You know what oil to choose when cooking?

You’ve probably seen yourself in the tesitura of choosing which is the best option at home to be able to cook. And if you walk down the oil aisle in the supermarket, you’ll probably find yourself in the difficult task of knowing how to choose from so many options that are available today.

People’s mentality and habits have changed over time, little by little it is done to make the population more aware of food, and the benefits that a good diet, especially those that are based on plants, can bring to the body.

So one of the questions you’re sure to ask yourself when you have to cook is what oil should I use? In this article, we discover what the benefits of each other are so that the next time you’re going to make the purchase know what to choose.

Heat’s relationship to fats

Heat can transform good and health-friendly fats into bad or unfavorable fats, so it is very important to know what are the best cooking oils.

Fats have enjoyed a very bad reputation in recent years, but remain great allies for our health. They give us energy, they help us protect against cold, and form an important constituent of our cells and our brain; fats intervene in the proper functioning of our immune and hormonal system, as well as provide us with essential vitamins, among other things, that make including fats in our daily diet so important.

However, it is important to be very clear that not all fats are equal, there are fats that we call good because they favor our health, and bad fats that are harmful to the proper functioning of our body.

And this is how for decades, different types of fats have been demonized because they are harmful to our body, when that statement is not entirely true, as in the case of saturated fats, those that are solid at room temperature but that are made liquid with heat, mostly from animal origin such as beef, ox meat, also duck meat, lamb meat; also eggs, fish, chicken skin or even some vegetable fats such as coconut oil are categorized.

However, there is also the case of some fats that at the time sold us as healthy, and today it is proven that this is not the case, as in the case of margarine.

Unsaturated fats, for example, are kept in a liquid state permanently at an ambient temperature and can become solid when the temperature is lower, mostly of plant origin, such as avocado oil, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and their corresponding oils. These fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, have traditionally been referred to as healthy fats, but as they are treated and their nature, can become harmful to health.

Fats can be used in their natural state in the form of oilseed fruits (vegetable foods from which oil can be extracted), seeds, nuts, or fats to cook and thus include them in foods.

So, what are the best cooking fats?

You have to know how to choose very well the best fats to cook, because when you start the stoves, the heat can deteriorate fatty acids and lead to each of these oils producing substances that become harmful to the body, specifically cardiovascular health, developing diseases such as arteriosclerosis and heart damage, inflammations and some types of tumors.

To decide which is the best option when cooking, the smoke point has always been taken as a reference base, that is, the temperature at which the oil no longer boils but burns and releases smoke and begins to decompose into glycerol and free fatty acids, releasing free radicals that are highly polluting for our health.

But it should be borne in mind that today there are other very important chemical aspects with regard to oil safety, which, together with the smoky spot, will be the best strategy to choose the most optimal option.

Knowing what the toxic compounds present in these oils when exposed to heat at the time of cooking will help you make the best decision.

These compounds are produced by different mechanisms such as oxidation, hydrolysis, polymerization, which give rise to the appearance of so-called polar compounds, which are nothing more than chemicals with an alteration in their load, producing different very harmful effects.

There are studies where different oils have been compared such as Oliva oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, soybean oil, canola oil, and grape seed oil; and once exposed to different temperatures, as well as comparing the chemical compounds they generate, it is how it was concluded that the best oils we can find on the market today to cook are extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil, while the worst options, despite having a very high smoke point are soybean oil, canola oil or grape seed oil.

If you look at the smoke point only without looking at the nature of the product and end up opting for a non-healthy fat, for example, those rich in omega-6 that cause inflammation, very refined oils and treated by man’s hand, then we will be contributing to the increase of toxins in our body that could trigger the increase of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson or some types of cancer.

Coconut oil

Numerous uses can be given to coconut oil since all its properties began to be discovered and the benefits it brings both nutritional and aesthetic. It is highly beneficial depending on what you look at or the use given to you, your high percentage of saturated fat (86%) contains, much more than butter (51%) or butter (39%), which explains why it is so heat resistant.

It is also proven that coconut oil has a high content of medium-chain triglycerides. It’s excellent for pastry use.

Extra Virgin olive oil

It is rich in monounsaturated fats and phenolic antioxidants. Just as he has earned to be the protagonist in the Mediterranean diet, many studies show that extra virgin olive oil has an enormous capacity to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Why extra virgin olive and coconut?

These are fats that have the greatest oxidative stability, i.e. they produce less of those named chemical compounds that are harmful to health.

Oxidative stability depends on two important factors:

– The level of saturation

– Content of antioxidants

It is also necessary to know that not only is it worth choosing a good oil with excellent characteristics or preventing it from being exposed to excessive heat, but it is also important to bear in mind that factors such as the light to which we submit the oil, both natural and the light generated by fluorescents; air or mixing them with water, for example, when mixed with a food that has a lot of water content and begins to release it at the time of cooking. All these aspects could also trigger the release of toxic substances that will impact our health.

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