Healthiest oil to use?

[Ce'nedra]

Smithy: Thanks for the education It made me think more thoroughly about my oil use (just found out I'm using olive oil at home...even in stir fries!....?).

I'm kinda tossing up between canola oil and grapeseed oil. Apparently (I just read this) grapeseed oil assimilates flavours really well but it's also relatively expensive because there is not as much oil to extract from the seeds.

How is the flavour for canola oil? I hear it's also a pretty good in that it has a very clean, no-taste. The benefit here is that not only is it one of the healthiest oils, it's of a more reasonable (cheap) price than grapeseed. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Still...can't decide between the two...I hear alot of good stuff with grapeseed...

Sony: Thanks for that -you got me reading on monounsaturated fats. I had no idea about it! Avocado oil is supposed to have the highest level of monosaturated fats. Canola oil has about 57-60% which is considered good too. I wonder what's the percentage for the avocado, just for the sake of comparing hmm...

About the transfats, avocado oil is supposed to have a very low level (some brands boast none) of it.

Now I'm reading alot of positive things to do with avocado oil too aiyayayay! Now I can't decide between canoila, grapeseed and avocado! Btw, is the avocado oil a 'new' oil? I haven't heard about it much.

andiesenji: Thanks so much for your insight Your story about the virgin organic coconut oil is really fascintatin -it must be doing something right if your health has lifted so much!

However, Smithy above said that it contains 92% saturated fats, which is not considered a very healthy fat, so it makes me wonder...is the coconut oil you using any different from the usual kinds?

[Ce'nedra]

Ok maybe due to its popularity, canola oil has also stirred up some sort of controversy. Some link it to the Mad Cow Disease (though most professionals claim this is BS and I too think it is) but more recent news is that the omega-3s found in canola oil are transformed into trans fats during the something called the 'deodorisation process' (what's that?).

And then there's something else about canola oil causing vitamin E deficiency.............

I've got no idea what is true and what's not but it does make me question the oil a bit now...

[andiesenji]

Avocado oil is not new, I started buying it in the early '90s. Lancaster has a fairly large health food market that is always sampling new products and promoting them with excellent sales.

The Whole Wheatery introduced me to avocado oil, grapeseed oil and tea oil.

[Ce'nedra]

Oh and another thing, I read that with grapeseed oil, much less of it is needed for cooking, such as frying and so on, compared to other oils. Reason for this? No idea

Maybe someone can provide me with an answer

[Ce'nedra]

Avocado oil is not new, I started buying it in the early '90s.  Lancaster has a fairly large health food market that is always sampling new products and promoting them with excellent sales.

The Whole Wheatery introduced me to avocado oil, grapeseed oil and tea oil.

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Oh silly me. I'm just living under a rock probably

Is it fairly popular/widespread these days?

And about grapeseed oil again, I hear that while it has a clean, relatively no-taste, it's still slightly nutty, which is often likened to peanut oil, which in turn is often used in Asian cooking...THEREFORE, grapeseed oil sounds like a good substitute for Asian cooking (which in my home, we do mostly of). Hmm makes me wonder yet again...

[andiesenji]

There's nothing wrong with peanut oil, but I have been using it less and less because I have a couple of friends, who visit often, and who have severe peanut allergies. In fact, the deep fryer in which I used peanut oil has been retired to the storage shed because I simply wasn't sure I could get ever last vestige of peanut oil out of it.

I bought another which has never been exposed to peanut oil.

While some of the oils are extremely expensive, for me it's better to spend it on something that will not harm one of my friends.

Edited October 6, 2007 by andiesenji (log)

[SundaySous]

How do you filter your deep frying oils in between use? I just use coffee filters but I wonder if there is a trick or tip I'm not aware of.

[weinoo]

How do you filter your deep frying  oils in between use? I just use coffee filters but I wonder if there is a trick or tip I'm not aware of.

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I like to use a really fine mesh strainer or a paper coffee filter.

I'd never use oil I've fried fish in for any other purpose.

