Healthy Cooking Oils: Have You Made The Right Choice?
When you boil pasta, you pour a bit of oil into the water to keep your spaghetti from sticking. When making marinades or salad dressings, oil is often the base of your liquid creation. You coat your pan in oil to simmer veggies before making risotto, or soup, or another tasty dish.
Oil is used all the time and is a critical ingredient in many meals you eat. So why not choose an oil that's good for you versus one that damages your health?
Most people would say "yes!" to this, but the reality is when most people reach into their cabinet, it's Canola oil that's pulled out. For some it's simply habit. Others don't know the concerns that surround that bottle of genetically modified oil.
Whatever your reasons are for using it, this article is full of reasons to reconsider and give more thought to your cooking oil choice!
The simplest reason is because many people don't know what Canola is. And how could you? Olive oil is made from olives. Peanut oil is made from peanuts. There is no natural Canola plant because Canola is a man-made substance that stands for "Canadian oil low acid."
This subsidized product comes from a genetically engineered plant that was bred from the rapeseed plant, which is also used to produce mustard gas and can lead to some serious health concerns down the road.
Many of the stipulated health concerns from using Canola oil have not been tested and/or proven, but here are some facts we do know to be true:
- Rapeseed oil was widely used in animal feed in Europe in the 1980s until animals starting going blind and developing violent behavior, which stopped after the rapeseed oil was removed from their feed.
- Insects will not eat from the rape plant. In fact, it has effectively been used as an insect repellant.
- Rapeseed oil is mainly used industrially as a lubricant, as well as for fuel, soap, synthetic rubber base, candles, etc.
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was paid $50 million to recognize rapeseed as safe.
There are many people out there bashing Canola oil and many people singing its praises. So who's right? It's hard to say given the lack of scientific studies and the near decade it takes to develop the claimed symptoms from it. But ask yourself this: Why consume something that can potentially be harmful when there are several other options that are known to be safe and even good for your body?
Two of the healthiest oils you can buy are olive oil and coconut oil. If you want to ensure the greatest health benefits from these oils, it's best to purchase the purest forms.
Olive oil's purest form is extra virgin first cold pressed. This ensures that the olives have been through the press only once. The oil can be pressed a second and third time to deliver different grades of oil, but first cold press best retains the integrity of the fruit.
The purest form of coconut oil is organic extra virgin. Coconuts contain many nutrients—including lauric acid and medium-chain triglycerides—that boost heart health, brain health, immune health, metabolism, and skin health. Plus, it gives your food a hint of a tropical flavor.
Commercials and popular "hype" can sometimes be deceiving. The only way to stay in control of your health is to know exactly what you're consuming. Get in the practice of reading labels. If you're not sure about the source of a product, do some research or ask a trusted healthcare professional. After all, at the end of the day, the only person who can improve your health is you!