The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases

Kadandale, Sowmya; Marten, Robert; Smith, Richard

doi:10.2471/blt.18.220434

Cited by 109 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…There was a lack of systematic analysis and original data in the included literature, with most including, at best, narrative reviews of relevant literature. Whilst a number of analyses used illustrative examples to describe CDoH (e.g., Smith, Buse, Gordon [36]) only two presented structured case studies [6,28].…”

Section: Literature Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining the commercial determinants of health: a systematic review

Lacy-Vawdon

Livingstone

2020

BMC Public Health

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Background: Despite increasing attention to the social determinants of health in recent decades, globally there is an unprecedented burden from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Recently, the corporate and commercial conditions associated with these, commercial determinants of health (CDoH), have also begun to receive attention. This research aims to articulate the CDoH as described in the literature, summarize substantive findings, and assess strengths and limitations of current literature. Methods: Systematic review of formal (Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, Global Health) and grey literature (database, Google Advanced, targeted website, citation searching). Searching identified 125 texts for full-text review, with 33 included for final review. Data extracted were analyzed thematically. Results: The dynamics constituting CDoH include broad facilitators such as globalization of trade, corporate structures, and regulatory systems, articulation of social and economic power, neoliberal and capitalist ideologies; additional elements include corporate activities such as marketing, corporate political activities, corporate social responsibility, extensive supply chains, harmful products and production, and issues of accessibility. These contribute significantly to worsened global health outcomes. Conclusions: Literature describing effects of macro conditions and corporate activities on health could usefully utilize CDoH terminology. Facilitation via revised, consistent and operational definition of CDoH would assist. Social, political, commercial and economic structures and relations of CDoH are under-theorized. Systematic approaches to identifying, describing, and disrupting these are required to improve global health.

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Section: Literature Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining the commercial determinants of health: a systematic review

Lacy-Vawdon

Livingstone

2020

BMC Public Health

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“…New foods rich in macro and micro-nutrients could be produced with a huge carbon footprint using materials sourced from around the globe, and/or produced using cheap labour in conditions unacceptable to European workers, undermining the health of individuals and communities in the developing world. As a specific example, trans fatty acids have been slowly replaced in recent decades by palm oil, which is a primary driver of deforestation and water and soil pollution in some of the world's most ecologically sensitive regions [32,33]. All researchers concerned with health improvement must make these considerations, particularly in the field of nutrition, which piggybacks on the nearly 25% of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the food sector.…”

Section: Health: Scope and Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is nutrition science ready for the twenty-first century? Moving towards transdisciplinary impacts in a changing world

et al. 2020

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Malnutrition in an obese world was the fitting title of the 13th Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) conference held in October 2019. Many individuals do not eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, and this is now understood to be a major driver of increased disease risk and illness. Moreover, both our current eating patterns and the food system as a whole are environmentally unsustainable, threatening the planetary systems we depend on for survival. As we attempt to feed a growing global population, food systems will increasingly be confronted with their environmental impacts, with the added challenge of climate change-induced threats to food production. As we move into the third decade of the twenty-first century, these challenges demand that the nutrition research community reconsider its scope, concepts, methods, and societal role. At a pre-meeting workshop held at the FENS conference, over 70 researchers active in the field explored ways to advance the discipline's capacity to address cross-cutting issues of personal, public and planetary health. Using the world cafe method, four themed discussion tables explored (a) the breadth of scientific domains needed to meet the current challenges, (b) the nature and definition of the shifting concepts in nutrition sciences, (c) the next-generation methods required and (d) communication and organisational challenges and opportunities. As a follow-up to earlier work [1], here we report the highlights of the discussions, and propose the next steps to advance responsible research and innovation in the domain of nutritional science.

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“…Thus, while palm oil is important in meeting global food energy requirements especially in Asia and Africa, there is no evidence to support assertions that palm oil is associated with adverse nutritional outcomes in humans. The call for allies to join in 'evidence generation and advocacy around the detrimental impacts of palm oil on human and planetary heath' (Kadandale et al, 2019) appears misguided.…”

Section: Impact On Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEARNING TO LOVE THE WORLD’S MOST HATED CROP –Review Articles

Jackson¹,

Crawford

Traeholt

et al. 2019

JOPR

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The 2019 Inter-governmental Panel (IPCC) Report on Climate Change and Land highlighted the urgency and scale of the environmental impact from human-induced landscape change. Palm oil has historically had a particularly negative reputation for driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, social exploitation and damaging health. In the eyes of many in the West, it is regarded as the world's most hated crop. However, palm is highly productive compared with other crops and produces 40% of the worlds edible oil from only 5% of vegetable oil producing land and 0.4% of agricultural land in total.It has the potential to meet future demand for oil with minimum additional environmental and climate impact compared with other sources of vegetable oil. The related high value density has the potential to move millions of vulnerable smallholder farmers out of poverty. Given the conclusions of the IPCC Climate and Land Report, it is therefore important to re-examine the crop's reputation in light of the accumulated evidence and to properly understand the full impacts across the environmental, health, social and economic factors. We present a comprehensive review of the benefits and risks of the crop across these dimensions and provide a new synthesis. We conclude that while oil palm has had a significant negative impact on habitat and biodiversity, it plays a minor role compared with poaching, illegal logging and threats from climate change. There are important opportunities for the industry to reverse this damage. Its reputation for negative health impacts are not backed up by the scientific evidence and indeed there may be health benefits from substituting some oils in the diet with oil palm. Positive social and economic impacts are most obvious in areas where proper market-led economies are in place, but there can be significant negative social impacts in less developed areas. We conclude that much of the reputation of palm oil is not based on a balanced interpretation of the scientific evidence. Provided future development is zero deforestation, does not occur on peat, uses methane capture technology at the mills, empowers indigenous smallholders and supports the regeneration of secondary forest, we conclude that oil palm can be the most environmentally, socially and economically sustainable means to meet future demand for vegetable oil. Indeed, with pro-active collaboration with relevant non-government organisations, oil palm can be part of the solution to reversing the degradation of tropical forest biomes.

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The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases

Cited by 109 publications

References 50 publications

Defining the commercial determinants of health: a systematic review

Defining the commercial determinants of health: a systematic review

Is nutrition science ready for the twenty-first century? Moving towards transdisciplinary impacts in a changing world

LEARNING TO LOVE THE WORLD’S MOST HATED CROP –Review Articles

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