Palm Oil: 4 Health Benefits of Red Palm Oil
What is palm oil?
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil extracted from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). It's actually two different oils in one plant: crude palm oil comes from pressing the fleshy fruit, while palm kernel oil comes from crushing the seed inside. It's naturally reddish-orange in its unrefined state (from high beta-carotene content) and semi-solid at room temperature, which makes it useful in food processing.
Is Palm Oil Good or Bad?
Refined or unrefined (red) Palm oil roughly contains 50% saturated fat. A major meta-analysis of clinical trials found palm oil significantly increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by 0.24 mmol/L compared with vegetable oils low in saturated fat. This and many other researches caution against over consumption of palm oil which may negatively impact heart health. However, A 2019 systematic review/meta-analysis of dietary intervention studies found that, compared with unsaturated-fat diets, palm oil did not significantly increase total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol or triglycerides, while HDL cholesterol increased in the pooled analysis involving 961 volunteers. What determines whether palm oil is good or bad could come down to concentration and the type of palm oil consumed.
Refined or Unrefined Palm Oil
Refined palm oil is the palm oil in most packaged and processed foods (margarine, instant noodles, baked goods, snacks). The processing strips out the tocotrienols and carotenoids that carry the red colour and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory benefits, leaving you mainly with a saturated fat profile that reliably raises LDL cholesterol in randomized trials. It's not "toxic" and it's genuinely better than trans fats or lard on some lipid markers
The reddish unrefined palm oil retains the carotenoids (vitamin A precursors) and tocotrienols (vitamin E), which have real evidence behind them — antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory effects, and early but promising signals for neuroprotection and metabolic markers. In regions with vitamin A deficiency, red palm oil has real, established nutritional value.
To answer the question of whether palm oil is good or bad, it depends on what you're weighing and which form. The unrefined red palm oil, consumed mostly in Nigeria and West Africa, has some real upside benefits and low risk, as would be considered in this article.
1. Red palm oil can improve vitamin A status
This is probably the best-supported health benefit of palm oil.
Red palm oil contains substantial amounts of β-carotene, which the body can convert to vitamin A. A 2017 study that investigated the effect of red palm oil on vitamin A deficiency involving a meta-analysis of 9 randomized controlled trials found that red palm oil supplementation reduced the risk of vitamin A deficiency by about 45%, increased blood retinol (vitamin A) concentrations in both children and adults, and increased blood β-carotene concentrations.
This is particularly relevant in populations where vitamin A deficiency is common. Vitamin A improves vision and ocular health, immune systems, reproductive health, and skin health.
2. It can be a source of antioxidants
Red palm oil, in particular, contains carotenoids, tocopherols, tocotrienols and other minor compounds with antioxidant properties. A review of human and animal research describes red palm oil as an antioxidant-rich food and summarizes evidence concerning its nutritional effects.
A 2025 narrative review in Molecules found that in laboratory antioxidant assays, crude red palm oil exhibits 50–70% inhibition at 100 μg/mL, comparable to standard antioxidants such as vitamin C.
In a layperson's language, red palm oil properties contain antioxidants—substances that help protect your body's cells from damage.
3. Provision of vitamin E compounds
Palm oil contains tocopherols and tocotrienols. Unrefined palm oil is one of the richest natural sources of tocotrienols, a form of vitamin E that's structurally different from the more common tocopherols.
A systematic review of 30 randomized controlled trials involving 2,646 participants found evidence that palm-derived tocotrienol-rich fractions can affect markers of oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and inflammation. This shows promise as a supplement against inflammation and lipid peroxidation that can meaningfully support overall health.
4 Brain Functions and Health
Red palm oil is part of a diet that supports brain health because it supplies carotenoids and vitamin-E compounds including tocotrienols.
The brain is particularly susceptible to oxidative damage because it contains many polyunsaturated fatty acids. However, red palm oil contains tocotrienols and tocopherols, forms of vitamin E, that reduce oxidative damage to neuronal membranes. Palm-derived α-tocotrienol has demonstrated neuroprotective mechanisms in experimental research, including reducing oxidative damage to neuronal membranes.
Palm oil potentially supports memory and learning. Using animals, a systematic review found that all 18 included preclinical studies—10 animal and 8 cell studies—reported beneficial effects of palm oil or tocotrienol-rich fractions on measures of cognition in the experimental models. In Alzheimer's-disease animal models, tocotrienol-rich fractions were associated with improved cognitive performance and reduced β-amyloid deposition. However, this does not in anyway suggest that the consumption of red palm oil Alzheimer's disease or improves memory in humans.
Recommended Ways to Consume Palm Oil Safely
1. Use modest amounts when cooking. You don't need to completely avoid palm oil because it contains 50% saturated fat; avoid making foods unnecessarily oily, especially with refined palm oil. This can help reduce the accumulation of LDL.
2. Include unsaturated-fat sources as well. Groundnuts/peanuts, seeds, fish and oils richer in unsaturated fats can diversify your fat intake.
3. Don't combine several major sources of saturated fat in the same meal. For example, a very oily palm-oil stew plus lots of fatty meat is a higher-saturated-fat combination.
4. Be careful with frying. Repeatedly heating or frying oil before using it for stew making (common among Nigerians) and eating lots of fried foods isn't a good way to increase oil intake.
5. In Nigeria and parts of Western Africa, adulterated palm oil is a common product sold in the market. Avoid buying adulterated or fake palm oil that can cause harm to your health. It is important to get and consume pure palm oil to get all the health benefits of palm oil.
