How to avoid eating palm oil

Palm oil is apparently the world's second largest oil crop and thus can be found in everything from food and skincare products to industrial items.

According to the the Palm Oil Action group Australian's eat around 10kg of palm oil per capita per year. YUK!

Unfortunatley this ubiquitous substance has extensive environmental impacts including potential destruction of organutan habitat and is a major contributor to gloabal warming. This is dut o the clearing of rainforests that occurs to allow palm plantations to be established. As the rainforests dry out, they release, peat filled soils release large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

You can find out a whole lot more about palm oil about at www.palmoilaction.org.au but in the meantime you can avoid it (in food a least) by saying no to the following foods which declared in 2007, that their product includes palm oil (despite unclear labelling in some cases).

* oreos
* pringles
* ritz crackers
* sara lee danishes
* kit kats
* LCMs
* Tim Tams
* Arnotts shapes
* Maggi 2 minute noodles
* Country cup asian soup in a cup

And if giving up Tim Tams is too much to bear, may I recommend you try RAW CHOCOLATE!

This is a relatively recent find for me, made with pure raw cacao, cacao butter and agave syrup, this is a truly decadent super food. If you are in Perth, hunt down the locally made Roar Vanilla chocolate. Worth every cent!! If you can't find that try Loving Earth. Both have great websites with heaps of info too. Happy chocolate munching!

http://www.roarvanilla.com/

http://www.raw-chocolate.net/

If you are looking for personal care products that are free from palm oil, visit the girls who are passionate about it in Perth, at B Kind Beauty Bar in Subiaco. http://www.bkind.com.au/
The lovely team at B Kind have decided to ensure any new products coming into the store are palm oil free. The have a great deal of knowledge about natural skincare and makeup and a wonderful range.