
Palm oil receives only a single direct mention by name in the source passages. It appears in a brief instructional aside within a larger discussion about fats, oils, and the hierarchy of fat types in the body. Aajonus frames palm oil in the same categorical context as all pressed, oil-soluble fats, meaning it belongs to the class of substances that are primarily solvent-reactive in the human body, not stabilizing or building. The one explicit statement Aajonus makes about palm oil is as follows:
Overview
Palm oil receives only a single direct mention by name in the source passages. It appears in a brief instructional aside within a larger discussion about fats, oils, and the hierarchy of fat types in the body. Aajonus frames palm oil in the same categorical context as all pressed, oil-soluble fats, meaning it belongs to the class of substances that are primarily solvent-reactive in the human body, not stabilizing or building. The one explicit statement Aajonus makes about palm oil is as follows:
"Palm oil is the same way. Got lots of fat in it. Lots of oils. Water soluble oils in it, as well as oil soluble."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This statement is made immediately after a discussion of cream coming out of the eyes during heavy brain detoxification, and immediately before a directive to keep those oils down and to prioritize butter and meat fat as the largest consumption of fats. Palm oil is placed into the broader framework of fats that must be used with restraint, not as a primary food, and certainly not as a replacement for animal fats.
Because the single direct reference to palm oil is embedded within a much larger teaching about the nature of all pressed and concentrated oils, understanding what Aajonus means about palm oil requires understanding his entire framework for oils, pressed fats, and the distinction between oil-soluble and water-soluble fats. That full framework is presented in the sections below, applied specifically to the context in which palm oil is mentioned.
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Properties and Effects
The one substantive thing Aajonus says that is specific to palm oil, and that distinguishes it from most other pressed oils, is that it contains both water-soluble and oil-soluble fats. This is significant within his framework because most pressed oils contain only oil-soluble fats, which he considers extremely limited in their usefulness to the human body. He says about pressed oils in general:
"Coconut oil and all the pressed oils are only oil soluble. And they only mix with oil something else."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
By contrast, palm oil is described as having "water soluble oils in it, as well as oil soluble." This places palm oil in a slightly different category from pure pressed oils like olive oil, flax oil, and safflower oil, and gives it some structural resemblance, though not equivalence, to coconut cream, which Aajonus considers the gold standard of plant-based fats precisely because it contains a vast proportion of water-soluble fats.
Despite the presence of water-soluble fats, Aajonus places palm oil within the general rule that applies to all pressed or concentrated oils: that the body uses approximately 90% of such oils as solvents, that is, as cleansers, degreasers, and dissolvers of toxic tissue, not as building, stabilizing, or nourishing fats. He states this principle broadly and consistently throughout his teachings:
"Any pressed oil whether it's coconut, olive, nut oils, no matter what it is, 90% solvent reactive. That means that it will promote detoxification."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"The pressed oils are decontaminants. They're solvents to dissolve and break down garbage. They are not to make you stronger and healthy, although they will indirectly by helping getting rid of the pollution."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
The solvent-reactive mechanism means the body converts these oils into substances functionally similar to soaps, compounds that break apart toxic accumulations, dissolve old scars, dissolve arterial plaque, break down congestion in the lymphatic system, and disassemble chemically complex toxic compounds. But this same mechanism means the oils dry the body out, make conditions acrid, and do not contribute to cellular stabilization, nerve feeding, or tissue building.
"Pressed oils often cause dry and acrid conditions in the body."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"Those are great oils to clean out your system, but remember they are remedial. They are medicines. They are not to be consumed too much at a time."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Aajonus makes a critical point about all vegetable and plant-sourced oils, including oils like palm oil that come from fruit or plant matter, which is that at human body temperature (98.6°F and below), these oils tend to dry out and crystallize, unlike animal fats which remain fluid and functional:
"In the human body, 98.6 and lower, vegetable oils will dry out and crystallize. Crystals that eat can even grow and cause stones, cause bone spurs, cause all kinds of problems, and cause arteriosclerosis and heart disease, hardening of the arteries."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Herbivores that consume vegetation have body temperatures of 101 to 105 degrees, which allows them to keep vegetable oils from crystallizing. Humans lack this body temperature and also lack the specific array of enzymes that herbivores possess to break down cellulose-based fats. This is why Aajonus consistently places plant oils, including palm oil, in the category of fats that are not properly converted or utilized by the human body as structural or protective fats.
One of the more unusual claims Aajonus makes about pressed oils, applicable to palm oil within his framework, is that the body actually manufactures viruses from these oils as part of the cleansing process:
"Our bodies make virus from those oils. From those oils, yes. So, you know, it's not a good idea to have a lot of oil."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He also says:
"The body will start making a lot of body soaps. A lot of virus. To start cleaning the body."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
In Aajonus's framework, viruses are not pathogens in the conventional sense but are instead solvents produced by the body, soap-like agents that dissolve specific categories of toxic matter. When pressed oils enter the body in significant quantities, the body accelerates the production of these viral solvents, which intensifies detoxification, sometimes too rapidly and without the buffering effect of adequate animal fats to bind with and escort the released toxins out safely.
