There are many buzzwords that are mentioned in the health community, whether they hold a positive or negative connotation. One of those products that comes with a negative connotation is palm oil. We may have heard to avoid it and to search for products that contain cleaner oils. Palm oil is slowly becoming one of the most common vegetable oils on the market. This is not a positive thing as this oil is one of the number one causes of deforestation. Here at Georgia Grinders, we are passionate about leaving this oil out of our products for a variety of reasons. Rather than referring to it as a “bad” and “harmful” oil, we wanted to take the time to explain why palm oil is detrimental to the Earth, and especially the Amazon Rainforest.

So what is palm oil, anyways?!

Palm oil is an oil that is extracted from a type of tree that thrives in humid climates – the oil palm tree. Because of this, it is the sad reality that tropical forests are being destroyed to make more room for palm oil plantations. Not only is this extremely harmful due to the amounts of carbon that are released into the air, it is almost directly adding to the many causes of global warming. Animal species that thrive in tropical forests are being put into danger with the possibility of becoming extinct. A few of the species that are at risk include elephants, tigers and orangutans. Oil palm plantations support an extremely low level of biodiversity, causing species in the rainforest to either move or disappear for good.

The swamps below the rainforests, called peatlands, are one of the direct sources that cause global warming. When these peatlands are further destroyed and removed, a high amount of carbon is released into the air on top of additional methane. These swamps can hold around 18-28 times more carbon than the rainforests. This is extremely detrimental to our environment, and further can be attributed to causing health issues in surrounding areas.

The main two countries this is taking place in is Indonesia and Malaysia. Over 100,000 deaths in Southeast Asia can sadly be attributed to exposure to particles from landscape fires, which can include peatland fires. This is something that is extremely dangerous for citizens of the areas and further, their economy.

This harmful oil can be found in many products from cookies to nut butters, to cosmetics and hair products. The list is endless, and often we aren’t made aware that certain products that we use have palm oil in them. We have the right as consumers to be able to make decisions as to which products we support, whether it is because of environmental practices or detrimental effects to the Earth. At Georgia Grinders, we strive to keep things simple and clean so that our end users can really decide what they would like to do with our product. You will never find us adding any unnecessary oils to anything that we sell. Being that we source premium nuts with the highest oil content as possible, we do not need to add any additional oils to our nut butters. Premium nuts rarely have any oxidation take place within them which keeps the flavor and freshness at its very peak. This is a huge reason why we take pride in the premium products that we offer to the marketplace!

Beyond our passion to provide a clean and simple product to consumers, we also are very conscious of farming practices, sustainability and the general well-being of our planet. We hope that our loyal readers will be just as inspired as we are as a company to support brands that take the extra step to ensure their products are not causing any direct harm to our environment.

Thank you for taking the time to read this; as always, please let us know if you have any questions and we would be happy to discuss this further.

With love,

Your Georgia Grinders Family