Best Healthy Cooking Oils for your Health
What happens when consumers go to the grocery store to look for cooking oil is they are overwhelmed by the variety, choices, grades, quality, and conflicting information.
The flavors of oils are all different with unique burning temperatures and range from corn oil, sunflower, canola, sesame oil, almond oil, grape seed oil, walnut oil, and lastly melted butter. Basically, there are different types of cooking oils for different uses and it is dependent on what you cook to choose the right kind of oil.
For some types of food that you may be cooking, you will need a high temperature of burning oil. and others may be fine for lower-temperature cooking.
There are Two Types of Oils- Cooking Oils and Oils Consumed without Cooking
Oils Consumed without Cooking
Butter
Butter is used as a spread or can be melted to cook with and is the most favorite North American cooking oil while margarine, on the other hand, is not for cooking but more of a spread in place of butter.
Margarine
We call it fake butter because it is not a healthy substitute due to the high levels of cholesterol which is linked to heart diseases. Margarine is made from old rancid vegetable oil and is heavily laced with additives.
Olive Oil
Olive Oil can be used on salads as a dressing or in cooking various vegetables, baking and with selected meats from veal cutlets to meatballs.
Olive Oil is by far the most popular cooking oil on the planet, thanks to the Italian culture most of North Americans now use Pure Virgin Olive Oils made from the first pressing of olives.
Healthy Cooking OilsHealthy Cooking Oils
This first pressing of Virgin olive oil gives the oil a deep green color that shows the quality and rich flavor of the olive oil fresh from the olive trees. A second pressing of the olives would render a less green color and a more yellowish color. Now, some oil producers mix canola oil with olive which cheapens the prices but also the flavor.
The original pure-grade Virgin Olive Oils come from Italian name-brand companies and you can find these in specialty food stores and some high-end grocery stores. Oil made from olives contains approximately 75 percent oleic acid which is the monounsaturated fat, 13 percent saturated fat, and only smaller amounts of polyunsaturated fats.
Oil Use:
Olive oil is used both right out of the bottle in salads, appetizers with a side of fresh bread, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, or used for frying fish, veggies, lean meats, and chicken. In the Mediterranean diet, olive oil is used generously and faithfully at most every meal in reasonable amounts.
Healthy Types of Cooking Oils
Coconut oil is the highest value of healthy cooking oil one can consume on earth, however, it is not used in frying or cooking foods as much in North America but quickly gaining in popularity.
Healthy Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is a stable oil that does not harm or attack your arteries, and in some countries is considered and used for medicinal purposes. Coconut oil is actually an anti-viral used in injections such for HIV, pneumonia, colds, flu, and food poisoning and fights yeast and bacteria in the body.
Coconut oil is low and fast, is quickly broken down in the body by the liver, and gives one quick energy.
There are many other health benefits of coconut oil such as: protection against infection and keeping blood platelets from sticking to each other which also lowers the chance of hardening of the arteries. But the best part of eating coconut oil is that it actually reduces the bad cholesterol while raising the levels of good cholesterol and helps prevent aging. All the good health benefits of coconut oil are used in cooking.
Keeping Oils Stored
The best way to store oil for long periods of time is in a cool, dry place preferably with the lid tightly shut on the top of the bottle. Normally a bottle of oil will last a few months, or up to one year for olive oil. Coconut oil can be kept in the fridge for long periods of time since it is sold more in a solid form than a liquid.
