian/Malaysian palm oil is much lower.

[@StuffandThings_]

For real, Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet with some beautiful areas and really should be left alone. Some other countries are planting oil palm, mainly in central America, with equally disastrous effects. Really, we need to seek out the lowest biodiversity, least valuable areas of tropical land to plant this. Oil palm is a fantastic plant that has been seriously misused

[@theyazankelly226]

Good to hear your thoughts from someone from Malaysia. Would you say the Malaysian government has a responsibility as well? They are doing deals with the large corporations

[@theyazankelly226]

Also, just growing more somewhere else doesn’t ensure that it will be grown sustainably. Could just lead to more forced labour and natural degradation

[@thefrugivoreanimal]

Boycott just sends the best message to them and if you want to eat them buy locally

[@marin4311]

Red palm oil is a main ingredient in Brazilian food culture. It is called "dendé". It is often used with cassava flour. It adds some specific kind of umami to the dishes.

[@afterSt0rm]

Specially important here in Bahia, as many dishes like moqueca, vatapá, caruru and acarajé, all African in origin, require dendê. But we also have local, responsible production.

[@marin4311]

@@afterSt0rm E essa comida traditicional esta muita sabrosa tambem.

[@monzorella1]

That's because Brazilians are West Africans

[@NK_Khoo-Malaysian]

The oil palm yield is 8 to 9 times more than peanut, soybean, sunflower, etc. You are free to cut down 9 times more jungle size like Brazilians did in cultivating soybeans to produce the same amount of vegetable oil.

[@biodiversityfanatic2454]

All that's needed is a shift to permaculture so that large palm monoculture doesn't destroy nature

[@NK_Khoo-Malaysian]

@@biodiversityfanatic2454 Malaysia has 60% forest reserve policy unlike western world with less than 30%.

[@Davyjones5454]

On paper only.

[@NK_Khoo-Malaysian]

@@Davyjones5454 no scientists prove otherwise except idiot in internet

[@Pletzmutz]

Its saturated fat content is one of the reasons it's so popular because that makes it more solid at room temperature which makes it useful for stuff like Nutella, some baked goods and many cosmetics.

[@Unsensitive]

Saturated fat is also, against popular opinion, healthier for you. Polyunsaturated fats aren't inherently bad and can have benefits, but your body is prone to store them. They oxidize easily, so when stored can increase inflammation as they oxidize. There's also a complex relationship with stored body fat composition as one of the signals for metabolic rates in mammals, but that's way to complex for a KZbin comment. I highly recommend following Brad Marshals explaining the "emergence diet" mimicking triggers mammals use when coming out of hibernation. Seems a bit odd, but he backs it up with science. He also goes into detail how low fat starch based is better than high fat diets, but explains how each work for weight loss, as well as other metabolic signals to push, and those tomavoid for a healthy metabolism. If you like science, definitely good reads or listening. Even being knowledgeable, I have to listen a few times. His blog is _"fire in a bottle"_ or find videos on KZbin.

[@insanitynears]

Just inaccurate, and goes against the little knowledge we do have in nutrition. Cherry-picking science papers and following social media gurus that advocate for this is at best negligent, and at worst malicious (if you sell health products based on this). Hate seeing this stuff repeated online. People who like science shouldn't follow hot-shot innovator gurus that come up with another "cool-name-diet" in name of paleo/bears/ancestral spirits. Go and read mainstream science, start following doctors and nutritionists and learn how to read science papers on your own. That way you might not fall into the rabbit whole of coming with some ridiculous idea and then "backing it up with science" with single small research that you took out of context. Saturated fats aren't better for health, they have their uses, but stop spreading misinformation.

[@The_Conspiracy_Analyst]

@@Unsensitive Where would humans find an abundance of non-toxic starches in nature? Nowhere. See that tells me that guy you mentioned that recommended that doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just another NWO shill begging in pleading that you put yourself in a state of extreme disease by stuffing yourself with sugar. Lots of these types are absolutely TERRIFIED of people waking up and healing themselves by eating their natural diet.

[@Pletzmutz]

@@Unsensitive The body of scientific literature overwhelmingly suggests that consuming less saturated fat has better health outcomes. Doesn't mean you only consume PUFAs but saturated fatty acids are clearly over-represented in most people's diet.

[@Tinil0]

@@Unsensitive Please don't tell me this "Brad Marshall" is some social media figure or that he is selling anything

[@espenschjelderup426]

In Norway we mostly stoped using palm oil in food a few years ago. You still see palm oil in some foods, but I think that's mostly food that's prduced in other countrys.

