Toss veggies with it, sauté or stir fry in it, bake with it, eat it by the spoonful or rub it on your baby. Good quality, cool-pressed oils are great for you. Including nut and seeds oils into your daily diet will do you a world of good.
People are so fat phobic that it drives me nuts. Eating good-quality, cool-pressed oils won’t make you fat – unless you completely overdo it. It’s more likely to be junk foods, fried foods, too much white flour and too much sugar – combined with too little energy – that pack the pounds on. Eating good fats is actually necessary for optimal health.
Make sure you are also getting essential fats or EFAs. These are oils that our body cannot manufacture from other foods that we eat – and are essential to health. We need them to grow and to have healthy blood, arteries and nerves. EFAs keep skin and other tissues youthful and healthy, and improve damaged immune systems. You would do well to eat one tablespoon of cool-pressed seed oil a day.
There are so many oils. How do we choose which ones for what purpose? Well, there are a few rules that you should follow about high-heat frying and baking, but other than that, it’s good to experiment a bit and see what you like. If oil has a low smoke point, you don’t want to sauté or pan fry with it, because it will become unhealthy. Don’t buy too many oils at one time, but do have a nice selection from which you can choose.
In my kitchen, there is always extra-virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, toasted sesame oil and hemp oil (in the fridge) – and then there are others I like to throw into the mix for a change. For a treat, I like coconut fat for baking and walnut oil for salads
Always buy cool-pressed oils.
Bad quality, cheap oils are not cold pressed. Good quality organic oils are cold or cool pressed to ensure the oil retains the maximum nutrients and is more stable and able to survive light and oxygen for longer. (They aren’t really ‘cold’ pressed because some heat is generated in the milling process.)
Here are some general guidelines for oil use:
- For Baking: coconut, macadamia, palm, safflower and sunflower.
- For Dipping, Dressings and Marinades: flax, grape-seed, extra-virgin olive, sesame, toasted sesame or walnut.
- For Frying: avocado, coconut, macadamia, peanut and rapeseed.
- For Sautéing: avocado, coconut, grape seed, extra-virgin olive, rapeseed, safflower, sunflower and sesame.
I only use organic oils. The only ‘problem’ with organic, cool-pressed oils though, is that they all have so much flavour! I bake with sunflower oil and sometimes coconut fat because I find the other oils are too strong. I don’t want to taste rape seed in my sweet quick breads. Just choose carefully and you’ll be okay.
This oil is over 50% mono-unsaturated, which means it’s a great choice for your heart. Good in salads (as is the avocado), it is also good for sautéing fish, chicken or vegetables or pan frying because of its high smoke point. Drizzle it over a mozzarella and tomato salad served with fresh, wholemeal bread, or use it in summer gazpacho.
Because coconut oil is a saturated vegetable fat – and is hard at room temperature – it can withstand high heat and is therefore excellent oil for cooking. Unlike saturated fats from animal fat, coconut fat does not seem to accumulate in the arteries and around the heart because it is a medium chain fatty acid and is handled differently by the body. Some people now say that virgin coconut oil is the healthiest fat in the world.
Try coconut oil to make popcorn, for frying, sautéing and sometimes baking. Use it in recipes that call for shortening by using ½ butter and ½ coconut fat.
Also known as linseed, flax seed oil is rich in omega 3 and omega 6 essential fats, and is an important addition to your daily diet. Flax seed oil also contains lignans, which are useful with hormone-related problems and to help fight bacterial and fungal infections. It also can give relief from joint pain and reduce swelling.
Flax oil should not be heated, but instead used cold in salads, with potatoes or mashed potatoes and with bland cheeses. Mix a teaspoon a day into your baby’s or kids’ food, and take a tablespoon a day for yourself.
This oil provides a huge range of health benefits. Grape seed oil is said to be more potent than Vitamin E as an antioxidant and more effective than Vitamin C in destroying free radicals. Other studies show that grape seed oil helps protect the body from sun damage, can improve vision, improve joint, artery and body tissue flexibility, improve blood circulation and reduce allergic and asthmatic symptoms.
