Every meal I make starts with one choice: extra virgin olive oil or canola oil? These have been workhorses in my kitchen since I started cooking because they’re versatile, affordable, and above all, healthy. At least, that’s what I thought.
Lately, every trip to the grocery store has me questioning my beliefs. Next to bottles of basic oils like canola, vegetable, and corn oil, I see a selection of relatively unusual (and expensive) options: grapeseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, walnut oil, some of which have technical terms like “high oleic,” “cold-pressed,” or “expeller-pressed” on the label. “Hexane-free” coconut oil and “Naturally sophisticated” Avocado oil — if only you could understand what those labels mean. Choosing just olive oil is like planning a trip to Europe: Greek, Italian, Spanish, etc. Or how about a Mediterranean blend?
The confusion doesn’t end at the checkout counter. Concerns over the smoke points of various oils have led toWhat you need to know about cooking oils and cancer” There is Countless guide select Best oils for certain cooking stylesdiscusses the difference between deep frying and shallow frying, and the pros and cons of processed oils. And worries about “seed oils,” which include popular choices like canola, soybean and corn oil, have recently gone mainstream. Last year, national salad chain Sweetgreen announced that Stop using oils completelyThe reason cited was customers’ concerns about their health.
Health concerns seem to abound for just about every oil on the market. So what exactly should we cook with? “It’s really overwhelming,” Penny Chris-Etherton, professor emeritus of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, told me. Obsessing about the nutritional benefits of cooking oils isn’t going to dramatically improve your diet. In fact, at some point, it’s going to distract you from eating healthier.
You can’t cook without oil or other types of fat. At least, goodOil is its primary heat transmitter: Without it, you wouldn’t get that perfectly seared steak, caramelized onions, or crispy potatoes. Oil also adds flavor: extra-virgin olive oil adds richness to a Caprese salad, while a drizzle of sesame oil transforms braised vegetables into a flavorful side dish.
However, when you consume certain oils and other types of fats, can Harmful Health benefits: You’re probably using a lot of the oils in your kitchen, so it’s worth putting some thought into choosing healthier oils.
There’s one important difference: Saturated fats tend to be solid at room temperature and include things like butter and lard. Increased risk of death They can protect you from a variety of causes, including heart disease and cancer. Unsaturated fatty acids are generally liquid at room temperature and come from plants, so they are considered much healthier. Lowers cholesterol and Reduces the risk of heart disease“What we really want to do is replace saturated fats in our diet with unsaturated fats,” Chris Etherton said.
This approach has had a major impact on the oil aisle. Unhealthy solid fats like lard and beef tallow are now almost nonexistent, and most artificial trans fats are now made from nonexistent fats. prohibited 2015“Over the past 20 years, we’ve made great strides in the fat content of American foods,” Walter Willett, a professor of nutrition at Harvard University, told me. “All of the liquid vegetable oils that remain are essentially good for your health.”
Don’t worry, olive oil is always a good idea, but so are most other oils. Most plant-based oils contain what are called monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are really good for you. (You may have heard of omega-3s, the golden child of PUFAs.)
Yes, seed oils too. Fear of these oils is fuelled by another PUFA, omega-6, which has a complex relationship with inflammation. Because seed oils contain omega-6, critics argue that using them in cooking could lead to many diseases caused by inflammation, and that they compete with omega-3, reducing the benefits of the latter. The reality is more nuanced: omega-6 is associated with some degree of inflammation, but when consumed, Reduced risk of heart disease and cancerWillett said they do compete with omega-3s, but not by much, and it’s counterproductive to think of them as opposing fatty acids. “You need both,” he said.
When seed oils are unfairly maligned, too much attention is given to the health properties of other oils. Polyphenols, compounds known to be good antioxidants and anti-inflammatory molecules, are abundant in olive oil, especially those that have been minimally processed. Labels that explain how the oil is extracted without heating, such as “cold-pressed” or “expressed,” and labels that emphasize its lack of processing, such as “unfiltered” or “unrefined,” are meant to communicate its abundance of healthy bioactive molecules. These aspects are worth considering, but they do not make or break an oil’s healthiness. Any oil with unsaturated fatty acids is fine, “as long as it’s used appropriately,” Anna Beilin, a professor of nutrition at the University of Michigan, told me.
If there’s one concern worth paying attention to, it’s how to use oil wisely. Oil breaks down into harmful by-products when it exceeds its smoke point (the temperature at which the oil begins to smoke). Overheating butter, which has the lowest smoke point of all cooking fats and oils, can fill your kitchen with smoke and introduce potentially harmful compounds into your food. Frying chicken in extra virgin olive oil, which has a moderately high smoke point (but still low compared to other neutral oils), may be a less dangerous, albeit expensive, option. Willett says that overheated oil is not usually a problem for home cooks, but it can be an issue with commercial deep-fryers, including those sold by fast-food chains. Common household problems include reusing old oil and storing it in Costco-sized containers for long periods of time, which also produce harmful by-products (and bad odors).
Oil is a basic ingredient, but it can be tricky to work with. But it’s easy to get lost in the details of cooking oils. All of these little arguments may be about optimizing nutrition, but they distract from the goal: health. When it comes to choosing the right oil for your chocolate cake, Chris Etherton says, “it doesn’t matter.” Using the right oil for frying may avoid the formation of carcinogenic compounds, but it doesn’t eliminate the health effects of eating fried foods. Conversely, even “bad” oils can be used in a healthy way. Even saturated fats can be reasonable in the right circumstances. “Fat makes food taste better,” says Willett. If a slice of butter invites you to eat a variety of vegetables and whole grains, the benefits may outweigh the costs. (Butter is the basis of French cuisine, but France is not without butter.) Lower death rates from heart disease than other G20 countriesThe simplest explanation, Beilin says, is that the French eat relatively small amounts.
Cooking oils aren’t the only food that’s been disproportionately engulfed in nutritional debate. Small aspects of the healthiness of nearly every food, like sweeteners, caffeine, and protein, are constantly surfacing and being debated, fueled by a never-ending cycle of nutritional research and media coverage, and further fueled by wellness influencers. Sometimes these debates lead to meaningful insights. But more often than not, they just lead to confusion. There’s probably no point in cooking with only extra virgin olive oil that’s cold-pressed, unfiltered, and imported directly from a pristine Greek island, unless every other aspect of your diet is optimized to be as nutritious as possible. But it’ll probably taste amazing if you do.