[@morningstar8187]

I can buy red palm oil in Belgium with easy thanks to a large immigrant population from Africa. It’s actually pretty tasty and improves a lot of dishes like Thai curries. The mouthfeel is so much better than regular vegetable oil due to its high content of saturated fat.

[@thematronsmilitia]

Hearing about Belgians appreciating the culture of African immigrants 🥰 Remembering that the connection between Belgium and West Africa started with King Leopold's unfathomably brutal colonial domination of the Congo 💀

[@censusgary]

Roughly four decades ago, we were told that eating palm oil (and other “tropical oils,” e.g. coconut oil) was unhealthful, due to the saturated fat content. However, these days the effects of various fats in the diet, and how much fat a person should consume, are much more controversial in medical circles. “All things in moderation” is my best advice. That doesn’t do anything about the forced labor, deforestation, and pollution issues, of course.

[@Tinil0]

Man, I wish more people would stop thinking there is ANY miracle diet that is perfect and just accept "All things in moderation". Not necessarily ALL things, but the idea that everything has beneficial and detrimental effects depending on how much of it you eat, and our bodies are absolutely incredible at making due with what it gets to the point where as long as you provide it with a bit of everything and don't overdo anything it's going to usually be decent. People are so laser focused on there being "a right answer", some sort of Theory of Diet that can mathematically determine the perfect things for you to eat, they can't accept that there is a lot of nuance and a lot of it depends on the specific person and there is essentially nothing that is universally bad or good. Heck, even the concept of "healthy" as in "X food is healthy" is problematic. Thinking in terms of healthy or unhealthy is...well, unhealthy. Sorry for the digression rant.

[@user-03-gsa3]

The funny thing is that the tropical oils are traditionally consumed in amounts comparable to non-traditional oils in processed diets but the non-traditional oils were not consumed by anybody in these amounts before the end of the 19th century. As if anybody was grinding down enough rapeseeds with a mortar and pestle to use as cooking oil. Whereas olive, coconut and red palm oils were harvested for human consumption for thousands of years. Nobody ever consumed the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids you get from non-traditional vegetable oils (except people who eat cold-water fish and mammals), dietary fat sources which are consumed for thousands of years usually have saturated fatty acid profile or the unsaturated component is majority monounsaturated.

[@Spawn256]

Enjoyed the cooking section of the video. Also learned a lot about palm oil.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@youtube.commentator]

I've always loved your uploads, this one was definitely very interesting, never even considered what "palm oil" even was, or have ever really heard about it

[@WeirdExplorer]

Thank you!

[@darajeffus]

Amazing take on a hard subject! Thank you so much!

[@WeirdExplorer]

thank you!

[@arnaudmenard5114]

That redpalm stew sounds like it would be an absolute treat done with goat and bitter eggplant!

[@vanessapaakkonen6637]

What an intelligent look at palm oil. I cant believe the out of control use of this oil since the 1960's. I also do not buy any products with palm oil, but never knew about red palm oil! Great video to expose the good and the bad. !!!!! Thk you.

[@WeirdExplorer]

glad you enjoyed it!

[@anarita6355]

Buy Red Palm oil

[@Lithilic]

Thanks for this video, as I was genuinely curious about the fruit. To the credit of the fruit, the reason why it's the center of so many problems is because it's attributes are highly desired for the needs of an industrial scale food supply. The lipid profile on it isn't particularly healthy, but one could say that about most seed oils.

[@liabobia]

This is an incredibly nuanced take, thanks. I recently got to taste the peach palm fruit, not nearly as oily but definitely had fat. It was filling, nutritious, and an important part of the indigenous diet in Colombia. I found it delightful. I'm sure the oil palm has similar virtues - the problem is exploitation of natural resources, not the resources themselves.

[@alfianfahmi5430]

The real reason why the oil palm farm got so much bad rep is because Indonesia, Malaysia, and some other Southeast Asian countries were trying to fullfill the global palm oil demands. Had other countries were willing to make their own oil palm farm themselves, the burden that Indonesia, Malaysia, and all other main palm oil exporters carried for the global demand can be relieved for a bit.

