Encouraging Health

No doubt about it. Olive oil is one of the healthiest fats around.

But you’ll kill the health benefits if you overheat it. It can become rancid and generate toxic chemicals. One solution: Instead of heating the oil in the pan, just spritz some on your veggies, meats, or taters before cooking them.

Tastes Bad, Too
It’s fairly easy to overheat both olive oil and cold-pressed canola oil, because they have relatively low smoking points (the point at which they begin to burn). You’ll know if you’ve overheated the oil, because it leads to that burned, charcoal flavor. Yuck.

Different Temps, Different Tastes
Semirefined sesame oil, peanut oil, grape-seed oil, and virgin olive oil may be your best choices for cooking, because they contain mainly unsaturated fat and have relatively high smoking points; all of the oils can be heated in excess of 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Extra-virgin olive oil starts to burn at about 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Unrefined canola and sunflower oils are even more delicate, burning at about 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once an oil has been overheated, you end up canceling out the major benefits. But treat the oils right and they’ll treat your body right, too.

What About Corn Oil?
Have you pushed aside the butter dish and switched to the tubs of trans fat-free margarine? Have you kicked lard to the curb and now brown, sauté, and bake with corn or vegetable oil? Many of us are resting easy in the knowledge that as long as we eat mostly the good kinds of fat—meaning unsaturated fats—our hearts are probably in the clear, right?

Not so. Merely switching to unsaturated fats is not the only key to healthful fat consumption. The latest research shows that if you’re not paying attention to the kinds of unsaturated fats you choose, or how much you get of certain kinds of unsaturated fats in comparison to others, you may be leaving the door wide open to health hazards on par with killers like heart disease.

The old facts on fats
Some things haven’t changed. As with other foods, if you are eating too much fat, regardless of kind, and are not expending a similar number of calories, you’re risking weight problems and all of the related health complications.

However, there are many good things fat can do for you. Dietary fat is a necessary part of maintaining energy levels and it provides the body with essential fatty acids that it cannot produce on its own. Dietary fats aid in nutrient absorption, make foods more palatable, and help you feel sated. They also assist the body in the production of substances that are essential for immune function, tissue repair, and prostaglandin production.

Fat is still part of a healthful diet, so it’s important to know what kind of fat you are eating and stick to mostly unsaturated fats.

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