Oils – What are the best fats to cook in – Smoke point part 1
Best Fats to Cook In
See Part 2 for healthy vegetable oils to cook in (and those to avoid)
Cooking Sprays
To start with I have never seen a single spray oil that I is healthy. Most have GMO’s but even the organic “healthy” coconut oil one’s have processed ingredients and propellants in them that make the come out of the can. Terrible to consume, to breath and environment, so don’t ever get those. Not convinced to throw you’re out now? See more on the toxic ingredients in cooking oils below.
If you prefer a spray use this pump and fill it with avocado oil or coconut oil:
Spray pump for oils brushed aluminum olive oil sprayer –
Rancid Oils – One of the worst things you can eat for your health. Just like food gets mold – oil gets rancid but it’s much worse to eat.
4 Enemies of Oil, that Make it Rancid –
1. Air
2. Light
3. Heat
4. Time
Heat:
The Smoke point is the point at which the oil smokes and becomes oxidized or rancid. Each oil’s smoke point is different. You want to choose a cooking oil that has:
1. A Good fatty acid profile
2. Good omega 3 to 6 ratio
3. High smoke point
4. Antioxidant and vitamin rich.
If you cook in an oil without a good ratio or low smoke point even a healthy oil becomes toxic to your system. Olive oil that is heated to cook in will become oxidized and rancid, at 225 f. Then will have free radicals, causing your liver to clog up and increase inflammation, then cholesterol, premature aging, skin problems, clogged arteries, and more.
Many or our health and digestive allergies today happen because many rancid vegetable oils were introduced in the last 30 years, see more about that in part 2
If you don’t know it yet, eating fat is healthy and as books like eat fat lose fat or nourishing traditions or the GAPS diet point out. See my blog on saturated fats for more about that
These are the Best Animal Fats to Cook In:
– Tallow – Beef Fat –
The best oil to cook in with the highest smoke point and fatty acid profile. Get it at the butcher or farmer from pasture raised or grass fed, organic only because you don’t want to consume the hormones, GMO’s and antibiotics given to the cow in factory farms or conventionally fed cows.
Other than locally, this is the best place to Purchase all of these, includoing Grass fed Tallow and beef here – US Wellness Meats sells quality grassland meat products – Visit us Online!
Or this click pic for amazon link
– GHEE – Highly recommended for cooking. –
Ghee is highly recommended to cook in. it will remain stable without breaking down almost as high temperatures as tallow. Contains ALA and CLA which can promote weight loss. Also, contains healthy short chain fatty acids and has a higher heat threshold. Stick with Organic only and 100% pure with no vegetable oil when buying any ghee or butter.
Ghee (click photo links)
– Butter –
Almost as high a smoke point as Ghee. Get the best quality you can, organic, pasture raised or grass fed and un-pasteurized or raw if possible. Great fat to use on top of fish or meat in the oven.
Other Animal base fats to cook in if you can overcome these issues:
– Lard – Pig Fat
I would only use lard from pasture raised organic pigs.
– Chicken / Duck Fat –
Which by itself is good, however it’s high in polyunsaturated fats, so if you are eating a lot of processed foods, such as bread, pastas, cookies and other snacks, (even organic) these are also high in this type of fat and it will cause weakening of your cells.
When you eat too many polyunsaturated fatty acids, they can become part of your cell membranes and make your cells fragile and prone to oxidation, much like the unstable fats you ate in the first place! This can lead to chronic inflammation in your body and a myriad of health issues. The real message is not the chicken fat is the problem, the processed foods are.
Chicken fat – Here is a recipe on how to get it – http://paleoleap.com/eat-animal-fat/
The cookware I’m using is all ceramic, not ceramic coated or any kind of non-stick.
See part 2 for Plant Base oils to cook in and those to avoid
Cookware
If you don’t know, all non-stick coated cookware is terrible for you, the environment and your pets. Avoid those and others such as stainless steel and iron, that leach heavy metals and more. I use 100% ceramic cookware as you see in the video. They perform great, you can still grab the pans when they are cooking, they cook evenly, and I love using them.
