With the increase in cases of heart diseases, people have becoming more cautious when it comes to choosing their cooking oils. That is not to say that the process of picking a healthy cooking oil for the family is crystal clear. It is common for them to be weighed down by doubt whether the oil that they have chosen is truly the right one.
Traditionally, cooking oils have been obtained from fruits and seeds of plants. With better technology, oil is now being extracted from seeds like soybean and sunflower, adding to the choices available. However, with more choice comes more confusion and uncertainty: what could make for the ideal cooking oil?
Fat content is one of the primary causes of worry when it comes to any mention of cooking oil. As far as healthy cooking is concerned, oils that have the least amount of fat in them seem to be the best ones. They could be of great help in preventing various major diseases and medical conditions including heart ailments, diabetes and cancers.
Another big problem with cooking oils is the temperature at which they start “smoking” – referred to as smoke point. At such a temperature, the components of the oil start to break down and results in the generation and release of several toxins. Higher the smoke point of a cooking oil, the better and more suitable it is for high temperature cooking. This becomes particularly important when cooking involves deep frying—a lot of the commonly available cooking oils are unhealthy and unsuitable for deep frying due to their relatively low smoke points.
Nutrients essential for maintaining the overall health of the body must be absorbed well in order to benefit a human body. There are certain oils that are known to boost the absorption of such nutrients, and also the antioxidants. As a result they prove to be highly effective in preventing (and may be, even fighting) cancers. The generation of toxins while cooking at high temperatures also harms the liver. Use of healthy cooking oil not only aids the absorption of antioxidants and nutrients, but are also known to protect the liver from damage.