Now You're Cooking with Oil

When it comes to cooking with oil, there are a few misperceptions that can really make a difference if we are trying to make the smartest choices for ourselves and our families.

First- we want to avoid trans fats. I'll tell you more about those evil doers in a future post, but generally that type of fat is found in solids like hard margarine and vegetable shortening. Saturated fats come from animal sources and tropical oils (like palm and coconut oil) and are also undesirables. You want to get 20 grams or less of these heart-unfriendly fats. No matter what form of fat you choose, the calorie content (9 calories per gram) is the same.

The other three types of fat are omega-9's (the mono-unsaturated fats), and the polyunsaturated omega-6's, and omega-3's. Of these, the omega-6's, which are heavily represented in sunflower oil, corn oil, and soybean oil, have the greatest potential to be troublemakers. It is not that they are all bad, but we eat much more of them than we need, and they can overwhelm our bodies' capability to put the heart-healthy omega-3's to work. In the quantities typical of our Western diets, they tend to promote inflammation, while the omega-3's have the opposite effect. Omega-3's are found in flaxseed oil, walnut oil, and fish oil.

The omega-9's are found in olive oil, canola oil, and safflower oil. These types of fats are associated with lower risks for heart attacks, and improvement in our cholesterol numbers.

Last week I received a fascinating packet of information from the American Diabetes Association and canoloinfo.org that I thought was worth sharing with you.


What I found so interesting in the information packet I received was a table comparing a variety of fats. Not surprisingly, canola oil is very high in omega-9's (just like olive oil), and extremely low in saturated fat (even less so than olive oil). What really caught my attention was the revelation that lard actually has substantially less saturated fat (and far more omega-9) than the currently-trendy palm and coconut oils. As someone who does not eat meat, I don't recommend you start cooking with lard, but I do think it is worth thinking twice before accepting the notion that coconut oil and palm oil are smarter alternatives to animal fats. Companies who produce these products have a vested interest in convincing you that their oils are a new type of "health food," but the truth is their saturated fats have similarly negative effects on our heart health as animal fats. What's more, the production of these oils is associated with decimation of the rainforests where the palm and coconut plants grow.


You can get more information at www.canolainfo.org