Which are the best and worst oils to cook with for your health? In todays video I give
you the 5 best and 5 worst. Roll the titles.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel. As always just a quick reminder.
Now before we jump into the oils I want to heavily caveat this video with a number of
clear statements.
Oils are predominantly neither good or bad for you and let clarify what I mean here.
So some people say olive oil is good for vitamin E for example. Vitamin E RDA’s vary around
the world from 3-4mg up to around 15mg per day depending on the country.
So one tablespoon of olive oil will give you around 1.9mg of vitamin E so you can’t really
say olive oil is good for you as it doesnt really contain a lot of nutrition and you
would need to eat a reasonable amount of it and then you are offsetting the benefits with
some potential risk factors that we will get into.
Equally because most people who eat a healthy diet will maybe use olive oil to cook with
sparingly, then in the grand scheme of things it is unlikely to cause a longer term problems.
As with anything that is health related its all about context and there is a tipping point
for everything.
When talking about oils there are lots of variables that you need to consider when assessing
whether it could cause potential issues. So the types of predominant fats contained in
the oil. So are there more saturated fats or are there more monounsaturated or polyunsaturated
fats?
We also need to consider The manufacturing processes used and The smoking pointy of the
oil and so on.
So you have to understand the landscape of oils before you you can label any oil potentially
problematic.
You have also got to look at your own health status when assessing whether maybe you should
be eating oils in your diet. So do you have diabetes or do you have advanced heart disease.
So it's not a clear cut decision for many.
And the final statement that I will make before we jump into the oils is that I I don’t
use oils for cooking. Its not because I heard on the internet that oils are bad its just
because I just don’t like the flavour of adding oils to my foods.
You have to make your own call based on your own circumstances and also the facts rather
than fear mongering.
I have made a few videos talking about the potential harms of oils in the body and gut
but these harms are obviously caused in many situations when a person is consuming too
much of these oils and this could therefore apply to many foods in this context if you
are eating too many of them.
The main oils I would I would try and avoid eating at higher levels based on growing concerns
within the literature are soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil, rapeseed
oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, safflower oil and rice bran oil.
The rule I also try and follow in life is that I try and eat as close to whole foods
as II possibly can. And every now and again if I stray into slightly more processed refined
sugars, fats or proteins then im not going to sweat about it. In the grand scheme of
things there are much bigger worries out there in the health landscape. And on that note
lets quickly look at the oils.
So I will start this list of 10 oils with the top 5 oils that I would suggest you probably
shouldn’t use if you are cooking foods at higher temperatures and I will get into temperatures
shortly.
Now these 5 oils to consider avoiding cooking with are flax oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil,
peanut oil and grapeseed oil.
So smoke is obviously created with an oil reaches its smoke point and this is the point
at which the fat in the oil is breaking down and degrading.
The point at which an oil hits it smoke point is the point at which much more free fatty
acids and harmful free radicals are formed through the process which is know as oxidation.
This is essentially different chemical reactions that involve oxygen that degrade the quality
of the oil and lead to rancidity.
The easiest way for you to remember it is that when an oil hits it smoke point more
rancidity and more chemicals and toxins are produced that can find their way into your
bloodstream and cause a number of potential problems.
So flax oil comes from the flax plant and it contains 50-60% omega 3 fatty acids on
the form of ALA. Soo this soil doesn’t contain a lot of saturation which is good.
This oil when unrefined has a low smoke point of 107 degrees Celsius or 225 degrees Fahrenheit
so for many cooking situations its not ideal. So this maybe an oil you would wish to consider
adding to something like a salad or salad dressing.
The next oil to consider is sunflower oil. Various studies around the world have shown
these types of oils to contain anywhere between 0.56 and 4% trans fats which have been shown
to be highly toxic in the body.
Unrefined sunflower oil also has a smoke point of 160 degrees Celsius which is around 320
degrees Fahrenheit so just think more rancidity and more compounds that you don’t want getting
into your body in higher amounts.
Next on the list is sesame oil. While sesame oil contains around 82% unsaturated fatty
acids it is particularly rich in omega 6’s which can be inflammatory in the body when
consumed in higher amounts.
This oil has a smoke point of 177 degrees Celsius and 350 degrees Fahrenheit. So given
the omega 6 ratios and the low smoke point its really not a great choice for cooking.
Peanut oil is next on the list. This oil has a breakdown of around 20% saturated fat, 50%
monounsaturated fat and 30% polyunsaturated fat.
Unrefined peanut oil has a smoking point of 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
Again this oil tends to be higher in the omega 6 fats that can trigger inflammation in the
body when eaten in higher amounts.
The final oil I would recommend avoiding cooking with is grapeseed oil. It has a ratio of around
10% saturated fats, 16% monounsaturated fats and around 70% polyunsaturated fats.
Again this oil tends to be top heavy in the omega 6 fats and when you combine this with
the fact that it has a low smoke point of 216 degrees Celsius or 421 degrees Fahrenheit
then again its not a good choice for cooking with.
So now we have got avoidance list out of the way lets consider the 5 oils that maybe a
better choice for cooking with. Again, just to caveat I am not saying these oils are healthy.
The oils that I would put in this list would be avocado oil, coconut oil, corn oil, soybean
oil and olive oil.
So if we start with avocado oil it is around 70% monounsaturated, 16% saturated and 14%
polyunsaturated fat.
Avocado oil has a smoke point of around 270 degrees Celsius or 520 degrees Fahrenheit
so it tends to be better for many types of cooking such as frying or sauteing.
Virgin olive oil that has not been refined or blended with other oils also has a reasonable
smoke point of around 210 degrees Celsius which while is slightly lower than some of
the oils on the avoid list, trials have shown that olive oil doesn’t break down into as
harmful compounds like some of the other oils as the smoke point is not everything you need
to consider.
Olive oils contains a blend of 14% saturated fats, 73% monounsaturated fats and 11% polyunsaturated
fats.
The next oil I would consider more suitable for cooking with would be coconut oil. Coconut
oil can have a smoking point of around 232 degrees Celsius or 450 degrees Fahrenheit
due to its high levels of saturated fats.
While you obviously don’t want to consume a lot of saturated fats in the diet due to
their known health risks, a tbsp of coconut oil contains around 13.6 grams of saturated
fats which it's less than half of the 30gram recommendations given to men. The recommendations
for women are 25-25grams.
So you can see the use of coconut oil can be used in the context of a healthy balanced
diet.
Next up on the list is corn oil. Corn oil is composed of up to 60% linoleum acid which
is a polyunsaturated omega 6 fat.
Corn oil depending on the processes used to produce it can have a smoke point of between
230 to 238 degrees Celsius or between 446 to 460 degrees Fahrenheit.
Soybean oil is the final oil that is a better choice when cooking cooking foods. It has
a smoke point of around 234 degrees Celsius or 453 degrees Fahrenheit.
In terms of its composition soybean oil is around 61% polyunsaturated fat, 24% monounsaturated
fats, and around 15% saturates fats,
So in summary there is no such thing as a good and bad oil. There are many variables
that you need to consider such as its smoke point, the amount you are consuming, the amount
of saturated fats and omega 6 fats contained, your health status and so on.
Form many following a healthy whole foods diet then consuming small amounts of certain
oils would still fall in line with health recommendations around the world. So look
at totality of your diet and not just oils are bad just because the internet says so.
So that’s the end of todays video. If you enjoyed this then be sure to check out this
one here.