Which Oils should you cook with? (I don't agree with Rachael Ray)

Rachael Ray uses EVOO for every cooking need.  She even has her own label of EVOO. You should NOT COOK with EVOO but still keep in your diet. 

 Despite using more olive oil in our diets, Americans continued to suffer from heart disease, obesity and additionally many different types of cancer.  The most frequently asked question I get is about cooking oils.  Which ones are the best for your health?  Which ones are the best for cooking?  Here’s a lesson about cooking oils so you can choose the right oil for the right purpose and improve your health.

Mainstream media portrays olive oil as the healthiest oil as can be seen by the abundance Rachael Ray’s uses it in all her recipes, 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 making it easily damaged when heated.  An 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 only in a non-heated form.

Overview:

• The best cooking oil has a high smoke point, does not break down when heated, contains healthy ingredients, lacks unhealthy ingredients and has an appropriate flavor.
• All oils are fats (NOT all fats are oils).
• All fat has 255 calories per tablespoon. This is true of all oils, too.
• There are three basic categories of fat (based on their fatty acid content) -- Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated and Saturated.

Health Factors

• In general, healthy oils tend to break down into unhealthy chemicals when heated.
• Unless heated, the healthiest fat is Monounsaturated fat. It raises the good HDL cholesterol ratio.
• When heated, Monounsaturated fat tends to break down and become unhealthy.
• The unhealthiest fat is Saturated fat. It is associated with the bad, artery-clogging LDL cholesterol, but it is also the most stable when heated.
• Trans fatty acids are twice as unhealthy as saturated fats.
• Trans fatty acids are in hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils. Avoid them.
• Linolenic (Omega-3) and Linoleic (Omega-6) are essential fatty acids. They are healthy (especially Omega-3), but they break down and become unhealthy when heated.
• Western countries typically consume too much Omega-6 (chicken, avocados, eggs, nuts, cereals, most vegetable oils) and not enough Omega-3 (flax seed oil, salmon, cod liver oil, caviar, and walnuts, broccoli, spinach). They must be balanced.

Here’s a handy chart to help remove the mystery of oils available for cooking:

Type	Smoke Point	Fat Type	Healthy	Cooking	Stays Fresh
Avocado - refined	520° F	Monounsaturated (70%)	+++	++	++
Canola - refined	400° F	Monounsaturated (59%) and Polyunsaturated (30%) plus 9% omega-3 and 20% omega-6 fatty acids (healthy, but not for cooking)	+++	-
Coconut	375° F	Saturated (86%)	---	+	+++
Corn - unrefined	320° F	Polyunsaturated (55%) and Monounsaturated (28%) with 54% omega-6 (not healthy for cooking)	+	---	---
Corn - refined	400° F	Polyunsaturated (55%) and Monounsaturated (28%) with 54% omega-6 (not healthy for cooking)		--	---
Flaxseed	225° F	Polyunsaturated (66%) and Monounsaturated (20%) with 53% omega-3 (very healthy, but not for cooking)	+++	---	---
Grapeseed	400° F	Polyunsaturated (70%) with 70% omega-6; good source of vitamins (E and others) and antioxidants	+	+
Olive - unrefined	350° F	Monounsaturated (74%) with 72% omega-9; extremely healthy	+++	+	+++
Palm - unrefined	350° F	Saturated (49%) and Monounsaturated (37%)	---	+	+++
Palm Kernel	375° F	Saturated (82%)	---
Peanut - unrefined	320° F	Monounsaturated (46%) and Polyunsaturated (32%) with 32% omega-6	++
Peanut - refined	450° F	Monounsaturated (46%) and Polyunsaturated (32%) with 32% omega-6	+	+
Rice Bran	490° F	Monounsaturated (39%) and Polyunsaturated (35%); good source of vitamins (E and others) and antioxidants	++	++
Safflower - unrefined	320° F	Polyunsaturated (75%) with 75% omega-6 (not healthy for cooking)	-	---	---
Safflower - refined	450° F	Polyunsaturated (75%) with 75% omega-6 (not healthy for cooking)	-	--	---
Sesame - unrefined	320° F	Polyunsaturated (42%) and Monounsaturated (40%) with 41% omega-6; sesamol antioxidant permits heat up to 320°F	+		++
Sesame - refined	400° F	Polyunsaturated (42%) and Monounsaturated (40%)	+	+	++
Sunflower - refined	450° F	Monounsaturated (45%) and Polyunsaturated (40%) with 40% omega-6 (not healthy for cooking)	-		---
Sunflower - high-oleic, unrefined	320° F	Monounsaturated (84%)
Sunflower - high-oleic, refined	450° F	Monounsaturated (84%)	-	+
Vegetable (soybean) - refined	450° F	Polyunsaturated (45%) with 40% omega-6 (not healthy for cooking)	-	-
Walnut - unrefined	305° F	Polyunsaturated (63%) with 53% omega-6 and 10% omega-3 fatty acids (not healthy for cooking)	-	---	--
Walnut - refined	400° F	Polyunsaturated (63%) with 53% omega-6 and 10% omega-3 fatty acids (not healthy for cooking)	--	--	--

