How to choose a healthy oil for cooking?
An understanding of fats and oils in our daily life is important to maintain a good general health. Just as choosing the right kind of carbohydrates and proteins to eat, we need to keep a big check on the medium of fats we use for cooking.
From the nutrition aspect, fats may be segregated as healthy and unhealthy fats. We have monounsaturated fats (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) which are the healthy fats and which we should use more of daily. Of these two, we should consume more of MUFA.
Of the unhealthy fats, which are of two kinds, trans fats and saturated fatty acids (SFA), trans are the worst kind and that which should be totally avoided. We may totally avoid or restrict saturated fats as we choose.
The ratio of SFA, MUFA and PUFA should ideally be 1:1.5:1. No oil is fully saturated or unsaturated. All oils contain a certain amount of all fatty acids. Thus olive oil though predominantly MUFA, will have small amounts of SFA. And sunflower though more of PUFA, will contain MUFA also. This is why we need to use different oils – at least 2 kinds – in our cooking. And as the ratio suggests, use more of oils with MUFA.
Oils high in MUFA are olive, canola, peanut, mustard, rice bran. Perhaps our equivalent to olive oil is peanut oil. Rice bran oil is something new but possibly one of the best oils to use. MUFAs are known to improve blood cholesterol levels, reduce risk of heart attacks, and possibly improve glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes. They are also found to improve brain function in people with Alzheimer’s. MUFA is also found in seeds, nuts, avocadoes, flaxseeds.
Oils high in PUFA are safflower, soyabean, sunflower, corn and sesame. These should be used in combination with oils high in MUFA to get the healthy ratio right.
SFA is found in animal fats, butter, ghee, vanaspati, cheese, milk, curds, coconut oil and palm oil. Coconut oil contains saturated fats different and less unhealthy than animal fats. But since coconut oil is over 90% saturated, limit its use to a minimum, in combination with MUFA and PUFA. Ghee and butter should be used very sparingly. Keeping away from sweets or snacks made in these will help reduce SFA intake.
Now, a word about oil found in fish. Fish is the best animal food to consume. Although chicken, fish and meat contain almost the same amounts of cholesterol, the predominantly omega 3 fatty acids in fish makes it a very healthy non- vegetarian food to have.
Trans fatty acids are found in partially hydrogenated fats – usually found in commercial snacks, foods. Even foods labelled free from trans fats may contain small amounts of TFA. The medical community advices that no trans fats be
consumed, and that even small amounts eaten regularly will risk cardiovascular illness.
Parvathy R Krishnan
The author is a trained Nutrition & Dietetics expert with over 20 years’ of experience in hospitals like Vijaya Hospital in Chennai and the Armed Forces Hospital and New Mowasat Hospitals in Kuwait. She is presently a member of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India. Parvathy blogs at http://premadiet.blogspot.in/
More by this author:
How to reduce cholesterol in the Indian diet
Dieting tips for those at work
Image: Thinkstock
Tags: healthy cooking oil, Monounsaturated fat, Parvathy Radhakrishnan, Polyunsaturated fatty acid, Saturated fat, Sify Health, Trans fat
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My father and grant parents lived up to 90 years healthy without cholestrol, BP and heart diseases. They used to consume coconut oil and ghee but nothing wrong happened. People in different territories have different engines inside. A petrol car will not run on diesel and vice versa.
Manu, firstly, Virgin coconut oil or freshly milled coconut oil which is possibly what your parents and grandparents in Kerala used is healthy. But hydrogenated packet coconut oil is unhealthy.
Secondly the lifestyle of that era of people were very different from ours today. They were physically very active, had lesser stress probably because they knew how to handle stress through spirituality, did not eat red meat, ate more fish or were vegetarians. All snacks were made at home and fresh.
My grandparents too lived past 90 years. My granddad too used only coconut oil (virgin), but he was a pure vegetarian (being a namboothiri), meditated twice daily, had his teaspoon of ghee daily, walked about 6 kilometres even when he was past 80 years, published his biography at 90 years and lived a full life till 96 years old. But his sons and daughters do not share the same lifestyle and are much less healthier.
Hi Parvathy,
Quite impressed by your Dietary advises.
Would like to discuss with you a project on Diabetes management
Regards
is there any ratio of usage both MUFA & PUFA for better healthear life
Dr. Devi Shetty, the famous cardiologist of Narayana Hrudayalaya says that all oils are bad to the heart. Therefore, he suggests to avoid oils consumption. Body gets the required fats from other sources like nuts, milk, milk products etc. His recommendation is to stick to high fibre foods especially fresh vegetables, preferably raw.
It is a misconception that without oil, there will not be any taste in the food prepared. We used to make Gopi munchurian using water to fry the vegetables, we found that this is also tasty. Certain vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, beans, carrot etc can be simply boiled in cooker without adding anything and eaten fresh.
100 Baato Ki Ek Baat EAT Less Drink Lots & Do Daily Walk for 1 Hour Not slow walk & if u are not able to walk
do straching excesise for 1 hour.
And EAT
FRUITS
DAL
RICE
BEANS
NUTS
& for NON VEG
FISH & CHICKEN & EGGS white Portion
& Play the Games which u LIKE MOST never think u are too much old for that.
there is no mentioning about gingely oil which is widely used in rural tamil nadu is it good or not. is it really good or bad.
The article ignores the types of PUFA – Omega 3 and Omega 6. These two PUFAs need to be consumed in proportion of 1:5. As some of the PUFA rich oils like Sunflower oil and karadi oil contain far too much of omega 6 in proportion to omega 3, these oils are not recommended any more.
a well written article and highly educative thanks for the effort i wanted to read an article something like this
MAM CAN I MIX BOTH OIL TOGETHER AND HAVE COOKING mufa with pufa. pl suggest