HEALTHY COOKING OILS

Oil Overview

• The best cooking oil has a high smoke point, does not break down when heated, contains healthy ingredients, lacks unhealthy ingredients and has an appropriate flavor.
• All oils are fats (NOT all fats are oils).
• All fat has 9-calories per gram. This is true of all oils, too.
• There are three basic categories of fat (based on their fatty acid content) -- Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated and Saturated.

Health Factors

• In general, healthy oils tend to break down into unhealthy chemicals when heated.
• Unless heated, the healthiest fat is Monounsaturated fat. It raises the good HDL cholesterol ratio.
• When heated, Monounsaturated fat tends to break down and become unhealthy.
• The unhealthiest fat is Saturated fat. It is associated with the bad, artery-clogging LDL cholesterol, but it is also the most stable when heated.
• Trans fatty acids are twice as unhealthy as saturated fats.
• Trans fatty acids are in hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils. Avoid them.
• Linolenic (Omega-3) and Linoleic (Omega-6) are essential fatty acids. They are healthy (especially Omega-3), but they break down and become unhealthy when heated.
• Western countries typically consume too much Omega-6 and not enough Omega-3. They must be balanced.

Shelf Life

• Oils have a relatively short shelf life and become rancid rather quickly. Rancid fats have been associated with atherosclerosis, heart disease and cancer.
• Shelf life for cooking oils is about 3-months to 1-year. Exposure to oxygen, heat and light diminish an oil's shelf life.
• Refined oils stay fresh longer and can be heated to higher temperatures, but they contain more impurities than unrefined oils.
• Saturated fat has the longest shelf life, but it is the most unhealthy fat.
• Polyunsaturated fat readily combines with oxygen in the air to become rancid.
• Dark cooking oils have shorter shelf lives than light-colored or clear oils.
• Anti-oxidants extend an oil's shelf life.

Internal Links

• Avocado Oil
• Canola Oil

External Links

• Healthy Cooking Oils
• All About Oils
• What Oil Should You be Cooking With, and Which Should You Avoid?
• Demystifying oil
• Oils and Fats Introduction
• Healing with Food, Natural Cooking, Vegetable Oil Guide
• The Food Storage Faq - Fats and Oils
• What You Should Know About Triglycerides and Fatty Acids
• USDA Nutrient Database

Yahoo! News

• Hearts&Minds Ships Heart Healthy, Omega-3 Peanut Butter (Centre Daily Times)
  05/07/2008 08:45 AM
  Hearts&Minds LLC, a new food company dedicated to making the foods that you love to eat better for you and with great taste, today announced that it has introduced a new product: Hearts&Minds Peanut Butter with Olive Oil and Omega-3 (EPA/DHA). This natural peanut butter is the first peanut butter made with the consumers' heart in mind, and is the first to use olive oil and omega-3(EPA/DHA).
  

• Hearts&Minds Ships Heart Healthy, Omega-3 Peanut Butter (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
  05/07/2008 08:20 AM
  CHICAGO----Hearts&Minds LLC, a new food company dedicated to making the foods that you love to eat better for you and with great taste, today announced that it has introduced a new product: Hearts&Minds Peanut Butter with Olive Oil and Omega-3 .
  

• Diet High In Saturated Fat Contributes To Prostate Cancer Treatment Failure, Study Suggests (Science Daily)
  05/09/2008 02:30 PM
  Men who consumed high saturated fat diets (HSF) were younger and had higher BMIs at diagnosis than men with who consumed low saturated fat diets (LSF). Saturated fats were most commonly consumed as beef steaks, cheese and cheese spreads, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, eggs, ice cream and salad dressings.
  

• Sunflower oil from Ukraine (Food Standards Agency)
  05/09/2008 11:26 AM
  The Food Standards Agency has today written to organisations representing suppliers and importers of cooking oils, to alert them to the presence in the UK of sunflower oil containing significant levels of mineral oil. The sunflower oil originated in Ukraine.
  

• Investigation into Adulterated Sunflower Oil (ERT.gr)
  05/09/2008 08:24 AM
  A preliminary investigation into the circumstances under which a batch of sunflower oil blended with mineral oil was imported in Greece has been ordered by Athens First Instance Prosecutor Panagiotis Poulios.
  

• Sunflower oil contaminated (Kathimerini)
  05/09/2008 04:13 AM
  Companies began recalling bottles of sunflower oil yesterday after it was discovered that a batch imported into Greece had been contaminated with potentially harmful mineral oil.
  

• Sunflower oil brightens up couple's kitchen (Chicago Sun-Times)
  05/07/2008 05:13 AM
  Face it -- food, wine, beer, even corner store chocolate bars taste better when you're on vacation. So after honeymooning in Spain last fall, we had hoped to recapture some of those paella-, lomo-, and tortilla de patata-fueled days (and nights) in our own kitchen.
  

• Adulterated Sunflower Oil Withdrawn (ERT.gr)
  05/08/2008 10:03 AM
  The authorities have launched sweeping checks in the market to locate dangerous adulterated sunflower oil with mineral oil imported from the Ukraine through Switzerland. It has not been ruled out that some quantities of the dangerous sunflower oil to be still on supermarket shelves.
  

Archive

• Food manufacturers have until Jan. 1, 2006, to list trans fat on the nutrition label.
  "On July 9, 2003, FDA issued a regulation requiring manufacturers to list trans fatty acids, or trans fat, on the Nutrition Facts panel of foods and some dietary supplements. With this rule, consumers have more information to make healthier food choices that could lower their consumption of trans fat as part of a heart-healthy diet. Scientific reports have confirmed the relationship between trans fat and an increased risk of coronary heart disease."
  http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/transfat/
  http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html