Use it on salads and with raw vegetables, in dips and salsas. Try mixing grape seed oil with chopped garlic and basil and then spooning it onto toasted bread. It’s also good for sautéing.
Hemp seed oil is the perfect mix of essential fats – and is 80% EFA. It is the most balanced oil and richest source of essential oils you can eat. Hemp contains all of the essential amino acids and essential fatty necessary for human health.
Best eaten unheated, hemp oil should not be cooked with, but is excellent used salads, dips, tossed with steamed veggies or mixed with pasta or rice salads. When your baby weans – whether at 4 or 6 months, mix a teaspoon a day into one meal to enhance health and development.
What’s great about macadamia nut oil is that it maintains the optimum level of cholesterol in the body and reduces the risk of heart diseases. Rich in oleic acid, it has anti-inflammatory properties which help fight chronic diseases. It is also rich in calcium, vitamin B complex and minerals such as phosphorus and iron.
In addition to its health benefits, macadamia oil has a higher smoking point than olive oil and is therefore better for higher-heat cooking. It is great for baking, and can be used as a substitute for butter.
You really should only use extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is extracted from the first pressing of the olives, while virgin olive oil is made from mixing and refining much lower grade oil. The virtues of extra virgin olive oil are its molecular stability at high temperature due to its high monounsaturated fat content in the form of oleic acid (between 60 and 80%).
Research has also linked oleic acid to a reduction in the growth of many types of cancer cells. Up to 20% of extra virgin olive oil is also made up of essential omega-6 fatty acids. Added to this, the polyphenol antioxidants and vitamin E present in extra virgin olive oil make it a very healthy fat indeed.
You get what you pay for, so extra virgin oil is more expensive – but worth it for its flavour and nutritional value. Cook with olive oil at low temperatures and pour generously on salads, caprese salad, hummus and vegetables, mopping up extra oil with fresh, wholemeal bread.
One of the main benefits of pumpkin seed oil is that it improves men’s health and lowers the risk of bladder problems and prostrate cancer. It also has strong anti-inflammatory qualities, reducing arthritis pain and muscle cramps, improves bone health and has calming properties, making it useful in relieving stress and insomnia.
Pumpkin seeds oil has a strong nutty flavour. It is best used unheated and is great added to smoothies. Try it on savoury dishes like steamed asparagus or grilled seafood or on desserts, like ice cream with strawberries to add pleasant nuttiness.
Sesame oil is antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory. It is excellent used for skin problems like athlete’s foot. It helps joints stay flexible and skin stay soft and supple.
Sesame oil has a very high antioxidant content and is high in Omega 3 essential fats. It is one of the most distinctive, fragrant and flavourful oils – and is a supreme cooking oil. It is essential for use in oriental dishes. Use a mixture of sesame oils for stir-frying, sauces and dressing.
Sunflower oil is known by many as the oil good for your heart. It has a high vitamin E content and protects against heart and coronary artery diseases. Light in colour and not too strongly-flavoured, it is a good all-round cooking and baking oil. Use it in when baking sweet quick-breads or strongly spiced dishes where it won’t interview with other flavours or mix with other strong oils to dilute their flavour.
Called Canola Oil in the States, rapeseed oil has some controversy around it. It is grown widely and promoted hugely in America – and is a big GM crop. This alone might be enough to put you off. It’s nutritional profile is okay, but not as exciting as other seed and nut oils. Buy organic and you can be sure it is GM free.
It can withstand high temperatures, so is good for frying and sautéing.
Walnut oil is rich in Omega-3 fats, vitamins B1, B2 an B3, niacin and vitamin E. It is known to benefit the heart – particularly to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease.
Beautifully flavoured, expensive and with a shorter shelf-life than most oils, walnut oil is a treat best kept in the fridge. It’s not really a cooking oil, but instead should be used raw. It is wonderful mixed with cooked fish, chicken and pasta – and can be used to add nuttiness to desserts.
Tags: oils
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The first time in months that I clicked on “I’m Feeling Lucky” and finally got a relevant answer. Thankyou!