 Table credit: tosasoft.com/cookingoils/

What are refined oils?

Refined Oils are created from clean oilseed / oil cakes using solvent extraction to produce clear oil. Use for baking, sautéing, stir-fry, oven cooking; searing, browning, and deep-frying. These oils are used as medium cooking oils (225°F - 350°F), high cooking oils (350°F - 450°F), and deep-frying oils (greater than 450°F).If the oil you buy is bland and pale, you can be certain that it has been fully refined, bleached, and deodorized which are not really good things to do to your oil for the sake of your health.

What are unrefined oils?

Unrefined cooking oils: These oils are typically called salad oils and are used for salad dressings, marinades, and sauces or light cooking oils (light sautes and low heat baking). As a general rule, they should not be cooked at high temperatures. Use for light sautéing, low-heat baking, pressure cooking, sauces and salads. However, safflower oil is the one unrefined oil that can become hot enough to reach the temperature necessary for deep-frying. Unrefined oil contains a full range of bioactive components that not only have healthful benefits and provide full-bodied flavor. Unrefined oils are processed by cold-pressed and expeller-pressed methods. Unrefined oils carry with them the true bouquet of olives, corn, sesame seeds, peanuts, soybeans, safflower, or whatever plant was the oil's original home. Best for medium heat temperature range: 212°F – 320°F.

Best Cooking Oil:

Coconut oil is the choice for cooking because it is nearly a completely saturated fat, which means it is much less susceptible to damage when it is heated.  Don't be scared away by the negative view of 'saturated fat' portrayed by the media. Many studies have shown that a low-fat diet is not the answer for preventing heart disease, and some scientists are calling for new dietary guidelines that reflect this discovery. To really understand the benefits of saturated fat, I suggest you read Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon's article "The Truth About Saturated Fat" to first dispel any lingering notions you may have that all saturated fats are dangerous.

Most commercial coconut oils are refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) and contain chemicals used in processing.  The recommended brand in the United States is Fresh Shores. This virgin coconut oil is not only certified organic, but it also has no GMO ingredients, bleaching, deodorizing, refining or hydrogenation. Fresh Shores also uses fresh coconuts (not "copra" or dried coconuts like most oils) that come from a rural region of the Philippines untainted by urban pollution.

Worst Cooking Oils:

Polyunsaturated oils, which include vegetable oils like corn, soy, safflower and canola, are the worst oils to cook with because of the trans-fatty acids introduced during the hydrogenation process, which results in increased dangers of chronic diseases such as breast cancer and heart disease.  This includes margarine due to the fact that it is hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Click here to see my favorite Rachel Ray salad recipe using EVOO.