Cookings Oils to Avoid vs. What to Buy
Starting a new nutrition series, I wanted to dive into the “Ingredients” label marked on just about every food you buy. This week I wanted to start talking about OILS. Which ones to look for, which ones to avoid and why.
The oils you should be TARGETING all have similar traits. These oils typically shine when it comes to heart health, lowering your bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing your good cholesterol (HDL). These oils also usually have a better omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio. You want to have both, but having too much omega-6 can lead to inflammation and higher LDL cholesterol. They also have anti-inflammatory properties in them due to their high levels of antioxidant-rich polyphenols. However, better health benefits come at a cost… literally as these oils cost more to produce and therefore are more expensive to the consumer.
The oils to AVOID also have similar traits amongst themselves. They are all highly processed and highly refined. Chemical solvents are used to help extract the oil from the nut, seed, etc. The processing is done at high temperatures, leaving you with a product that’s unstable and highly susceptible to oxidation which can release unwanted toxins in your food. These oils are very cheap to produce and therefore cheap to the consumer, so you’ll see them in popular, mass-produced items such as chips like Doritos and protein bars like Cliff Bars.
What do expeller-pressed, cold-pressed, and virgin mean? These are typically all interchangeable. When an oil is “expeller-pressed,” it means that rather than using chemicals to extract the oil, an expeller press is used to squeeze the oil out using continuous pressure and friction. Cold-pressed are fully unrefined expeller-pressed oils that are never heated at any point during the refining process, so technically, they can be considered slightly “healthier” for you. Extra virgin or virgin is interchangeable with cold-pressed as they go through the same process.
Oils to Buy:
extra virgin olive
coconut
avocado
red palm
macadamia nut
grapeseed (expeller/cold pressed)
Oils to Avoid:
vegetable
canola
palm
corn
sunflower
grapeseed
safflower
peanut
soybean
