One tablespoon of palm oil has 120 calories and 13.6 grams of fat. What does it tell you? Of the 13.6 grams of fat in a tablespoon of palm oil, 6.7 grams are saturated and 6.3 grams are unsaturated. The composition is nearly equal between these two dietary fats. The evils and angels lie between saturated and unsaturated fats of palm oil. So, how does it pan out healthwise?

According to the American Heart Association, a tablespoon of palm oil contains 5 grams of monounsaturated fat and about 1.3 grams of polyunsaturated fat. Both canola and olive oil, for comparison, contain more unsaturated fats than palm oil, while coconut oil contains hardly any unsaturated fat.

By the same token, a tablespoon of palm oil contains 6.7 grams of saturated fat. The American Heart Association recommends that you limit the amount of saturated fat to less than 7 percent of your total caloric intake to protect your heart health and keep your cholesterol levels manageable.

Palm oil is typically controversial for both health and environmental reasons. While the edible vegetable oil is known for its versatility, it is a subject of debate for contributing to environmental degradation at the same time.

Quoting evidence-based evaluations by World Journal of Cardiology, palm oil, when consumed as part of a balanced diet, does not have incremental risk for cardiovascular disease, as reported by The Independent. No doubt, the debate over whether consumption of palm oil is associated with health risks or benefits, despite it being free of trans-fat, strikes a chord with the academia, industry players, and even consumers.

Sceptics argue that calling palm oil a superfood may just be an overstatement. The good news is that there are loads of palm oil research findings and information to clear up doubts.

Let’s start with cooking oil. It’s very heat stable, contains a number of phytonutrients, and is a heart-healthy option to use in place of toxic shortenings like margarine. What distinguishes palm fruit oil from other plant oils is its fatty acid composition - 50% saturated, 40% unsaturated and 10% polyunsaturated - which is a ray of sunshine for cholesterol levels!

Why is it palm oil is a better choice and much safer for cooking at high temperatures than other plant oils? Put it simply, palm oil’s impressive heat-stability means fewer free radicals are created in the cooking process. It even surpasses grass-fed butter for high-temperature cooking.

Free radicals are unstable atoms that can damage cells, causing illness and aging. Substances that generate free radicals can be found in the food we eat, the medicines we take, the air we breathe and the water we drink. These substances include fried foods, alcohol, tobacco smoke, pesticides and air pollutants.

Antioxidants keep free radicals in check and they can be acquired through diet - fruits and vegetables are the prime sources. Well-known antioxidants include beta-carotene and other carotenoids, lutein, resveratrol, vitamin C, vitamin E, lycopene and other phytonutrients, according to Dr. Lauri Wright, a registered dietitian and an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of South Florida.

Scientifically, the phytonutrients of palm oil include carotenoids (e.g. beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lycopene, phytoene), vitamin E (tocotrienols, tocopherols), phytosterol (sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol), squalene, lecithin (phospholipids), co-enzyme Q10 / ubiquinones, and polyphenols (phenolic acids, flavonoids).

As mentioned earlier, palm oil boasts a balanced composition (50% saturated and 50% unsaturated), hence making it ideal for cooking, even frying, as it is very heat-resistant. It doesn’t break down or mutate when used for frying. It is also naturally trans-fat-free and cholesterol-free.

The unique fatty acid composition and natural antioxidants found in palm oil make it a sensible and healthy dietary choice for two undisputed facts: good oxidative stability for longer shelf life, and excellent thermal stability for shallow and deep frying.

In comparison, scientists in the UK, through lab analyses, found that sunflower and corn oil produced aldehydes (chemical compounds linked to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer) at levels 20 times higher than recommended by the World Health Organisation.

This concurs with a study by Dr Kanga Rani Selvaduray, which also concluded that palm oil outshines the likes of lard, coconut oil, olive oil, cocoa butter, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, and corn oil in terms of vitamin E content (tocopherols and tocotrienols).

The health benefits of palm tocotrienols include anti-inflammation, cardiovascular prevention, antioxidant production, radioprotection, cancer prevention, neuroprotection, skin protection, bone protection, hormone regulation, and immune boosting.

Also, palm oil with high monounsaturation at sn-2 position behaves like monounsaturated oils such as olive oil, canola oil and groundnut oil.

The same report also established palm oil as the richest source of biologically active carotrenoids in which 13 types of carotenoids are found in crude palm oil. The major palm carotenoids are beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lycopene, phytoene and phytofluene.

The health benefits of carotenoids include vitamin A production, cardiovascular prevention, immuno-enhancement, macular degeneration prevention, cataract prevention, and cancer inhibition.

Furthermore, palm oil carries the water-soluble phenolic antioxidants. Major palm phenolics include p-hydroxybenzoic, cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, coumaric acid, and flavonoid rutin hydrate. Their health benefits being anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-atherogenic, anti-obesity, anti-spasmodic, anti-thrombotic, anti-allergenic, anti-ulcer, and memory enhancing.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Health Organisation have even endorsed palm oil as meeting food standards under Codex Alimentarius Commission Programme.

"Palm oil has become the edible oil of choice, if you will, for much of the world," said Michael Shean, a global crop analyst with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

His opinion concurs with that of many others from the research fraternity. Call it a controversial yet magic ingredient, it’s an equal dose love and hate that the world is consuming, for its convenient goodness amid environmental and ethical concerns surrounding it. We could hardly live without it, for over 5,000 years already, since civilisation.

In a nutshell, the trans-fat-free palm oil is a nutritious yet functional oil found in various food applications, both as a very important food and energy source to the world population.