[@WeirdExplorer]

I'm happy to announce that Memberships are now available for the channel for as low as $1/month. You can gain access to: ◘members-only emojis: ◘Badges by your name to show you're part of the club. ◘Early access to videos ◘Instant access to over 100 exclusive videos + new exclusives each month Just click the Join button below the video or click here: kzbin.info/door/hsbD6Clp-ZPqKwXJR3V7DQjoin *note: this is not replacing patreon, Patreon has its own set of perks available at www.patreon.com/weirdexplorer

[@AFMR0420]

Terrible, but I’ve never even heard of fufu before. About to look it up. Thanks!

[@bvazdiniz]

Red palm oil has been used in Brazilian cuisine for centuries… and it’s great. We love it and we produce our own oil locally!!! If you talk about palm oil sustainability problems here in Brazil, people will think you’re going crazy hahahaha by the way, try MOQUECA, VATAPÁ and BOBÓ DE CAMARÃO, three delicious examples of Brazilian food made with red palm oil.

[@cavegirl8052]

It's red palm oil. It is a sustainable breed where it produces better amount with lesser space. Just the process makes it costly.

[@YuruCampSupermacy]

I love your channel and i love the fact that you are still posting after all these years

[@adjoabanson8455]

Hello. Thank you for your video. I am Ghanaian; palm oil is staple…along with almost every aspect of the palm tree. The spine of the leaves are used for local brooms, the dried fruit fiber for lighting open fires and palm wine…fresh or fermented is very popular. I didn’t know about palm oil ‘controversies’ till today. About your use of the red palm, (we just call it palm oil in Ghana) I know you admitted you used your own style, but I think it left a tad negative impression on your pallets because of how you prepared the meals. I recommend getting a Ghanaian or Nigerian to make palm nut soup then trying that. There are ways we prepare palm based foods to take away the raw taste of the palm …that which you described as ‘fruity…avocado…’. The stew would have tasted much different if the nkulenu (palm cream) had cooked for much longer(don’t follow the instructions on the can😅). Typically, the base is steamed animal protein with just spices and a bit of water before the diluted palm pulp is poured on. In your case, Palm cooked separately and when oil starts to surface, put in the blended cooked tomatoes and onions…it would make a big difference. Same for the fufu… it should have cooked much longer and at some point added some water, let it simmer while covered. The final look should be almost glossy when you get it into a bowl. So I think you need to give this a 2nd chance after some indigenous coaching😊 then do an update video. Otherwise, Well done, great content.

[@oOTaylorTotOo]

I haven't watched yet, but I'm already excited. There's a palm oil refinery possibly opening in my state, but they're importing their oil. If we diversify pur palm oil sources, it could be a major environmental boon! The problem seems to be how we harvest it from a small pool of very delicate sources

[@oOTaylorTotOo]

On a personal note, it's a real shame that the refinery here doesn't seem to be making plans to diversify sources. I feel like LSU's agricultural program or the state agriculture board could conceivably allot land for planting

[@jenniferbethparishwhite688]

Egg fruit, avocado, and a stick. MMMM...tasty.

[@Ohwhale79]

I've had red palm oil and I would describe the flavor as somewhat dank. I know it's kind of a silly and cliche description but I do actually think it applies here. It's earthy, the *slightest* bit fruity, and dank. I'm not actually a fan myself, but I can totally understand why people like its flavor.

[@markiangooley]

I bought some and tried cooking with it. It was okay but after a while I just decided I didn’t like it enough to use it regularly.

[@naka3339]

Here in Brazil the crude palm oil is used alot in traditional Afro-Brazilian cuisine, its called Azeite-de-Dende here

[@DudokX]

Can I just say that your kitchen looks amazing! Those dark cupboards are the stuff

[@WeirdExplorer]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@buckingtonhassleshire9136]

dude this video was so expertly handled im my opinion, great stuff!

[@WeirdExplorer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@AlexandroMechina-yb3tf]

Palm oil was brought to Brazil by african slaves and today is an integral part of BAHIA cuisine. they use the red oil for a fried pastry called acaraje, wich is made with mashed white beans. after the fry it they fill it with tomato okra paste and shrimp. its delicious.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

I wish they sell those palm pulp stuff here since this place is already one of the leading producers of palm oil. However you look at it though, any other oil crop would be way more devastating for the environment if produced in the traditional cash crop system. Soy production is far more devastating to the Amazon rainforest, for example. Also, European colonialism had its role too, as all the oil palm plantations companies started out as European ventures where they planted rubber plantations. One of them that you featured, Sime Darby, was the target of the infamous Dawn Raid where Malaysian traders bought majority shares of the company in the wee hours of the stock exchange opening, eventually putting the company under local control.

