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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Mar 26, 2015; 7(3): 144-149
Published online Mar 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i3.144
Published online Mar 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i3.144
Palm oil and the heart: A review
Osaretin J Odia, Sandra Ofori, Department of Medicine, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt 500001, Nigeria
Omosivie Maduka, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt 500001, Nigeria
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest in preparing this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Sandra Ofori, FWACP, MSc, Department of Medicine, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Port Harcourt 500001, Nigeria. sandytom77@yahoo.com
Telephone: +234-809-6598508
Received: August 16, 2014
Peer-review started: August 17, 2014
First decision: September 29, 2014
Revised: December 4, 2014
Accepted: December 18, 2014
Article in press: December 19, 2014
Published online: March 26, 2015
Peer-review started: August 17, 2014
First decision: September 29, 2014
Revised: December 4, 2014
Accepted: December 18, 2014
Article in press: December 19, 2014
Published online: March 26, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: With the increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) worldwide including developing countries, increasing attention is paid to underlying risk factors. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is related to CVD in a linear and continous manner and one of the strongest risk factors for CVD. Dietary saturated fat increases LDL. Palm oil contains saturated fat and has thus been touted to be “bad for the heart”. However it also contains unsaturated fats and beneficial antioxidants. This review sought to clarify the role of this important source of nutrients (to a large part of the worlds’ population) in CVD.