IS OIL A HERO OR A VILLAIN?

---

What are Oils?

Oils are not a food group, But however, they contain essential nutrients for our body. Oil can derived from plants, fish or nuts. It is high in Monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats and low in saturated fats.

Why Oils are good

• It is needed for a source of energy

• It contains Omega 3 Fatty acids

• decrease for certain types of cancer

• decrease risk for heart disease

• increase metabolism of the body

---

How many of us read the labels before we buy an oil? is oil are good in our diet?

1. Saturated - it includes fatty meat, lard or full fat dairy. it is in a solid form in a room temperature.

2. polyunsaturated - this are fatty acids that contains healthy essential oils like Omega 3 and omega 6

3. Monounsaturated- It can prevent heart disease. it lowers low density protein (LDL) cholesterol and a possible increase of high density lipoprotein (HDL).

4. Trans fat - It increases cholesterol level. It should be avoided at all cost, it highly increases heart risk

Three types of must have oil

a. Extra Virgin olive oil - versatile and inexpensive
b. Grape seed oil/ soyabean oil
c. Rice bran oil

---

Food tips:

Not all olive oil are created equal, so know their labels and try to understand what it means

• extra virgin olive oil - it has a great taste and a superior kind of olive oil.
• extra Light olive oil - it is a blend of highly refined oil and a lesser quality of olive oil
• 100 % Pure olive oil - it contains cheap olive oil with a blended of regular oil. It doesn't give much flavor to a dish
• every oil has a specific smoke point. and olive oil has one of the most lowest smoke point
• olive oil contains essential fatty acids that helps to promote heart health
• once fried, lay them on a tissue to absorb the excess oils

---

The Science of Cooking

Deep Frying is not bad at all. It is only bad when it is done in improper way. Deep frying is a dry cooking technique.

• It means we are not adding water, instead we are removing water from the food.

In the Science of cooking, when you fry a food with a high temperature in a shorter time, It retains the food in it's full natural flavor and thus minimizes the oil absorption of the food.

An ideal temperature for cooking chicken is 165 - 175 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer to check the ideal heat, a small grain of bread will do, put in the pan, when it browns less than a minute that means it's ready for frying.

---

Butter versus Margarine

---

BUTTER

• is an 80 percent fat and 20 percent moisture

• it may contains bacteria for added flavor

• it is made from cow's milk

• it can be salted or unsalted

MARGARINE

• it contains trans fat oil or chemicals. But now a days manufacturer have reduced their trans fat from their margarine produce.

In the summary, Oil is not a hero or a villain, It is somewhere in between. A moderation in consumption and proper usage is the key. after all, oils and fat are needed for the body for a source of energy. We just needed to understand and read the label of our oil.

Enjoy your Food. Happy eating!

---

Thank you very much for reading. I hope it has been useful to you. I will do appreciate your feed back. Thank you.

One planet. one world.

Much love

---

Credit picture to Pixabay images

References:

wikipedia
www.foodpyramid.com
www.livestrong.com
foodfiles series