Do you give much thought to how the cooking oil you use may be affecting your health? Do you think much about what you cook with and how you may be better off with something else? Maybe you already use something you believe is healthy to cook with. Whatever the case may be, it is important that you understand that not all cooking oils are equally healthy for you.
There was a study conducted recently at De Montfort University in the UK that demonstrated just how important it is to ask questions about what you are cooking with. The university tested cooking procedures with sunflower oil, vegetable oil, corn oil and others to see what kind of effects would turn up.
The aim of the study was to demonstrate how toxic certain oils would become when they were cooked at high temperatures.
One of the study’s lead researchers, Professor Martin Grootveld, said that there is a change that takes place with fat and oils once they reach a certain temperature. They create a chemical known as aldehydes, and this can cause cancer and heart disease.
The study showed that the worst offenders were corn oil and sunflower oil. They produced aldehydes at levels that are many, many times higher than what the World Health Organization recommends.
What this means is that something that many people think is healthy for them is becoming something quite harmful, and that’s alarming.
This goes against years of nutritional advice that says that certain oils that are high in polyunsaturates, like sunflower oil and corn oil, are healthier than those that are not. It looks like the nutritional advice is completely backwards in this instance.
That leaves us with the question of what the healthiest oils are to cook with. The study revealed that saturated fats and monounsaturated fats are the healthiest.
This is because they generate lower levels of toxins and the compounds they create are not as harmful to humans. The ones with the fewest aldehydes are cold-pressed rapeseed oil and olive oil. Butter and goose fat are also quite healthy, since they are monounsaturated and sutured fats and they are not nearly as unstable at high temperatures.
Author David Gillespie wrote that a high sugar duet is very dangerous in his book Sweet Poison. He has been warning people about dangerous food for a long time and his newest book targets oils.
He wrote an article for news.com.au recently that backed up the DMU study results. He said that new technology could demonstrate just how dangerous cooking with vegetable oils can be, as they are highly unstable when heated. He also pointed out that a lot of women are suffering from lung cancer even though they don’t smoke.
His theory is that they are inhaling oils that are now considered toxic, like canola oil. These oils release smoke that women absorb as they stand close to the stove while cooking. This could explain why lung cancer rates are so high in non-smoking women.
He continues to outline the threat by saying that there will be a coming disease tsunami, as he calls it. He points out the thousands of teenagers who are standing in front of fry vats for hours a day all over the country at fast food restaurants. They used heated seed oil in industrial quantities, and they use those same oils to cook all sorts of food.
He links the increase in cancer with the rise in use of these kinds of oils as part of our food supply.
It may be difficult to weigh the claims against the counterclaims and try to figure out the truth. After all, there is a lot of theory involved at this point, and we want to lay it out simply for you. The best oils for cooking that have been discovered so far are butter, olive oil and coconut oil.
The evidence shows that it is vital that we avoid oils like canola oil, sunflower oil and corn oil, as they contain polyunsaturates.
Of course, the best thing is to cut back on frying foods as much as possible. This not only cuts down on the polyunsaturates that where are using to cook with, but it helps to cut back on unhealthy foods in general. People should watch out for foods that were baked using these oils as well, such as biscuits, pies, cakes and more.
Processed foods are best to avoid altogether, according to David Gillespie. Many of them use vegetable oils, and the safest route is to just eat natural food. That means food that hasn’t been processed. It also means that you should be cooking the food yourself when possible. That’s advice we think everyone should follow.
