The Hidden Costs of Palm Oil and Why Saras Che Doesn’t Use It

Palm oil is the most widely used edible oil on the planet. It is cheap, and it survives the high temperatures of frying. But the real price of palm oil is not the one printed on the label. It is paid by the planet, and by our bodies.

Palm oil carries more saturated fat than most other vegetable oils. A meta-analysis of dietary studies linked higher palm oil intake to raised LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, and a greater risk of ischemic heart disease. That is a heavy trade for an oil chosen mostly because it is inexpensive.

The cost the forest pays

Palm plantations are carved straight out of tropical rainforest. By some estimates, up to 300 football fields of forest are cleared every hour to plant oil palms. That clearing releases stored carbon, strips away habitat for species like orangutans and Sumatran tigers, and feeds the slash-and-burn practices that smother whole regions in toxic haze, bringing respiratory, eye and skin problems with it.

Why we skip it

Saras Che leaves palm oil out, full stop. We bake with rice bran oil and ingredients we are happy to name, so the snacks stay full of flavour without the saturated-fat load that palm oil drags along.

It is a small choice with a long reach. Every ingredient has an upstream story written into soil, climate and the health of the people who grow it and the people who eat it. Choosing palm-free is one quiet way to send that signal back up the chain, and to back the people doing things the honest way.