All About Palm Oil

As you should already know, palm oil is an environmental disaster.  But it's used in so many everyday products we use all the time. People are burning down rainforests for it. In my opinion (and many other peoples'), this is going way too far.  You can be a big help by simply not using these products.

This is really much harder than you may think. There's palm oil in a ton of stuff you wouldn't expect to have it. Palm oil can be found in food products, soap, toothpaste, and many other things. I found the link below very helpful. It has tips to help you find the hidden palm oil in things, as labels can sometimes use a different name to disguise the use of it. There are also lists of alternates for palm oil products, but there aren't any things not to get. I will try to come up with some, but I can't do all of them. Please feel free to write a comment below, with something not to use, an alternate, or a request for one. Remember that it takes more than one person to change something as big as the use of palm oil.

Stuff Not To Get

• Anything from Pepsi
• Mamee Monster Noodles
• Cup Noodles
• Nutella (except in France)
• Hershey's Kisses
• M&M's
• Twisties
• Milo
• Oreos
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• Fruit Plus, Mint Plus, Choco Plus

The ingredients list can be very tricky. Palm oil has many names, such as "Elaeis guineensis", or even just "vegetable oil." Other chemicals that usually include palm oil are cetyl alcohol, isopropyl, sodium lauryl sulphate, steareths, fatty alcohol sulphates, glycerine, cocoa butter equivalent and cocoa butter substitute.*

Here's some palm oil free products.
http://www.palmoilfreeproducts.com.au/

The helpful link.
http://www.orangutans.com.au/orangutans-survival-information/helping-you-buy-responsibly-palm-oil-free-alternatives.aspx

*I got most of this from the link labeled "the helpful link".

I also found this amazing video about palm oil. There's a lot of good information in it, which taught me  a lot.