Food for thought
From polyphenol content to pressing process, choosing your cooking oil can prove harder than settling on your next box set
For an ingredient that’s essential to nigh on every meal you whip up on the hob, cooking oil can be more confusing than an Ottolenghi recipe. It’s not there simply to grease up your frying pan; as well as delivering fat, which you need for energy, oil offers essential fatty acids and can help with the absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K. That said, you only need it in tiny amounts, and the type you choose matters.
All of the well-known oils contain different fats, such as saturated and unsaturated, but are classed as the type they have most of. Unsaturated fatty acids can be further classified into monounsaturated (MUFA) or polyunsaturated (PUFA). Peanut oil contains 20% saturated fat, 50%
MUFA and 30% PUFA, so it’s classed a MUFA. But both MUFA and PUFA are effective cholesterol reducers and have other health benefits when used to replace saturated fats.
Olive oil has the biggest health halo. As well as containing a good amount of MUFA, there’s mounting evidence that olive oil, consumed as part of a Mediterranean diet, is associated with reduced cholesterol levels and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in people at high cardiovascular risk.
The polyphenolic compounds in olive oil may also help to fight free radicals – molecules that damage the cells in the body, in a way that leads to disease. Virgin olive oil (VOO) and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) – produced by mechanically pressing the olives as opposed to exposing them to chemical or heat
SAUTEING: IL treatment – contain higher levels of polyphenols compared with common or refined olive oil, as they’re preserved during the extraction and technological processing. This is why the polyphenols in VOO and EVOO have many health benefits, such as reducing your risk of diabetes and lowering blood pressure.
But olive oil’s health credentials diminish when it reaches a certain temp, thanks to its low smoke point. This is when