An old trick from a Chinese cook book states that the next time you heat up used oil, put a half a scallion and a 1" piece of ginger in there while the oil is coming up to temperature. That will absorb any odors present in the oil from previous frying.

Also, once oil has been used 3, maybe 4 times, time to throw it out, I believe.

[Jean Parquette]

I've been using coconut oil for a lot of frying -- i like the taste, though it isn't strong, and I've heard of the health benefits and believe in them. I use butter, lard, and save the scraps of beef fat from other cuts to fry potatoes with. When I need an oil i use olive oil or organic peanut oil. Grapeseed, I think, is fine, too.

The whole "unhealthy" saturated fats myth is a tragedy of an ill informed media parroting factoids told them by so-called health groups -- such as the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, and nutritionists and doctors who get their information from these groups who have an axe to grind and money to be made from the fallacy. There's a little book called The Queen of Fats, by Allport, that explains the history and reasons we get such an unbalanced diet from vegetable oils chock full of Omega 6's, and have been scared away from the Omega-3s in saturated fats. Butter, lard, tallow, suet, all are good fats if they come from properly raised animals. Since we've been afraid to eat them, we've developed many illnesses that didn't use to bother us -- obesity, hyptertension, alzheimers, bone loss, ADD and, perhaps most ubiquitous, diabetes. The list goes on.

I never use canola oil, as it is hybridized from the rape seed from which motor oil is made and which is extremely toxic. In addition, it, as well as corn, soybean and cottonseed oils have paved the center of the US with chemically fertilized and pesticided fields that are poisoning soil that could grow healthy foods, and getting into the water and poisoning the gulf of Mexico. Most of these fields are owned by industrial farmers and the farmers are getting fat on subsidies from the American Farm Bill. So. I never use those oils, either.

Sorry to go off on a tirade, here, but the subject is dear to my heart. In more ways than one.

[andiesenji]

I've been using coconut oil for a lot of frying -- i like the taste, though it isn't strong, and I've heard of the health benefits and believe in them. I use butter, lard, and save the scraps of beef fat from other cuts to fry potatoes with. When I need an oil i use olive oil or organic peanut oil. Grapeseed, I think, is fine, too.

The whole "unhealthy" saturated fats myth is a tragedy of an ill informed media parroting factoids told them by so-called health groups -- such as the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, and nutritionists and doctors who get their information from these groups who have an axe to grind and money to be made from the fallacy. There's a little book called The Queen of Fats, by Allport, that explains the history and reasons we get such an unbalanced diet from vegetable oils chock full of Omega 6's, and have been scared away from the Omega-3s in saturated fats. Butter, lard, tallow, suet, all are good fats if they come from properly raised animals. Since we've been afraid to eat them, we've developed many illnesses that didn't use to bother us -- obesity, hyptertension, alzheimers, bone loss, ADD and, perhaps most ubiquitous, diabetes. The list goes on.

I never use canola oil, as it is hybridized from the rape seed from which motor oil is made and which is extremely toxic. In addition, it, as well as corn, soybean and cottonseed oils have paved the center of the US with chemically fertilized and pesticided fields that are poisoning soil that could grow healthy foods, and getting into the water and poisoning the gulf of Mexico. Most of these fields are owned by industrial farmers and the farmers are getting fat on subsidies from the American Farm Bill. So. I never use those oils, either.

Sorry to go off on a tirade, here, but the subject is dear to my heart. In more ways than one.

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I agree. Much of the "Bad Fats" propaganda began way back in the 40s when it became difficult to import coconut oil because of the Japanese occupation of many of the producing islands.

Substitute oils were produced in the US, corn and soybean, and peanut and as the domestic producers got more of a hammerlock on the market, they supported "research" that "proved" that other fats were unhealthy.

I never stopped using butter - I never believed that artificially produced imitation butter could possibly be more healthy than a natural product. Part of this was because many people in my family had lived to great ages while eating all these "bad" foods and still there is a very low incidence of heart disease in my family.

