Olive oil unhealthy when heated!

kelle wrote: »

For the past 10 years I have only used organic extra virgin olive oil for frying and roasting.

extra virgin is never meant to be used for cooking, I expect if you read your bottles it already has it written on them. I have heard other olive oils are OK for cooking, you can get mild/light ones in supermarkets, these are light in taste, not calories. But I have read sat fats are probably better.

kelle wrote: »

I wouldn't be happy to use saturated fats whatsoever,

Well coconut oil is very high in sat fat, I fry all the time with it, I enjoy the light coconut taste, though I am usually cooking chinese food or pancakes which it goes with. I also fry in lard & butter, I prefer the coconut oil as it is meant to be quite healthy so actually use more fat than normal.

kelle wrote: »

I never even thought to read the label - I thought I was doing so much good for my family and I!



I wouldn't be as queasy about using this, I will try it. Thinking about frying in animal fat turns my stomach!

thinking about frying in olive oil turns my stomach - denatured oil swimming around your body!!

This one seems to have been gaining a following in recent months, my mother said it came up at her nutritionists last week as well.. quoting:

''When extra virgin olive oil is heated above 350 °F (177 °C), the unrefined particles within the oil get burned. This leads to deteriorated taste and possible toxicity due to the creation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons''

I'm using cocunut oil (and no, it doesnt taste cocunutty- not if you heat it sufficiently before putting in the food- also it makes a great mosturiser!) and sesame oil.. the latter needs steam applied too if you're stir frying, or else things tend to burn

The evidence against heating olive oil is definitely mounting and a lot of it makes sense, so i'm only using it for salad dressings these days.

kelle wrote: »

That post is discriminatory towards denatured oil (that's a new one by me!).

At least it won't clog your arteries!:pac:

And it looks the same in the pan afterwards - no horrible white layer forming when cooled - bleurgh!

what a massive misconception so this might help -

“Although it is commonly believed that saturated fats and dietary cholesterol "clog arteries" and cause heart disease, such ideas have been shown to be false by such scientists as Linus Pauling, Russell Smith, George Mann, John Yudkin, Abram Hoffer, Mary Enig, Uffe Ravnskov and other prominent researchers. Dr Stephen Byrnes www.powerhealth.net

“On the contrary, studies have shown* that arterial plaque is primarily composed of unsaturated fats, particularly polyunsaturated ones(e.g. olive oil), and not the saturated fat of animals, palm or coconut.” Dr Mary Enig
* Felton CV et al. Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Composition of
Human Aortic Plaques. Lancet. 344:1195. 1994.

Its in more detail in my article on this - Fats that heal - http://thetransformationcatalyst.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/fats-that-heal-fats-that-kill/

its a starting point in getting your basics right with regards to fats and their benefits.

This is actually very old news, any oil when heated is not good and olive especially should be used cold. I attended a talk many years ago given by Udo Urasmus of Udo's oils if anyone is familiar with it and he was very interesting on the whole topic. He had a book called I think, Fats that heal Fats that kill or something like that. It was very interesting and I have always used clarified butter to fry with since then, mind you he disagrees with frying in the first place

kelle wrote: »

I'll use up what I have left of my current bottle (it did cost a bomb!) and I'll definitely buy coconut oil next time.

If it cost a bomb, the last thing you should be doing is cooking with it, irregardless of health issues. That's like putting sirloin beef into a stew. Extra virgin olive oil is more expensive as it has the least defects; this is what gives it a stronger olive taste. Once it has been exposed to any serious heat it loses the flavour that you paid for. You're as well off cooking with a €3 bottle of olive oil out of Lidl. In the states, extra virgin olive oil is labelled "fancy" - keep your fancy stuff for dressings and dips, cook with the plain stuff under low heat, and if you're frying, use something else entirely.

I just ate the equivalent of 3 heaped tbs of ghee with my breakfast... wonder how that'll turn out..

I'm pretty sure there is an industry standard for virgin coconut oil, however there is no differance between extra virgin and virgin coconut oil! Coconut oil is also one of the most stable oils when heated and doesn't go rancid.


I love love love coconut oil, I originally started to use it last summer as I developed an allergic eczema on my feet, nothing would clear it except the coconut oil, i also use it to cook with and I eat it by the spoon sometimes as it's great for boosting your metabolism, everyone needs this stuff, It use it on my skin, in my hair and it also cleared up my babies nappy rash, it's amazing! You'll get it in any health shop or probably in Asian food shops, shop around though because prices can vary a good bit. I sound like i'm selling the stuff

brianthebard wrote: »

The stuff I buy in the asian shop isn't deorderised, it still smells and tastes of coconut. That link says there's no industry standard, so I'm going with marketing ploy by health food outlets.

agreed and not as big a difference between say the bog standard olive oil and extra virgin olive oil.

I would just go for the cheaper option