Which oil is best to cook with?

With the plethora of tasty choices available on the market today it can be hard to choose the most appropriate oil to buy. What most people don’t know, however, is that the taste of oil is only part of the equation when it comes to choosing the product which best suits your needs.

Not all oils are created equal

There are two issues that you must be aware of when purchasing cooking oil:

1. What is the intended use

1. What is the nutritional content

Intended Use

Something you may not be aware of is that cooking oil has varying degrees of stability to heat. As such, some varieties are superior for high temperature cooking such as in a stir-fry (if you’re asking which oil is good for deep frying then you should be ashamed!). The stability of oil when heated can be gauged by it’s Smoke Point. Basically, the higher the smoke point the more stable the oil is. Of course, if you are using the oil in a way that does not involve heat (such as in a salad dressing) then the smoke point is irrelevant and you can move directly to point #2.

Nutritional Content

The oil you buy at the store is composed primarily of 3 different types of fat called “Fatty Acids” (you can ignore this term if you are unfamiliar with it. Suffice it to say, fats and oils are essentially made up of fatty acids). These fatty acids are differentiated into:

• PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) such as Omega 6 fatty acids

• MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids) such as Omega 3 fatty acids

• Saturated fatty acids such as in lard or animal fats

Everyone (hopefully) is by now aware of the dangers of a diet high in saturated fat… so lets not go there! What you may not know, however, is that recent research indicates the ratio of PUFAs to MUFAs that we consume can have a direct effect on our cardiovascular health . Further, the type of PUFA or MUFA, such as omega 3, also influences our heart. Unfortunately, the average North America diet contains both an unfavorably high PUFA: MUFA ratio and is LOW in it’s omega 3 content. (~20:1).

Overview

In light of the above information, your choice of which oil to buy should be:

• One that has a relatively high smoke point (if you are cooking with it)

• One that has a high proportion of MUFAs

One of the most stable cooking oils is Grapeseed oil, something I have personally been using for years. In addition to it’s high heat stability, Grapeseed oil offers a relatively neutral taste and so the natural flavours of your food won’t be masked when cooking with it. However, the downside of this product is that it is contains a high proportion PUFAs. A better choice may be olive oil. This product offers a relatively high smoke point and an excellent proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids.

Although it would be ideal to have a few varieties on hand for different applications, you can get by reasonably well with just one variety. Lastly, at this time the debate continues as to what a favorable ratio of PUFA to MUFA is; but a good goal is ~8:1

You have just been Nutritioned!

For a while now I have been wondering how to get more "into" nutrition. I mean, I love my field, but I have yet to find a way to fully integrate myself into it such as keeping up to date on trends (ie: nonsense garbage being marketed to the masses), latest research, and interesting facets of the field. So, on my morning jaunt to work this morning I figured, "Sonny, you need to combine your love of computers/tech with your love of good food and healthy living." Voila, time to start a blog... and see where this leads. Welcome to Nutritioned!