Best Cooking Oils: Best Oil For Cooking Healthy

Friday, August 17, 2012

Best Oil For Cooking Healthy

Anytime you cook a food you run the risk of creating heat-induced damage. Well, suppose there was a type of oil that is stable enough to resist heat-induced damage and so beneficial that it helps you lose weight, promotes heart health and helps to maintain normal cholesterol levels. Would you choose to use this oil?
If you said yes then you will want to get some coconut oil. Naturally, when choosing an oil to cook with you want an oil that will not be damaged by high cooking temperatures. Of all the available oils, in my opinion, coconut oil is the oil of choice for cooking because it is nearly a completely saturated fat, which means it is much less susceptible to damage when it is heated.
Although mainstream media portrays olive oil as the healthiest oil, this title does not extend to cooking. Olive oil is primarily a monounsaturated fat. This means that it has one double bond in its fatty acid structure. Although a monounsaturated fat is inherently more stable than a polyunsaturated fat, the overabundance of oleic acid in olive oil creates an imbalance on the cellular level, which has been associated to an increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease. Olive oil is a smart fat to include in your diet in a non-heated form, however.