There are several current studies that are gathering information about the effects of diet change on the health of Pacific Island and Asian people who have emigrated to the US.one study is here

One researcher has postulated that in Samoans, one significant diet change is the use of fats other than coconut and palm oil, which are still used by subject's family members still living in American Samoa and who have a far lower incidence of heart disease but still consume other "high cholesterol" foods.

(Spam, for instance.)

I began thinking about the way cooking oils are produced when I attended one of the "Health Expos" several years ago. I didn't really make any significant changes in my use of oils at the time but gradually developed the idea that I wanted to use oils that had less done to them to make them available.

Thus I began to switch over to the "cold-pressed" oils which seem to be the most "natural" or less altered from how they naturally occur.

And then, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I began to notice or became more sensitive to, the odors of some oils when exposed to excessive heat.

I can burn butter but it doesn't develop the acrid, irritating fumes that are produced by some oils.

I think there will certainly be many more detailed studies in the future and we are fortunate in that we are living at a time when this forum and the internet, allow us to get information without it being filtered by merchandising giants who are willing to manipulate the message to get a greater market share.

It still comes down to what each of us believes and how much effort we are willing to exert to educate ourselves. This forum is an extremely important resource and the more people who are exposed to it and are able to contribute information, the better.

[ruthcooks]

The saturated fat in coconut oil has different characteristics than that of animal fat. Futhermore, it is the fat most like that found in mothers' milk.

Be sure to get the cold pressed virgin oil, or you don't benefit from it. Even so, there are different tastes among the good ones. My present coconut oil, made by Nature's Way, tastes too coconutty for my taste but I am stuck with it--too expensive to throw away. Will change brands next time I buy.

[Jean Parquette]

And then, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I began to notice or became more sensitive to, the odors of some oils when exposed to excessive heat.

Yes, yes, yes! And as someone mentioned, Canola has a fishy odor. I just think it smells unhealthy, can't remember what it smelled like because I haven't used it in so long... but I do remember making popcorn with canola was a disgusting operation. Making popcorn with coconut oil, now there's a pleasure.

Also nice to keep a little duck and goose grease around for special uses.

With all these wonderful fats, why would anyone want to use manmade, vile-tasting, so-called vegetable oils.

People say, well if you don't use them and don't use CRISCO, what do you use? Well, I answer, what people used before they were invented !

[Ce'nedra]

I never use canola oil, as it is hybridized from the rape seed from which motor oil is made and which is extremely toxic. In addition, it, as well as corn, soybean and cottonseed oils have paved the center of the US with chemically fertilized and pesticided fields that are poisoning soil that could grow healthy foods, and getting into the water and poisoning the gulf of Mexico. Most of these fields are owned by industrial farmers and the farmers are getting fat on subsidies from the American Farm Bill. So. I never use those oils, either.

Sorry to go off on a tirade, here, but the subject is dear to my heart. In more ways than one.

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Really? Please elaborate.

Oh no...so now I should reconsider using canola oil too?

Ok I'm really confused now...so far, the best oil seems to be grapeseed oil...there hasn't been any negative press about it yet either...

[Hiroyuki]

How do you filter your deep frying  oils in between use? I just use coffee filters but I wonder if there is a trick or tip I'm not aware of.

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I like to use a really fine mesh strainer or a paper coffee filter.

I'd never use oil I've fried fish in for any other purpose.

An old trick from a Chinese cook book states that the next time you heat up used oil, put a half a scallion and a 1" piece of ginger in there while the oil is coming up to temperature. That will absorb any odors present in the oil from previous frying.

Also, once oil has been used 3, maybe 4 times, time to throw it out, I believe.

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The Japanese use a special type of filter called abura koshi gami (lit. oil-filtering paper), like this:

(Photo previously posted in my foodblog)

I try not to throw out used oil by using it for stir-frying and other purposes.

[ermintrude]

If you want a "healthy" animal fat go for goose or duck, they are olive oil of animal fats and taste good as well. http://www.goosefat.co.uk/gfis_04.html