Getting your good fats is totally vital...but lately, I seem to realize that everyone I know is stuck in a rut of olive oil or coconut oil. These fats are truly amazing, but variety is the spice of life, and there's lots of other oils that are really wonderful, that don't get the attention they deserve. I did most of this post almost two years ago, when I first started blogging and I thought it was due time that Red Palm Oil got some appreciation. (and when I talk about Red Palm Oil, of course, I'm talking about the raw stuff) So I hope this post will inspire you to try new varieties of all the amazing gifts of food God has given us.Healthy fats is one of the most awesome things ever...I've been a fanatic of olive oil and coconut oil for a long time...but recently I have got into red palm oil. This stuff is absolutely marvelous! I didn't even know it existed until I read Serene Allison's article about it. Soon after, I bought some and I love the flavour of it, it's very different in taste compared to other healthy fats. If you're not exclusively raw you can even use it as a replacement for butter/margarine on toast (if you don't mind the way it dyes everything orange...I think it's fun), frying up your pancakes, or on your baked potato or yams. Read up on these super facts about the red palm oil...
RED PALM OIL (info from Serene Allison’s article “I love Fat”)
Red palm oil is the richest natural source of tocotrienols, which are not found in any other vegetable oil. Tocotrienols inhibit the proliferation and growth of human breast cancer cells in culture, therefore; it prohibits cancer and stops the growth of existing cancer cells. Tocotrienols also help prevent skin aging and damage from free radicals. It’s naturally rich in vitamin A for a properly functioning immune system. It contains no cholesterol and actually raises your HDL, your good cholesterol level while simultaneously lowering your LDL, the bad kind. It’s naturally rich in vitamin E for a healthy heart. It actually dissolves dangerous arterial plaque that can lead to a heart attack. It keeps the blood thin and free flowing. The antioxidants in red palm oil act as scavengers, they prevent and eat up the free radicals that lead to our modern diseases-Alzheimer’s, senility, rheumatism, heart attacks, arthritis, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, spinal muscular atrophy, macular degeneration, and stroke. One tablespoon a day contains 10000 IU of immunity boosting vitamin A, which is enough to eliminate the risk of the common cold and flu by 67 percent. The beautiful red color comes from its richness in tocotrienols, carotenoids, tocoplerols, which are all powerful antioxidants. Not only that it trims body fat by 27 percent. It's because of palmolein, a compound in red palm oil that helps your liver break down sugar for energy before it can be stored as fat.
More than that it:
*Reduces risks of diabetes by 58%
*Naturally rich in retinal for great vision
*High in essential fatty acids
*Rich in beta-carotene's – 15 times more than a carrot and 300 times more than tomatoes
*No carbs
*Prevents aging
*Easy to digest and absorb
*Excellent source of energy
*Safe for cooking, the most stable of oils because it’s protected by vitamin E, antioxidants, and has a natural resistance to oxidation and rancidity, even better than coconut oil by long shot.
There's lots of ways to use it in raw foods...turning your scrummy smoothies into orange delights, using it as a buttery spread on your raw crackers and breads (with a sprinkling of sea salt or something), replacing it with any recipe that calls for olive or coconut oil, or freezing some into your raw popsicles...WHATEVER you want. Something I do like to emphasize, is variety...keep on eating your coconut oil, just keep switching things up. Add, replace, switch around...variety is what keeps things interesting. It never ceases to amaze me the incredible things that God has placed on this earth to heal our bodies and to keep us healthy.
Here's a Red Palm Oil smoothie that I'm making with the last of my oil (sniff) tomorrow morning (a lovely Sunday breakfast)...
Safari Dream
1 banana
2 figs or dates
1 TB. Red Palm Oil
1 TB. Flax Seed Oil
1 TB. coconut (either white from the brown coconut or the flesh from a young coconut, or if you have neither of these, 1 TB. coconut oil or dried coconut)
Juice of one lemon
Blend this until like whipped cream.
And for those who care to know, I got my Red Palm Oil from Wilderness Family Naturals.
...our CD that is. This last week I haven't posted anything, because I was away in the states, helping mix our newest project. I just got home last night (or early morning I should say), so it's been crazy here. What's more, my sister Anne-Marie and I are leaving tomorrow morning and will be heading to the airport so we can fly out to see my married sister Lizzy for 3 weeks! I'm SO stoked about it...but thoroughly tired of packing and unpacking and then packing again. But hey! I'm done now.