[@standard-carrier-wo-chan]

Near my parents home in Jakarta, the housing megacomplex they live in has these ornamental oil palms they planted all along the road. Sometimes when it's harvesting season they'll load the fruits up in trucks and sell them to a local oil factory. Funny side business for a billion dollar housing magnate lol.

[@wamlartmuse17]

My advice for people who say they don't like mushrooms. KEEP TRYING! There are sooo many different types of mushrooms, different tastes and textures. I can guarantee you will find one you like.

[@薛琪-k8o]

in Hainan and Yunnan in China, people boil fresh oil palm with red sugar, you can try!😀

[@ardius9777]

What does that taste like? Sounds fascinating.

[@薛琪-k8o]

exactly like sweet potato mixed with oil and a little tomato flavor@@ardius9777

[@薛琪-k8o]

the kernel inside is also edible, ripe coconut flavor@@ardius9777

[@mls8668]

Guns, knives, nuclear energy, opium poppy, and oil Palm(amongst many others) are not evil. Without the irresponsibility of evil, greedy humans they cause no harm on thier own, so no point in blaming a plant.

[@fusionxtras]

Id argue nuclear energy is not evil at all. Nuclear weapons are a different beast.

[@kmiller2160]

The total harm caused by negligence with nuclear energy, every nuclear accident, is less than the harm caused by regular use of coal. Every coal plant litters the area around it with heavy metals and soot, whereas only the very very worst nuclear plants do harm

[@Alb410]

It's easier to blame the plant

[@motomo5281]

Great video! Thank you for the information.

[@WeirdExplorer]

You bet!

[@Razalipuchong]

The fruit you can boil it until soft.. them eat with brow/ palm sugar

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

10:01 it's worth keeping in mind that this is also a very reasonable reaction to taking a shot of olive oil I've never heard you mention mushrooms before this video (to be fair I've probably seen like 10% of your huge catalog). I'm sure you've gotten this before so sorry if it's annoying, but like, what mushrooms have you tried? I went the first 27 years of my life thinking I hated all mushrooms except truffles and that they were disgusting because first of all I wasn't told truffles were mushrooms (and technically they aren't, though they are a fungus) before I tried them in something the first time, and second because the list of mushroom "species" I had tried were as follows: -White button -Cremini -Portobello This is a problem because while these are misleadingly sold as different types of mushroom (often to sell white buttons too ugly to be sold as white buttons as "gourmet" creminis or "pizza mushrooms"), these are all the same mushroom, and they are in fact disgusting and horrible. I still cannot stand these mushrooms. But a little after I turned 27 I was on a kick of trying foods I had hated since I was a kid to see if I'd come around to them (things like shrimp (still hate it), lobster (still tastes like crab that has gone bad; I've always liked crab though), mayonnaise (I like hollandaise and aioli but these are not technically mayonnaise; to be mayonnaise something has to be basically a bad hollandaise sauce and by that standard I still hate it), and of course mushrooms. So I picked up some bags of mixed mushrooms from a local grocers' coop, and discovered I actually liked _almost all mushrooms._ There were a few I didn't care for (the lion's mane I had might not have been top-quality or maybe I cooked it wrong, because it tasted like very little and had an unpleasantly rubbery texture) but most of them were pretty good and shiitake became one of my favourite ingredients overnight- I put it in most savory dishes I cook now, whether as a broth, minced in a sauce, as whole caps or in big fried slices. Of course, part of the appeal of shiitake is that it tastes like a meat but not exactly like any "actual" meat (fresh shiitake is closest to high-quality rare beef imo), so I could see the appeal of my favourite mushroom in particular being lost on a vegan, but still- The variety in mushrooms is immense, so I have to wonder when I hear someone else say they dislike mushrooms now whether they really dislike mushrooms, or only certain common mushrooms they've had occasion to try.

[@stevenmurray3238]

There are a lot of cool mushrooms out there, I didn’t like mushrooms until I went to China and tried all the crazy mushrooms in Yunnan China. I was in Kunming for a month and there were 100s of mushrooms that I had never heard of. When I came home none of those other genetics were available locally so I thought I would grow them, but I failed at it. Now I forage some while in season like Morels but chanterelle that are free if you find them or $100usd a kg bought. Morels and chanterelle are top, though some chanterelles can be excellent and others just ok to bad. Giant puffball can be great when still white inside. In cultivation there are only 15 to 30 so species under cultivation with half being types of oyster mushrooms like tropical pink complex, tuberosa(African species with huge sclerenchyma- tuber like that that is harvested and eaten, also crazy mushroom fruiting body with straight stock. Almond amanita is supposed to taste like almonds but I haven’t tried it. There are lots of crazy types of mushrooms out there that are edible but rarely foraged.