A key limitation of pure pressed oils, as Aajonus describes it, is that they can only dissolve oil-based toxicity, things like oil-based mineral stones, oil-soluble chemical deposits, and congested oil-soluble plaque. They cannot touch water-soluble toxins or cross-medium toxic accumulations. This is why he consistently prefers coconut cream over coconut oil, because coconut cream's 92-93% water-soluble fat content allows it to dissolve both oil-based and water-based toxic material. Palm oil, in having both water-soluble and oil-soluble fats, would theoretically be able to reach a broader spectrum of toxic accumulations than a purely oil-soluble pressed oil, though Aajonus does not elaborate on this distinction specifically for palm oil beyond naming it.
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Form and State
Consistent with his principles about all oils, Aajonus specifies that oils should never be heated above 96°F (36°C). He states this as an absolute:
"I don't recommend any oil that's pressed above 96 degrees."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"Oils build temperatures. And an oil never should go over 96 degrees Fahrenheit. 96 degrees Fahrenheit, it will start causing the liver."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
For palm oil, no specific brand, sourcing protocol, or preparation method is named. It is mentioned once, in passing, as an illustrative example of a fat with a large and complex oil composition. Aajonus does not advise people to seek out palm oil, does not name a cold-pressed palm oil source, and does not provide fermentation guidance for it as he does for coconut oil.
Within the broader teaching about hydrogenated vegetable oils and "plastic oils," palm oil, as a vegetable-sourced oil widely used in commercial food production and frequently hydrogenated, would fall within Aajonus's condemnation of what he calls "plastic oil":
"99% of all oils are hydrogenated, turning them into plastic so that shelf life is almost eternal as long as it remains in packaging."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"Nearly every donut, chip, French fry, as well as every fried food in every market, even the health food stores, are fried in plastic oils."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Though Aajonus does not name palm oil specifically in this hydrogenation discussion, palm oil is one of the most widely hydrogenated commercial oils in food manufacturing, and his framework condemns all such processed forms without exception.
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Sourcing and Preparation
Aajonus provides no specific sourcing guidance, no recommended brands, and no preparation instructions for palm oil. He does not instruct people to seek it out, buy it, press it at home, or ferment it. The single reference to palm oil is descriptive and classificatory, not prescriptive.
By contrast, he provides extensive sourcing guidance for coconut oil (specifically naming the Philippine fermented coconut oil from Wilderness Family Naturals as the only one he confirmed was pressed below 96°F, and www.thaiorganiclife.com as another option not heated above 96°F), and he provides guidance for olive oil (naming Oliflex from Italy as his preferred brand) and peanut oil (naming Spectrum Naturals). No such guidance exists in these sources for palm oil.
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Required Pairing
Aajonus's universal directive, applicable to palm oil as it would be to any pressed oil, is that when consuming pressed oils, one must simultaneously consume animal fats to prevent the detoxification from becoming damaging:
"I always recommend that when you have olive oil or flax oil, that you have either cream or butter with it. Because as they start dissolving compounds in your body, you want the other protective fats there to protect the cells and to chelate with those toxins that are released and dissolved. So you can eliminate them easier so they don't do damage."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"If you're a thin person, I recommend never having those oils with the meat without some other fat, without some animal fat with it because you will get irritable. You may not be able to sleep well. You may get so acidic that you don't like your life."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
The biochemical rationale is that when pressed oils dissolve toxic accumulations, those released toxins need a binding agent to carry them safely out of the body. Without butter, cream, or other animal fats present, the released toxins can redeposit in other tissues, lock up in the system, or cause extreme acid conditions that damage the nervous system and irritate surrounding cells.
"The pressed oils are decontaminants. They're solvents to dissolve and break down garbage... But if you get rid of the pollution without other fats to bind with those, you're going to be more polluted because you're going to have that gunk locking up in your systems in various areas."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"So if you make a mayonnaise and you make it with olive oil, make sure you use lots of butter in it. A lot more butter and just..."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Aajonus's directive at the end of the one passage mentioning palm oil by name states:
"So, you keep those oils down. Any pressed oil. Butter, let that be your biggest. Meat fat, your biggest consumption of fats. They will soothe you, protect you, strengthen you, as well as giving you a lot of energy."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This makes clear that even palm oil, with its dual water-soluble and oil-soluble fat content, is to be kept subordinate to butter and meat fat, not the other way around.
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Contraindications
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- ii
> "So people who are dry, I say to completely stay away from pressed oils until the glands are hydrated."
