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Healthy Fats - Essential Fatty Acids & Oils
Everyone is so busy eliminating fats from their diet that they
are lacking in the needed 'good' fats, the essential fatty acids.
Clarification needs to be put out there so that you are not avoiding
all fats but just the bad ones. Education on how to use oils is
becoming more of a mainstream thing so we are no longer blindly
ingesting toxic over cooked oils. Some oils can be heated hotter
and longer than others but essentially you are changing the fats
and making them carcinogenic so it is best to use oil as a stir
fry done fast. Some oils should not even be heated at all as it
kills all of their nutritious properties. Even nuts are meant to
be eaten raw since roasting them turns the fat into a different
form making it harder to get rid off and in some cases carcinogenic.
Nut oils (coconut, walnut, peanut, pistachio, almond, hazelnut,
brazil nut, cashew, pecan, macadamia and brazil).
Nut oils can go rancid easily and quickly so you want to make
sure to keep them tightly capped and refrigerated. They are best
eaten uncooked and should not used for heating.
Of course I suggest eating the whole nuts themselves vs using the
oils because the oil is released in to the system slowly when the
raw nut is eaten. Some nuts should be eaten more sparingly but almonds
and hazelnuts are ideal for more frequent use.
Olive Oils (virgin, expeller pressed, extra virgin, lite)
You can find so many olive oils that are flavored and great to add
atop food, or used for fast fry like stir fry but as the nuts Vs
oil, I suggest eating the olives themselves more so than depending
on the oils, using the oils sparingly. There is such a variety of
olives available to us and I am not referring to the marinade the
can come in. You can find an olive for each different taste preference
but most olive lovers like them all.
Vegetable oils (corn, vegetable)
These seem to be commonly used for frying and are cheap to buy but
have little to no nutritional value especially cooked. Many oils
from vegetables are used for non edible purposes. I would tend to
avoid this type of oil and would not really need to have it in my
home.
Seed oils (sunflower, flax, sesame, pumpkin, grape seed, borage,
and rape seed known as canola oil)
These are very healthy ideal oils for supplementation when on super
low fat diets or when looking for a healthy oil to add to your foods
for fat needs Vs eating other fats. These are light oils except
for the pumpkin and borage. Borage would be one I don't use but
is highest in Omega 6. I tend to lean toward these seed oils to
richen my diet finding mixed oil blends such as Udos Oil and adding
them to my protein shakes or atop my cooked food, added on my plate
- NOT COOKED and must be kept in fridge.
Specialty Oils (truffle, fish)
Truffle oil is actually a truffle soaked in oil then used to make
the truffle oil which is also known as an aphrodisiac. Truffle oil
is probably the most expensive oil as is the truffle itself and
is part of mushroom family. This oil is used sparingly simple because
of it's worth. Fish oils tend to be used for those who wish to supplement the diet
or do not eat fish. Cod, cod liver and salmon oils are very popular.
I personally prefer the vegetarian oils, ideally the seed choices.
By
Linda Cusmano
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