[@gingersnapp9188]

Your fufu is perfect! I dated a west African and I had this and it is pretty good. As he would say, “You really put your foot in it!”

[@sdfkjgh]

Jared, I'm a little disappointed that you didn't at least try the palm kernel. We need to know what it's like. Part 2, plz?

[@WeirdExplorer]

I'll try it next time :). I'd also like to try eating the fruit boiled

[@irondragon9775]

Growing up my mum never let me have anything with palm oil in it, we'd always have to check the back of the product for the ingredients, even now tho where I have my own job and money I still find myself trying to avoid it, as much as it pains me to read those tiny little letters lmao

[@jamesmitchell6925]

Don’t ever stop reading the ingredients!

[@Ithirahad]

Judging from my own (mis)adventures with dangerous amounts of coconut fat, you can absolutely add a bunch of certain oils or oil-bearing pulp without things getting "greasy". It just depends what other bulk material (starches, etc.) is in the food and what exact mixture of fat molecules you're dealing with.

[@josephmcgolrick3920]

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL! You tickle my nerd nerve, man! Thank you so much for continuing to do this great documentary work!

[@WeirdExplorer]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@koretmulder6316]

Two dishes with red palm oil, where the palm oil is the subtle basis of the flavor, from two different continents: Moqueca de Peixe Baiana from Brazil, and stewed lamb in palm oil with fufu from Ghana. Red palm oil has such an amazing, distinct flavor.

[@DillonTrinhProductions]

Nice video as always Jared, your channel is like the River Monsters of Fruit searching!

[@WeirdExplorer]

🤣 Sometimes the fruit is a bit like a river monster.

[@mandab.3180]

very informative, thanks Jared

[@WeirdExplorer]

You bet!

[@Gonzalo_M]

Thank you so much for talking about this subject! I have seen this red palm oil and I didn't know how to feel about it! I'm so happy to know that it's safe to consume it. I'm also happy to better understand what's behind all this. Thank you very much for this video! 😄

[@FractalMachine]

I always assumed the fruit would actually be really sweet, considering how sweet dates are, to the point where date syrup is often used as a replacement for honey.

[@RobRuckus65]

Usually the more oil a fruit produces the less sugar it produces and vice versa. Date when ripe have so much sugar they can actually start to crystalize and have 0 fat content. Oil palm has a very high fat content so it's safe to assume they have little to no sugar content.

[@FractalMachine]

@@RobRuckus65 interesting. i just assumed the fruit would at least be somewhat sweet because it's closely related to dates.

[@wesleytownsend8214]

Wow! Thank you so much for this great content! I always learn something new. As an old man, cooking for just myself is sometimes too much trouble but I have grandkids that fortunately visit me often. I always really enjoy cook them something new and exciting for dinner and breakfast, and we always have a great time. I appreciate everything you do and I wish you the very best of health and happiness to you and your families! Thanks again!

[@eric240000]

Your graph shows that palm oil is a way more efficient oil than a lot of other oils, which makes the crusade against growing it highly suspect.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Its a very efficient source for oil. Its just produced in a very bad way. Crusading for better production practices is valid. Crusading to remove it entirely.. not so much.

[@hokman1]

imagine replacing the palm oil with any other type...the rainforest would have been extinct! If those oils thrive in the exact climate zone, that is.@@WeirdExplorer

[@hokman1]

basically replacing palm oil with other oil will eat up other forests instead of rainforests...way bigger chunks of other forests depending of which climate the replacement oil tree thrives in.

[@ahather]

lordy I want to try red palm oil, I like to cook with it, have done so for while, alas there is no West African supermarket near me in rural mid wales, hard to get hold of, I suppose somewhere online has it

[@lil_jururu]

Hey man! A dish very popular in Brazil that uses palm oil in its cooking process is called Acarajé, it's made from beans. Pretty good, you should try it sometime :)

[@cmloegcmluin]

If you're looking for something to help use up your remaining red palm oil, try making moqueca!

[@MurdockEx]

My goodness, this is a fantastic video. Thank you for going into detail and showing alternatives. Want to talk about gluten sometime? ; )

[@WeirdExplorer]

You are so welcome! Oh man... I haven't considered talking about gluten.. but wheat IS technically a fruit. So that could be one for the future.