- iii
Aajonus distinguishes between overweight and thin individuals when discussing pressed oils. A person with significant body fat reserves has a buffer, the pressed oil's solvent activity can dissolve and mobilize older stored fats without immediately destabilizing the entire system. A thin person has no such reserve, and the solvent activity of pressed oils can become immediately damaging:
- iv
> "If you're overweight, you could have some pressed oil and be able to handle the solvent reaction because you'd have enough fat on your body. But if you don't, if you're a thin person, I recommend never having those oils with the meat without some other fat."
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Aajonus warns that applying oils, and this principle applies to palm oil as much as any other, directly to skin smothers the skin's oxygen absorption and causes overheating:
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> "If you put the oil on your skin, it smothers you. You get very hot."
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He recommends against using oils on skin and prefers coconut cream for topical application because it contains the full spectrum of water-soluble and oil-soluble nutrients along with enzymes, whereas an oil alone only delivers the oil-soluble fraction.
- viii
Using the example of coconut oil going rancid after about three months of improper storage, Aajonus describes how old or caustic oils begin to tear up scar tissue and cause skin eruptions:
- ix
> "After that it will become caustic and do things like this. Start ripping up scar tissue causing skin eruptions on some people."
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This principle applies to all pressed oils, including palm oil, as they age and become oxidized or caustic.
- xi
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Dosage and Safety
Aajonus's most specific dosage guidance for pressed oils, applicable to palm oil within his framework, is one tablespoon per day maximum, with the explicit note that if you consume more in a single meal (such as four tablespoons in a sauce), you must then abstain from all other pressed oils for three to four days:
"The body can only handle a tablespoon a day of those pressed oils. So it's a concentrated oil."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"Hemp oil is a poison. Almost similar to castor oil. It's okay in small amounts. Like a tablespoon a day, the maximum. Let's say if you're making a sauce with olive oil and you've got four tablespoons in it, don't need any more pressed oils for four days. It's going to take you four days to get that out of the system, to utilize it, to make it into solvents, to clean the body, and to process it."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"I suggest no more than a tablespoon a day or five tablespoons a week if you're going to have it at one time in one sauce."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
A person who is 6'5" tall might tolerate two tablespoons per day of pressed oil:
"So if you're going to have an oil as a medicine once a day to help your lymphatic system dissolve stuff, one tablespoon a day. Well, if you're 6'5", you could have two tablespoons a day."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Aajonus frames all pressed oils, including palm oil, as medicinal substances to be used once a day or every other day at most, not as staple foods:
"I recommend the moderate eating of oils, no more than once a day or every other day, and that oils be consumed mainly with one meat meal."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
In the one direct mention of palm oil, the directive is explicit: keep those oils down. This is stated in the context of a body undergoing heavy neurological or systemic detoxification, a situation where the last thing one wants is to accelerate detoxification further with more solvent-reactive fat. The instruction is:
"So, you keep those oils down. Any pressed oil. Butter, let that be your biggest. Meat fat, your biggest consumption of fats."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
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Historical Context
While not specifically about palm oil as a food, Aajonus documents the political and industrial disruption of traditional coconut-based economies, which is directly relevant to understanding the broader context in which palm oil emerged as a commercial replacement. He describes how Western industrial interests entered coconut-growing countries and pressured traditional communities to abandon their coconut cultivation in exchange for coconut palm cultivation, a distinction he treats as both botanical and economic:
"So they said we'll take your trees we'll cut your trees down for you and we'll plant coconut palms."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He also makes a botanical distinction, promised to him by a professor, between trees and palms:
"I made an agreement with somebody when I wrote a book who helped me make it if I ever mention the word palms I have to express to everybody that a palm is not a tree and a tree is not a palm so you can't say a palm tree. This is a professor who was neurotic about it but I made my promise for life so a tree has branches and leaves a palm has a tree has stalks, leaves and branches and palms have trunks, fronds."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This distinction, beyond botanical pedantry, reflects Aajonus's broader concern that industrial and commercial interests renamed, rebranded, and restructured traditional food systems to extract profit while removing people's access to genuinely nourishing whole foods like coconut cream.
The shift from coconut cream-based soap (which Aajonus says constituted 90% of all soaps made worldwide for centuries) to petroleum-based soap is framed as an industrial substitution driven by profit, not health. The same logic applies, in his framework, to the rise of vegetable oils including palm oil as commercial cooking and food-processing fats:
"You have to understand that our society is run by marketing of the food industry. They do not have your health in concern."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"Our major problems with heart disease and arteriosclerosis are because of margarine vegetable oils especially hydrogenated vegetable oils."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Palm oil, as one of the most commercially used hydrogenated vegetable oils in global food manufacturing, fits squarely within this critique, even though Aajonus does not name it specifically in the hydrogenation discussion.
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