Know your Edible Oil and select wisely

Edible Oil is among the most abundant cooking ingredients in the world. Depending on oil type, they are used in baking and frying food and for non-cooking products such as salad dressing, margarine spread, and dips. In addition, edible oils are used to produce non-food products such as cosmetics and feedstock for making biodiesel fuel.

They are extracted from seeds (like soybean, canola, sesame, sunflower, and corn); from nuts (like walnut and macadamia); and from fruits (like palm, coconut and olive). In current times refined oil is the most widely consumed oil. Do you know if it is good or bad for your health (which is your most precious asset, if you consider it that way)? In order to know if your oil is good or bad, you should be aware of its constituents, i.e. saturated fats, trans fats, monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. So, if these constituents are within prescribed norms, you can be assured to be having the right oil.

Eating foods that contain saturated fats raises the level of cholesterol in your blood. High levels of LDL cholesterol in your blood increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. Replacing bad fats (saturated and trans fats) with healthier fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) is good for your heart. One way you can do this is by choosing healthier non-tropical vegetable oils for cooking and preparing food. Use these oils instead of solid fats (including butter, shortening, lard and hard stick margarine) and tropical oils (including palm and coconut oil), which can have a lot of saturated fat.

You would be astonished to know one of the adulterants which are mainly used in refined oil is palm oil (contains 50% saturated fatty acids, mainly palmitic acid). We are consuming it every day and night without being aware of it. Oils that are easily available at a cheap rate such as palm oil, cottonseed oil, etc. are mixed with other oils for increasing the production by very low investment, leading to higher profit for the manufacturers and loss of your health.

What are saturated fats?

From a chemical standpoint, saturated fats are simply fat molecules that have no double bonds between carbon molecules because they are saturated with hydrogen molecules. Saturated fats are typically solid at room temperature. Coconut oil is 92%, palm kernel oil 82% and palm oil 50% saturated fat.

What are trans fats?

There are two broad types of trans fats found in foods: naturally-occurring and artificial trans fats. Naturally-occurring trans fats are produced in the gut of some animals and foods made from these animals (e.g., milk and meat products) may contain small quantities of these fats. Artificial trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid.

The primary dietary source for trans fats in processed food is “partially hydrogenated oils."

Trans fats are easy to use, inexpensive to produce and last a long time. Trans fats give foods a desirable taste and texture. Many restaurants and fast-food outlets use trans fats to deep-fry foods because oils with trans fats can be used many times in commercial fryers.

Trans fats raise your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels and lower your good (HDL) cholesterol levels. Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke. It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

You can determine the amount of trans fats in a particular packaged food by looking at the nutrition panel at the back of pack. However, products can be listed as “0 grams of trans fats” if they contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Trans fat is also written as “partially hydrogenated oils.”

What are polyunsaturated fats?

From a chemical standpoint, polyunsaturated fats are simply fat molecules that have more than one unsaturated carbon bond in the molecule, this is also called a double bond. Oils that contain polyunsaturated fats are typically liquid at room temperature but start to turn solid when chilled. Olive oil is an example of a type of oil that contains polyunsaturated fats.

What are monounsaturated fats?

From a chemical standpoint, monounsaturated fats are simply fat molecules that have one unsaturated carbon bond in the molecule, this is also called a double bond. Oils that contain monounsaturated fats are typically liquid at room temperature but start to turn solid when chilled. Olive oil is an example of a type of oil that contains monounsaturated fats.

Polyunsaturated and Monounsaturated fats can help reduce bad cholesterol levels in your blood which can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. They also provide nutrients to help develop and maintain your body’s cells. Oils rich in monounsaturated fats also contribute vitamin E to the diet

Foods high in polyunsaturated fat include a number of plant-based oils, including:

●        soybean oil

●        corn oil

●        sunflower oil

Foods high in monounsaturated fats include plant-based liquid oils such as:

●        olive oil,

●        canola oil,

●        peanut oil,

●        safflower oil and

●        sesame oil. 

In general, choose oils with less than 4 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, and no partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats.

The American Heart Association recommends aiming for a dietary pattern that achieves 5% to 6% of calories from saturated fat. For example, if you need about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 120 of them should come from saturated fat. That’s about 13 grams of saturated fat per day.

Here are some ways to achieve that:

●  Eat a dietary pattern that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish and nuts. Also limit red meat and sugary foods and beverages.

●  Use naturally occurring, unhydrogenated vegetable oils such as canola, safflower, sunflower or olive oil most often.

● Look for processed foods made with unhydrogenated oil rather than partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated vegetable oils or saturated fat.

●   Use soft margarine as a substitute for butter, and choose soft margarines (liquid or tub varieties) over harder stick forms. Look for “0 g trans fat” on the Nutrition Facts  label and no hydrogenated oils in the ingredients list.

●  Doughnuts, cookies, crackers, muffins, pies and cakes are examples of foods that may contain trans fat. Limit how frequently you eat them.

●  Limit commercially fried foods and baked goods made with shortening or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Not only are these foods very high in fat, but that fat is also likely to be trans fat.

Treat fats as below

Love It: Unsaturated (Poly & Mono)

●   Lowers rates of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality

●   Lowers bad cholesterol & triglyceride level

●   Provides essential fats your body needs but can’t produce itself

Limit It: Saturated

●   Increases risk of cardiovascular disease

●   Raises bad cholesterol levels

Lose It: Artificial Trans Fat, Hydrogenated Oils & Tropical Oils

●   Increases risk of heart disease

●   Raises bad cholesterol levels

Following is the amount of all types of fats in various oils/ ghee presently available in market

per 100gm of oil

S.No.	Brand of Oil	Polyunsaturated fats (gm)	Monounsaturated fats (gm)	Saturated fats (gm)	Trans fats (gm)
1	Patanjali Mustard Oil	17.2	76.27	5.54	0
2	Fortune Kachi Ghani Mustard Oil	16	36	12	<1
3	Fortune Sunflower Oil	49	14	17	2
4	Swaad Sunflower Oil	61	25	12	<2
5	Gemini Sunflower Oil	62	26	12	<1
6	Safola Gold Oil	41	39	20	<2
7	Fortune Rice Bran Oil	22	38	31	2
8	Gemini Rice Bran Oil	34	42	24	<2
9	Govind Pure Ghee	2.9	32.6	64.4	<0.01
10	Ruchi Palmolein Oil			48	<0.5

So, you may use the knowledge imparted in this post and club it with your knowledge and wisdom and choose the best oil for your family because maintaining good health is the lowest premium for health insurance.

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