[@williampatrickfurey]

Your stats are fantastic by the way dude. Thank you for this.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@dubthis10]

Jared what’s your potato pancake recipe? Those look wonderful! Also super good video. Been watching your content for a month and discovered 2 fruits growing in my Berkeley neighborhood since then, fejoa and tomarillo.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Nice finds! I believe I gave the recipe in my apple ketchup video. 👍

[@awyeagames]

It's the same thing with soy here in Brazil. Soy cultivation is a major driver of deforestation here in Brazil.

[@Squibbleses]

I wonder how it would taste if you popped corn in red palm oil.

[@anarita6355]

Good

[@hestonbrocklehurst2945]

great video, very informative. love your vids!

[@Jeff_Lichtman]

Food manufacturers like palm oil because saturated oils are slow to turn rancid. Hydrogenated vegetable oil is saturated, but it's also full of trans fats. When it became clear how unhealthful trans fats are, public pressure forced the food companies to abandon hydrogenated oils, and they switched to tropical oils like palm oil. This increased the demand for palm oil, which led to deforestation. Unintended consequences. . .

[@mercygrace4684]

Thank you... this video really helped me.

[@WeirdExplorer]

I'm so glad!

[@paulgroth3345]

Thank you. What a mouth-wateringly informative video.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@janicejames3005]

An appetizing looking soup.👍👍

[@broshmosh]

Wrong or right, that combo of soup base and protein still looked great. I'd definitely eat that. Need to look out for soybean curd knots in the frozen section at the Chinese supermarket.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Those knots are killer. Usually for sale in the fridge section with packaged tofu

[@lisacastano1064]

I usually get the dry version they need to be soaked but I like the texture better and they last forever if stored properly.

[@666aron]

I have an easier time avoiding palm oil, since almost all of my food is home cooked, and I tend to not buy many "processed stuff". That being said, if I had to chose between palm oil and rape seed oil, I would chose the palm one, since the rape has a specific taste that I hate with all my being. Luckily coconut and olive oil is easy to come by.

[@ankiolebring8388]

Thanks for a great presentation ❤

[@WeirdExplorer]

Glad you liked it!

[@janicejames3005]

This is grown in Guyana. Next to Venezuela. There are trees all over Trinidad but we don’t use it. Conventional western culture would have us believe that it is a bad oil. I have discovered that like anatto it’s a good source of vitamin E tocotrinol ( spelling incorrect).

[@JTMusicbox]

The red palm info is especially interesting.

[@razaaqbaruwa6646]

I was praying for an exception bc egusi (a Nigerian stew with a red palm oil base) is my all time favorite food 😭

[@benm8503]

Awesome Les halles t shirt though 👍👍👍

[@AdaptiveApeHybrid]

This was great big homie

[@youtube.commentator]

Aaaaaaaaand you got a new member, I have many channels of different varieties on KZbin, I've always appreciated the detail you put into your videos.. thank you for continuing to upload

[@WeirdExplorer]

Thanks! welcome to the club

[@joshualieberman2265]

Love that you made Latkas haha

[@Tam.I.am.]

So it tastes savoury, red, and oily. Gotcha.

[@Unsensitive]

I selectively look for palm oil in the rare times I buy processed foods. Why? Cause it's similar to olive oil in regards to health, which is WAY better than soybean, corn, or canola oil. If they made foods made with tallow or butter I'd buy it instead. Closest you can sometimes find is palm kernel or coconut oil, but even these are somewhat rare. For those who say they avoid palm oil, please explain to me how the harms from it are different than any other large monocrop system, economic hardships effect on child labor, ecological effect or pollution.

[@erikdietrich2678]

Palm oil production attracts forced and child labor because the process of harvesting is vastly more manual than other oils: soy, canola, maize, and groundnut are almost exclusively mechanically harvested. Hand-harvested vegetables in the US have the same issue - their production attracts forced and undocumented labor. The biodiversity is very, very high in areas where palm oil is grown for mass production: Indonesia and Malasia are home to animals, plants, and human cultures that are found nowhere else in the world, and those are all being displaced or destroyed by massive oil palm plantations. I agree that monoculture farming as modern agricultural practice is harmful to biodiversity and ecosystems: no argument from me there. I think the fact that virgin jungles on small islands are being clearcut is what makes oil palm plantations so bad. Not only is the rarity and density of plant and animal life uniquely high, but there is nowhere else nearby for those plants and animals to continue living.

