Carotino Oil

I saw this in the oils section of the grocery store today and was highly intrigued. It caught my eye, considering that it was bright red in a sea of yellow oils and, after reading the bottle, my final decision was to buy some when I ran out of the cooking oil I already have at home, but I wanted to know if anyone is currently using this. What does it taste like and how do you like it as opposed to olive oil or canola oil?

Here's a brief description of it that I found online, for anyone who doesn't know what it is:

What exactly is carotino?
Carotino is a blend of all-natural red palm fruit oil and canola oil. It has a red hue that comes from the high levels of carotenes (vitamin A) that are naturally present. Carotino is also higher in vitamin E and Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids than other oils. It has a neutral flavor and may be used cold for dressing or heated for sauteeing and even frying. During cooking, the oil does impart a yellow-golden hue to the foods as the carotenes are transferred into the cooked dishes. Carotino has no trans-fatty acids, is not hydrogenated and contains no artificial colorings or preservatives.

What is red palm fruit oil?
This natural oil comes from the fruit clusters of the red palm or oil palm tree. The fruit is harvested every 10 to 14 days as it ripens, rushed to nearby mills where it is steam sterilized, then pressed, to extract the fruit oil. The oil is further clarified and separated into a number of oil-based food products.

Where do red palms come from?
The major world production comes from Malaysia. Although the red oil palm originated in Africa, where it has been an important food crop for 5,000 years, it was first commercially planted in Malaysia in 1917.

Advantages:
The two oils with the best nutritional profiles are olive and red palm fruit oil. They surpass all other oils in their vitamin and good fatty acid content. Olive oil has a more pronounced flavor that can complement certain foods. Carotino has a more neutral flavor that is more transparent, allowing spices and natural flavors to come through.

How do you cook with it?
Carotino can be used in the full spectrum of cooking, from cold salad dressings to heated oil for frying.

Copied from http://www.carotino-usa.com/det_news.html

Anyone that's using this now, tell me what you think of your experience with it!

Oooo! Never heard of it before! BUT it sounds like it would be great with fresh spinach and fresh slices of strawberries and use the oil to top off the salad! Yummy! I'm going to buy some right now! Yumm-O!

Palm Oil = pure saturated fat.

Canola Oil= mostly unsaturated fat.

Stick with regular Canola Oil. It's cheaper and much better for you. 

It's palm fruit oil not palm kernel oil so, no, it's not pure saturated fat. In fact, it's quite comparable to plain olive or canola oil in most ways except the Carotino is higher in vitamin E and beta-carotene. Price, as with anything, depends on where you shop.

Yes, palm fruit oil is not the same as palm kernal oil.  You can find out about palm fruit oil here:
http://www.americanpalmoil.com/facts.html
It sounds very healthful to me.

Ok, Palm Fruit Oil is still 50% saturated fat.

I'd rather eat a piece of steak. 

But the steak would have a high cholesterol count and the oil has none.

I'm really careful about saturated fats, so I probably won't try this oil.  I'll stick to flaxseed oil for my Omegas.

A serving of steak only has about 80 mg of Cholesterol. That's not a whole lot, especially seeing as the piece of steak has 20g of protein.

The oil is 100% fat, 50% of which is saturated. The lack of cholesterol doesn't mean a whole lot in that case. 

dm84, just where are you getting your numbers from? Carotino has no more saturated fat than olive oil (2g per serving) with all the same heart-healthy benefits plus the benefits of vitamin E and Omega 3. How did we get into a discussion comparing a perfectly healthy oil with a fatty steak?

I'd really love to see some responses from anyone who has used carotino and how they use it.

Ok, the reason it only has 2g of saturated fat is because this brand is blended with Canola Oil. Pure Palm Fruit Oil is almost 50% saturated fat.

So great, it only has 2g saturated fat. A "fatty steak" only has about 4-5g of saturated fat (10g unsaturated) + 20 grams of protein.

This oil, while still only having 2g of saturated fat, probably contains another 14-15g unsaturated fat per tablespoon. That's all it is - 120 calories of pure fat, just like any other oil.

Oil is empty calories. Steak is not. Oil is not healthy. There are more nutritious ways of getting fats than using an expensive cooking oil.

I don't know where you're getting your information from, but good oils are much more beneficial to health than fatty meats, according to the foremost diet experts in the world.

here's were I got my information:

Olive Oil from The World's Healthiest Foods

dm84, you simply seemed determined not to like oil when any nutritionist will tell you that good fats are necessary to good health, and that having these good fats in your diet are way better than chowing down on a greasy steak, no matter how much protein is in it. If you'd rather clog your arteries with that, then that's up to you. But your persistence that "oil is empty calories" and "oil is not healthy" is downright ignorant. Perhaps you should read more and educate yourself with something other than uninformed assumptions.

Avoid Palm Oil, as mentioned. It's completely unnecissary and unhealthy, because once cooked with whatever meal you're cooking, it tastes the same, with 50% saturated fat though. Stick with Canola oil, it's much better.

It's not an uninformed assumption whatsoever.

Oil is pure fat, with nothing else. There are better ways to get fat. Oil is totally unnecessary though, and provides nothing but fat.

Olive oil is the list of world's healthiest foods. So is beef. So what?

I used beef as an example, because it delivers fat, along with protein. My point is that rather than simply using oil to get fat, you should get it from your food. Nuts for example, have a ton of fat, but you also get fiber and protein.

As for my arteries, I eat red meat 3-4x a week. My cholesterol is 126 and my LDL is 49. As long as you eat proper portions of healthy food and don't have a family history of heart disease, you probably won't clog your arteries. It's ironic you referred to it as a 'greasy steak', while you're advocating pouring grease on/into your food.

