The Silent Killer in Your Kawali: The Truth About Palm Oil & Aldehydes 🍳

** The Scary Reality:** You might be eating healthy vegetables, but if you fry them in cheap, highly processed oil, you are coating your medicine in poison.

Walk into any Filipino kitchen, sari-sari store, or street food stall, and you will see it: that clear plastic bag or bottle of yellow oil. We call it "Vegetable Oil" or "Cooking Oil," but 90% of the time, it is RBD Palm Oil.

We use it for everything. We fry our eggs (breakfast), our fish (lunch), our pork chop (dinner), and our banana cue (merienda).

But science is telling us something terrifying: This daily habit is one of the biggest drivers of chronic illness in the country.

1. What is "RBD" Palm Oil? (It’s Not Natural)

The palm oil you buy for ₱30 in a plastic bag is not the same as the fresh red palm oil from the tree. It is Ultra-Processed.

To make it clear, odorless, and shelf-stable, it undergoes a harsh industrial process called RBD:

• Refined: Stripped of all natural nutrients.
• Bleached: Treated with chemicals to remove its natural red color.
• Deodorized: Heated to extreme temperatures to remove its smell.

The Result: You are not eating food. You are eating an industrial lubricant that your body struggles to recognize or digest.

2. The Chemistry of Poison: Aldehydes ⚠️

Here is the part most Filipinos don't know. When you heat this highly processed oil to frying temperatures (which we do every day), it undergoes a chemical reaction that releases Aldehydes.

What are Aldehydes?

They are a class of toxic compounds. (Fun fact: Formaldehyde, used to preserve dead bodies, is a type of aldehyde).

• The Brain Risk: Aldehydes are neurotoxins. Studies have linked the inhalation and consumption of aldehydes to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
• The Cancer Link: They attack healthy cells and cause mutations.
• The Re-Heating Trap: This is deadly in the Philippines. We love to reuse oil. "Sayang naman." But every time you reheat that oil for tomorrow's fried fish, the concentration of toxic aldehydes multiplies.

3. The "Gut Bomb" Effect

Have you ever felt heavy, sluggish, or "bloated" after eating fried street food or fast food?

That isn't just because you are full. It is because your body is fighting inflammation. Highly processed palm oil is high in Omega-6 fatty acids (pro-inflammatory). When you consume this daily:

1. Gut Lining Damage: It creates inflammation in the gut, leading to "Leaky Gut Syndrome."
2. Metabolic Chaos: It interferes with how your body processes insulin, contributing to the rising diabetes epidemic in the Philippines.

4. The Cultural Trap: "Everything is Fried"

We need to be honest about our food culture.

• Morning: Silog (Fried Rice + Fried Egg + Fried Meat).
• Snack: Fishball, Kikiam, Kwek-Kwek (Deep fried in black, reused oil).
• Dinner: Pritong Galunggong.

We are bathing our food in aldehydes three times a day. We focus so much on rice (carbs), but we ignore the medium we cook it in.

Quick Comparison: Real Fat vs. Industrial Sludge

Conclusion

We have normalized the abnormal. We treat highly processed industrial oil as a "staple food" when it should be a warning label.

The Fix?

1. Stop Reusing Oil: If the oil is dark, it is poison. Throw it away.
2. Switch Back to Tradition: Our ancestors used Coconut Oil or Pork Lard. These are natural, stable fats that don't destroy your brain cells when heated.
3. Fry Less: Adobo, Sinigang, and Tinola are healthier not just because of the ingredients, but because they don't rely on oxidizing industrial oils.

Don't let your kitchen be a chemistry lab for chronic disease. 🇵🇭