[@Unsensitive]

@@erikdietrich2678 children work because of their own and their families low socioeconomic position. How does one fix this? Well all a person individually can do is work, and earn money. Are they under paid and have horrible working conditions? Perhaps. But it's the best job and the best life they can get given the circumstances. You trying to deny them making a better life for them and their families just points to your hubris, privilege, and arrogance. The US also once also had high biodiversity. We destroyed it and created processes which were better for economics and lifestyle, but worse for the diversity and environment. Who are you to say they can or can't do this with their own land. I would also prefer they not perform the agricultural practice they do as well. I prefer natural woods and diversity of my environment, but to deny others the opportunities and privilege we have benefited from is close to evil. Let them make their decisions, and support what life they want. You do the same. If you feel strongly, push for a change in their practices, support what you wish financially too, but don't ignore how you have and are still benefiting from what you wish to deny others.

[@erikdietrich2678]

@@Unsensitive you asked how the harms are different, and I listed them. Now you're excusing it as justified because those involved don't have better options: which is *always* the reason used to justify environmental destruction. And it's a bad reason. Indonesia is rapidly becoming an industrialized country with a modern mixed economy. Malaysia isn't far behind. Frankly, there are many aspects of their economies and environmental policies that both countries should be very proud of, (especially given the handicap of decades of European colonialism and general meddling that Europeans should be more ashamed of). There shouldn't be a need to rely on outdated, destructive agricultural practices to lift people out of poverty: besides, the folks working those fields aren't the ones making all the money - the plantation owners are.

[@Unsensitive]

@@erikdietrich2678 I'm not justifying or excusing anything. I don't agree with what other countries do with their destruction of native diversity, *but it also isn't my place to deny them what benefits them,* just as we have done in our country. Acknowledge how you benefited from, and still benefit from, practices which you try to deny others. If you put more than words, and actually fund what you believe, I commend you, but put that funding towards those you are denying the opportunity for a better Iife with your decisions. If you don't practice what you preach, locally or abroad, then your being an entitled hypocrite. I push for and support local efforts related to nature and natural diversity. I don't fund other countries efforts to not industrialize, but I also do not say they shouldn't.

[@TheEjaay]

Maybe the question should be why we're consuming so much more oil. Is there a corporate incentive to replace ingredients with oil because its simply cheaper e.g. Nutella. If so the problem is not palm oil. The problem is the price of palm oil and the incentive to use it.

[@TheEjaay]

Replacing might have been the wrong word, but rather increasing, in order to increase the volume of the product and decrease cost.

[@WeirdExplorer]

Yeah I wonder what would happen if there was more regulation with the cost of oil. I can see it helping and hurting.

[@Sunday_Woodward]

I can’t believe that this dude has the palate to taste all the fruit, yet he doesn’t like mushrooms.

[@tortillawrap6955]

I thought the main problem 'the west' has with palm oil, after the sustainability, is the amount of saturated fat (about 50%, which is double that of olive oil) which is also why the generous amounts used in some African cooking shocked me when i first saw it!

[@markiangooley]

Saturated fat actually isn’t dangerous but EVERYBODY (almost) in the West thinks that it is. They’ve been told so for at least a generation that IT CLOGS YOUR ARTERIES JUST AS IT CLOGS A SINK! And they believe it. Without questioning it, often. I endured decades of eating as little fat as possible, and as much of that as I could manage was polyunsaturated fat, because as an insulin-dependent diabetic I was told I must. Decades of almost no fat, and almost all of that foul rancid soybean and rapeseed (aka canola) oil. Goes rancid so quickly! If there’s actually a Hell, part of the stench is rancid canola oil. Now I get most of my calories from saturated fat. My health is fine, best in thirty years. If the saturated fat kills me, so be it. I don’t think that it will.

[@MumrikDK]

Isn't that saturated why the west uses it so much? It takes the role of something like shortening in cakey or thick stuff.

[@anarita6355]

Saturated fat is good, is for cooking, they dont have cancer, its anti cancer, Europeans And North Americans are the kings of cancer 😂😂, Because dont eat Red Palm oil

[@asdisskagen6487]

For people here in the US, consumption of oil palm is almost exclusively limited to eating processed foods. For folks who eat a "whole food" diet, their consumption will be almost nothing.