 

  

I'm not advocating "pouring grease" on anyone's food, but merely a healthy way of including fat in a person's diet. The plain fact of it is that most people use oils whether it's for cooking, dressings, flavoring, whatever, and you claiming that they shouldn't is rather ridiculous, especially when there's no good reason not to. Good fats in moderation are excellent for your health. Period. Your idea that oil that's only oil has no health benefits is simply untrue. And while it's true that there are other ways of getting fat into your diet, meat shouldn't be the only way to do it. 1, not everyone eats meat, and 2, meat tends to be high in cholesterol. Oil can be a very positive may of introducing good fat into your diet without scarfing down steak 4 times a week. Not only that, but the unsaturated fats found in those oils help clean out the cholesterol that gets deposited by that meat. That's one of the main reasons that fatty fishes are recommended - they contain these same unsaturated fats that help clean out your arteries. But what if I don't like fish? Your solution would probably be to hold my nose and choke it down because I shouldn't get these oils any other way.

It almost borders on some kind of phobia - first you spouted some offhand numbers that had nothing to do with the product under discussion, and then tried to turn it into some righteous argument about how people shouldn't get their fat from anything but what you consider to be food. Once again, if you don't like it then that's your prerogative, but don't try to put down a perfectly healthy food choice because of your personal tastes.

I'd also like to note that you appear to be fighting tooth and nail over any use of oil, and yet you made a point of recommending canola oil in one of your earlier posts. And you're the one who mentioned "irony." 

So which is it to be, that you're up in your tower never deigning to touch a drop of fat that doesn't come directly from a bite of food, or that you're some kind of weird hypocrite trying to make a point you don't even really believe in?

"The plain fact of it is that most people use oils whether it's for cooking, dressings, flavoring, whatever, and you claiming that they shouldn't is rather ridiculous, especially when there's no good reason not to."

What is the good reason to include oil in a diet? Unsaturated fats? You can get that in a myriad of other ways. I know because I consume almost 60g of unsaturated fat almost daily, and only use pure oil when it's absolutely necessary. The fact of the matter is oil only delivers one thing - fat. I really couldn't care less if people choose to pour oil onto their food, I'm just saying there are better ways to get the fat.

It's sort of like the simple vs. complex carb situation. Yeah I could eat a packet of sugar for the carbs, but that wouldn't be thhe ideal way to get them.

"Good fats in moderation are excellent for your health. Period."

True. Saturated fats in moderation are also excellent for your health.

"Your idea that oil that's only oil has no health benefits is simply untrue."

Ok. 

"And while it's true that there are other ways of getting fat into your diet, meat shouldn't be the only way to do it. 1, not everyone eats meat, and 2, meat tends to be high in cholesterol."

I never said meat was the only way of getting fat into someone's diet. Nuts and seeds are amazing sources of fat, and in my opinion the very best fat sources, provided you aren't allergic.

The cholesterol thing is totally blown out of proportion. Like I said a serving (3oz) of beef only has 80mg of cholesterol. Unless you eat tons of egg yolks every day, overeat, or eat junk food, it's unlikely that you'll go above the recommended cholesterol intake of 300mg or less per day. Also high cholesterol is a mainly hereditary condition.

"It almost borders on some kind of phobia - first you spouted some offhand numbers that had nothing to do with the product under discussion, and then tried to turn it into some righteous argument about how people shouldn't get their fat from anything but what you consider to be food. Once again, if you don't like it then that's your prerogative, but don't try to put down a perfectly healthy food choice because of your personal tastes."

Lol, you're reading way too much into it. The fact of the matter is the product in question really isn't superior to Canola or Olive oil, except it's colored orange and costs a lot more.

And if you go to the carotino page (not the U.S. specific one) you will see there are two versions of the product. One that is the blend with Canola oil, and another which is pure Palm Oil. I thought the product in question was the one with pure Palm Oil, and that's why I wound up quoting "off hand numbers"

If someone wants to waste their money on a really expensive bottle of oil, more power to them. 

 

"Colored orange and costs more?" Why are you so sure it's expensive? You see, if I seem like I'm reading way too much into it, it's because of comments like that one. You seem to be making a lot of assumptions and general comments that simply aren't true. The product caught my eye in the store because it was red, yes, but it held my attention because its cost and health benefits were similar to both canola and olive oil (with extra vitamins) and I'm always interested in new foods that can be part of a healthy diet. It also costs about the same as a similarly sized bottle of olive oil. I was merely interested in what people who had actually tried it thought of its flavor and meal preparation potential.

I dislike it when people post without having any real understanding of what they're talking about. It appeared to me as if you didn't even actually read what this thread was about before you replied because your initial responses were about palm kernel oil and not Carotino. It's a pet peeve of mine, so if my responses seem curt, then that's why.

Well, from the perspective of one who cooks, I would have a difficult time cooking without oil.  It carries flavor throughout the dish - hence why it is used in salad dressings.

Sometimes it's about more than the macronutrients, ya know?  ;-)

"It also costs about the same as a similarly sized bottle of olive oil." 

I'm not sure where you live, but around here it costs 50% more than a bottle of store brand olive oil.

I'm in Maryland and the large bottles I saw were $5 and some change. To me that's not expensive, and I'm nowhere near rich. Then again, I tend to be willing to spend a little more on things that taste better and/or are better for me, especially if I know it'll last me for a while or make a noteable difference in taste like oil, aged vinegar or good spices. You may think I'm a sucker because I buy organic dairy products (which truly are more expensive, it kinda hurt when I made that switch), but, darnit, they taste better. I've actually done the Pepsi Challenge with milk and could tell hands down which one was the organic - it was delicious and I've never felt that way about milk before. Very off topic, and you probably don't care, but that's just how I am about my food.