Some of these oils are
healthy and some are VERY unhealthy -- soybean oil, olive oil, coconut
oil, corn oil, etc... Let's take a closer look.
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers: The Truth About 6-Pack Abs & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
Today, I wanted to give you my take on a confusing subject to most people:
...why some oils and fats you may
use in cooking, baking, or other food use are actually harmful to your
body, and why some are healthful.
Here's the deal...
A lot of people seem to think that anything labeled as "vegetable oil" is good for you. NOT A SHOT!
Most of what is labeled as
"vegetable oil" is simply heavily refined soybean oil (processed under
high heat, pressure, and industrial solvents, such as hexane)...
sometimes perhaps it may also be heavily refined cottonseed, safflower,
corn, grapeseed, or other oils too.
In most instances, almost all of these processed oils are NOT HEALTHY for you. I'll explain why below...
If you buy processed food or deep fried food, you can usually be certain
that these unhealthy oils are used to prepare your foods (or worse, it
may use hydrogenated versions of these oils... aka - trans fats).
You may have even bought some of these oils for your own cooking or baking at home.
The problem with soybean oil,
cottonseed oil, corn oil, safflower oil, and other similar "vegetable
oils" is that they are mostly composed of polyunsaturated fats (the most
highly reactive type of fat) which leaves them prone to oxidation and
free radical production when exposed to heat and light.
Processed polyunsaturated oils are
the most inflammatory inside our bodies because of their high reactivity
to heat and light. This inflammation is what causes many of our
internal problems to develop such as heart disease, cancer, and other
degenerative diseases.
Note:
It's ok if a polyunsaturated fat source isn't processed such as in
whole foods like various nuts and seeds... In that case it's usually not
inflammatory (as long as it's not been exposed to high heat), and nuts
are usually a great source of healthy polyunsaturated fats. By the way,
omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are both polyunsaturates, and a healthy
balance of approx 1:1 to 3:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is considered
healthiest.
Your best bet is to choose raw nuts and seeds whenever possible to avoid the oxidation of polyunsaturated fats
that can occur during roasting of nuts and seeds. Keep in mind though
that some nuts are mostly monounsaturated, (for example, macadamias), so
the issue of roasted vs raw nuts is less of an issue for highly
monounsaturated nuts.
However, all of the vegetable oils
listed above are generally heavily refined during processing, so that
makes them already inflammatory before you even cook with them (which
does even more damage).
Here's the actual order of stability of a type of fat under heat and light (from least stable to most stable):
1. polyunsaturated
2. monounsaturated
3. saturated
Here's something that mainstream health professionals will never tell you...
Saturated fats are actually the healthiest oils to cook with!
Why? Because they are much more stable in cooking conditions and less inflammatory than polyunsaturated oils with cooking.
This is why tropical oils such as palm and coconut oils
(and even animal fats such as lard and butter) are best for cooking...
they have very little polyunsaturates and are mostly composed of natural
saturated fats which are the least reactive to heat/light and therefore
the least inflammatory in your body from cooking use.
That's also why natural butter (NOT
margarine) is one of the best fats for cooking. This all goes directly
against what you hear in mainstream health talk... because most health
professionals don't truly understand the biochemistry of fats, and
falsely believe that saturated fats are bad for you... when in fact,
they are actually neutral in most instances... and saturated fats from
tropical oils are actually good for you as they contain mostly medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) which are lacking in most people's diets.
In fact, lauric acid is one of the
abundant MCTs in tropical oils and is known to strengthen the immune
system. Lauric acid is even being studied currently in medical studies
for controlling contagious diseases.
To summarize... your best cooking
or baking fats are generally butter or tropical oils such as palm or
coconut oil. Olive oil (extra virgin preferably) is okay for lower
cooking temps as it's mostly monounsaturated, so moderately stable. I
also like avocado oil and macadamia nut oil for baking as they are
mostly monounsaturated and relatively stable for baking, plus add great
flavor!
The mostly polyunsaturated
oils such as soybean, corn, grapeseed, cottonseed, safflower, etc, are
the least healthy for cooking or baking.
My choices for top healthy cooking oils that I use:
- Virgin Coconut Oil (very stable at med-high temps and healthy fats)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (only for low temp cooking)
- Real Butter (grass fed butter is actually healthy and contains important nutrients like vitamin K2, omega-3's, and CLA. Kerrygold is a popular brand of Irish butter that's grass-fed and readily available in most grocery stores)
Also, please don't be fooled by deceptive marketing claiming that canola oil is healthy for you -- it's NOT!
And remember that you can FIGHT against formation of cancer in your body, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other degenerative health conditions by eating these superfoods, herbs and spices below:
0 comments:
Post a Comment