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

Aye, whole food plant based regards any refined oils as unhealthy, as well as sources of saturated fat as coconut and oil fruit, as avoid as much as possible

[@WeirdExplorer]

Its so wild that you can't easily buy palm oil on its own and it still is the most consumed vegetable oil.

[@frankmacleod2565]

Tackling difficult subjects, nice

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

This oil pair well with dried shrimp.You should try that.

[@StuffandThings_]

What I don't get is why they don't grow more oil palm in West Africa. The native rainforest there has already been devastated for various crops, many of them nonnative cash crops like cacao. Why not grow something native? Growing oil palm in Indonesia and cacao in West Africa instead of their native regions is absurd to me. It seems like a lot of crops have this problem tbh, pineapples in Hawaii, sugarcane in Fiji, vanilla in Madagascar, somehow all these crops ended up outside of their native regions. At least when grown in their home setting they can provide something to the habitat. Brazil nuts actually mostly come from the Amazon rainforest, collected straight from the wild (due to serious pollination issues in a cultivated setting and the fact that they're fairly common as the primary emergent tree of the Amazon basin) and only pose some minor issues with recruitment (since so many seeds are collected) and gives the rainforest economic benefit. I imagine that large oil palm plantations in West Africa, if done right with a little bit of permaculture, could even add to the local biodiversity if they're replacing exotic crops.

[@WeirdExplorer]

There are some big palm oil plantations in west Africa with similar problems. www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/03/liberia-palm-oil-miracle-farmers-empty-promises

[@jaspermartini4830]

Big cyclone 🌀 tracking towards Vanuatu stay safe

[@RedSntDK]

Gonna be on the lookout for red palm oil next time I go shopping. Definitely not something I've ever seen in regular Danish supermarkets though. But yeah, I try to avoid regular palm oil as well, because of the deforestation and loss of biodiversity it leads to. But just so much stuff that uses it that it's hard to avoid. That's why I mostly make all of my own food now, at least that way I can control the ingredients - except, I can't know for sure if my curry and garam masala is ethically made..

[@itzel1735]

Thanks all the info. I didn’t know any of that except for the deforestation. I don’t like the taste of peanut butter with palm oil. That was the reason I avoid products with it.

[@amansaxena5898]

Speaking of peanut butter, having any oil in it, is the issue 🥴

[@MillhouseSpeaks]

Fascinating and insightful

[@peter7582]

We had red palm oil once and it ruined our fan oven, by gumming it up somehow. But it made really nice roasted veg

[@objective_psychology]

It's unfortunate that we often confuse or conflate plant species with their uses as products, removing them from any independent agency in the environment. Why is it that we (or at least most people) still regard animals as animate and independent beings, so that when they're exploited they are understood as victims, but when it comes to plants we just see them as products? The irony is that when we see everything through the lens of human industry and capitalism, we let them win, on a psychological level.

[@jakoblarok]

Note that from the point that particular UN agency started tracking soybean oil (very recently, acc.to the chart provided), it was nearly at parity with palm oils. Soy can be grown at a wider range of climates, and on farms already set aside for mechanized agriculture. If the US managed to drop its unneccesary corn subsidies, that land could be used to take up the excess of demand for vegetable oils with soy alone (i suspect, with no data at hand in the moment). My grandpa had a crop rotation of soy, wheat, fallow, wheat, soy, and so on.... and so on with no soil depletion for decades; so maybe I'm biased. I have enjoyed the flavor of red palm oil in certain African *ethnic-fusion* restaurants in the States, and I by no means want to eradicate the plant. But plantation cropping in the limited areas where it can grow is the actual sustainability issue... innit?... But it's not an understory rainforest tree like cacao and coffee - so you can't really integrate it into a more sustainable agricultural model, can ya?... So maybe the oil-palm should just go back to being farmed in West Africa in a more piecemeal manner, just to maintain the supply of the indigenously traditional cooking needs, and no more... Meanwhile, your recent video on the bambara nut/bean has made me antsy to get hold of them so I can grow them in Japan.....

[@CookingWithCows]

If you show the contrast between rainforest and palm oil plantation, you should see the olive oil plantations. Okay at least with olive oil, the child labor and stuff is better.

[@malcolmgibson6288]

As you say, the question is the sustainability or lack there of which matters.

[@SteamingBurito]

The biggest controversy in this whole video is your supposed dislike of mushrooms. Is it a texture thing?

[@WeirdExplorer]

Texture and flavor. I've tried, but something about them doesn't sit right with me.