Healthy cooking oils: which cooking oil is best for cooking?

Healthy cooking oils: which cooking oil is best for cooking? 

Now days there is a wide variety of vegetable oils available in the market and many of them are good source of healthy fats such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Fats provide essential nutrients for our body such as vitamin E that helps to keep the body's cells healthy and also works as transport of other fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D and K from food.

Healthy fats also reduce the level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) known as "bad" cholesterol and increase high density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) known as "good" cholesterol, thereby helping to reduce the risk of suffer from cerebrovascular diseases when is used instead of saturated fats and trans fats. 

Which cooking oil is best for cooking? 

In the kitchen and when it comes to cooking not all vegetable oils are the same, some oils withstand the heat better than others. The "smoke point" is the temperature at which the oil begins to smoke and decay. When the oil begins to produce smoke, it loses nutritional value and can give an unpleasant taste to our food.

Decay process is visible with the presence of smoke when cooking oil is overheated, what happens chemically is that triglycerides separate with overheat in fatty acids and glycerol. Glycerol is transformed into a toxic substance known as acrolein. 

When we are cooking the oils can exceed temperatures of 400°F (Fahrenheit degrees) so it is necessary that the oil we use for cooking has a smoke point greater than 400°F in order to prevent its decay. 

Different "smoke points" of cooking oils 

There are numbers of tables where the smoke point of the different cooking oils is defined, however these are indicative data because the smoke point varies greatly from one oil to another simply by the type of oil, its fatty acid composition, the extraction method used by the industry, its different nutritional qualities, etc. 

However, normally the smoke point is higher in refined oils (extracted with solvents). These oils are more stable to heat exceeding 400°F due to their industrial processing. And the smoke point is usually less than 320°F in high-quality oils obtained by mechanical extraction (extracted by cold pressed) such as extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, walnut and others high-quality oils.

Oils ideal for cooking 

Oils with high smoke points are good for any cooking method such as sautéing, baking frying, and others. While oils with low smoke point are good to eat raw in salads as dressings or dips. 

Among the oils with high smoke point ideal for cooking are the refined oils, such as soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, olive oil, and others. 

Oils ideal for eating raw 

Low smoke point oils are ideal for use in salads such as raw dressings and dips, these include high quality oils (extracted by cold pressed) such as: extra virgin olive oil, linseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, walnut oil, and others. 

Recommendations 

Heat and light damage most oils, with the passing time these elements cause the oils to decay and lose their nutritional value, the ideal is to keep them in a dark and cool environment, and replace them if they become rancid (they smell and taste bad). Some oils especially oils with a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as walnut oil become rancid faster than others, to increase their usability you can store them in the refrigerator. 

The smoke point decreases if the oil is exposed to oxygen for a long period of time as well as at high temperatures, like when the oil is reused on more than one occasion and when it is allowed to stand between use and use in a surface exposed to the air (like a pan). Therefore, it is not recommended to reuse cooking oil. 

We shouldn’t cook with high quality oils (little refined ones) such as extra virgin olive oil. This oil has a variable smoke point depending on its quality approximately 320°F, while normal (refined) olive oil is approximately 400°F. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense to use a high-quality extra virgin olive oil (extracted in cold) to use it at high temperatures, thus destroying its nutritional value. 

Frying is a type of cooking that we should limit and not eat too often. There are always healthiest options to eat healthy fats in our diet such as eating more oilseeds, avocado or healthy raw vegetable oils in dressings or dips. 

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And remember that demonizing fats and removing them from your diet is also unhealthy, as fats play vital functions in our body. The secret is to eat the right amount of fats and taking care of the quality of fats in our diet, avoiding trans fats and saturated fats.

Written by: 

Roxana Sanchez 

Dietitian - Nutritionist 

Posted on October 2019