Red palm oil, our health elixir said Dr. Chukeze

Many diseases hitherto unknown to our ancestors are becoming commonplace in Africa today as a result of change in lifestyle. Incidence of cancer, diabetes, hypertension etc., are on the rise. Westernisation has affected every area of the African life; from fashion to diet. Scientists are of the opinion that going back to our natural foods will help immensely.
In this chat with Vanguard Learning in his laboratory in Awka, Dr. Ezenwa Chukeze, a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Applied Biochemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, spoke on why “we retrace our steps because we can never be wiser than nature.” Excerpts:
For Dr. Ezenwa Chukeze, owner of Chukeze Research and Development Laboratories, his research works are not only focused on researches that are very relevant to Nigeria’s problems but also on those that will be of general interest to the international community.
According to him, “In researches focused on solving local problems, we don’t only try to solve problems of the environment; we want to patent ideas that we can sell. That was the main reason why I invested in this laboratory.” The researcher has been able to produce industrial alcohol from cassava, gin from decaying mangoes, glucose syrup, glucose powder and glue from cassava starch.
Palm oil:
Dr. Chukeze said that in the 60s, “the eastern part of Nigeria was the world’s largest producer of palm oil, the north was the largest producer of groundnut and the west was the largest producer of cocoa but we have lost all that because of petroleum. Sometimes it looks like petroleum is a curse.
The Malaysians collected the seeds in the 60s and now they are leading in palm oil production in the world because they were serious about it. We were given the impression that palm oil is very rich in saturated fatty acids and because of that, it is not good for human consumption but should be used for making soap and all that, and that the best oil should be those oils that are rich in unsaturated fatty acids.
That stuff is no longer tenable based on research. I think the major culprit in cardiovascular disease, hypertension and others, is trans-fat. When we are processing fat, the saturated fatty acids are converted from cis- to trans. If you have a double bond and the two hydrogen bonds are in one direction, you call it cis- and if they are in opposite directions, you call it trans.
The cis is natural while the trans is generated during processing like heating the oil, production of margarine, baking, deep frying, bleaching palm oil etc. Today, there are international standards for the production of margarine, cooking oil etc., to ensure that trans-fat is eliminated. Unfortunately, I think our industries are still using the old method.”
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