27% Off 20pc Cookware Set While Supplies Last
Why Ceramic Cookware Is Safer Than Stainless Steel
Benefits of Xtrema Ceramic Cookware
Animal fats
Like other low-fat myths, this one is completely undeserved. Fat, including saturated fat, from healthy pastured animals does not cause heart disease, cancer, high cholesterol, obesity or anything else.
Many farmers will literally give it away, because nobody wants it. With the rest of the world still terrified that looking sideways at a spoon of lard will give them heart disease, mass quantities of animal fat are yours for the taking, often for free or a trivial charge.
• A 10% beef tallow diet was carcinogenic, but when 1% conjugated linoleic acid was added, the diet became anti-carcinogenic. This may suggest that pasture-raised tallow (which naturally contains conjugated linoleic acid) is significantly more healthful than factory-farmed tallow.
In this study, beef tallow helped subjects absorb Vitamin A better than sunflower oil. In this study, feeding either lard or tallow to alcoholic rats reduced liver damage dramatically compared to corn oil.
Terms: Tallow is the fat from a cow – Suet is the raw fat and tallow is the rendered fat.
See my full blog on the benefits of saturated fats here.
To make really good tallow, you have to be patient. It’s a slow process, but it’s worth it. Good tallow is solid at room temperature and incredibly stable, so if you’re dead set on deep-frying something, you’ll want to use tallow.
Here is a Guide to Fatty Acid Profiles
Very simply, the fats in your food are made up of fatty acids, and fatty acids are classified into 3 major groups: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated.
• Saturated Fatty Acids – They’re very stable, even at high temperatures, and resist oxidation, or the undesirable change in chemical makeup. Found mainly in animal fats like dairy, red meat, and chicken, and also in coconut oil.
• Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFAs) – They’re usually liquid at room temperature, but are fairly stable, even when exposed to some heat. The most common type is called oleic acid and is found in olive oil, avocados, pecans, and almonds.
• Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs) – When exposed to heat and light, they can oxidize and create harmful free radicals. Found in many vegetable oils, including safflower and commonly available partially hydrogenated sunflower. Two common PUFAs are omega-6 and -3 fatty acids.
Problems with processed foods and too many polyunsaturated fats:
Your tissues are mostly made up of saturated and monounsaturated fats, so your body needs more of them than it does polyunsaturated fats. Studies show that your body is already getting more omega-6s than it needs.
When you eat too many polyunsaturated fatty acids, they can become part of your cell membranes and make your cells fragile and prone to oxidation, much like the unstable fats you ate in the first place! This can lead to chronic inflammation in your body and a myriad of health issues.
Omega 3 and 6 ratios:
In addition, the typical diet today is overloaded with omega-6 fatty acids, in contrast to omega-3s. You consume omega-6 fatty acids in dressings, nuts and seeds, snacks, meats, and grains.
Balance is what matters when it comes to omega fatty acids. An optimal omega-3 to -6 fatty acid ratio for health is about 1:1. Few people’s diets today come anywhere near that ideal ratio!
Today’s factory farmed meats, eggs, and salmon supply less omega-3s and far too many omega-6s, which only makes this imbalance worse. And that’s not good news for your health…
To correct an imbalance, you should do three things:
1. Reduce your consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids from all processed foods
2. Reduce conventional or factory farmed products including eggs, milk, meet and chicken
3. Increase pature raised or grass fed beef, chicken and eggs.
4. Increase your consumption of omega-3 fatty acids (I recommend eating wild salmon and taking a krill oil or omega 3 oil supplement).
5. Find healthy replacements for the omega-6 oils you’re now eating such as the one’s mentioned in this blog
Toxic ingredients in cooking oils:
Dimemythlpolysiloxane: What a mouthful that word is! This is a chemical that’s a form of silicone that helps keep the oil from foaming. I discovered that it’s also used in cosmetics, refrigerants and Silly Putty. After reviewing animal studies, the World Health Organization stated that they found no adverse health effects associated with Dimethylpolysiloxane. However, personally, I’m uncomfortable feeding my family a chemical that has uses in cosmetics and Silly Putty.
Diacetyl: Studies have shown that exposure to diacetyl (the butter flavoring that is often added to cooking sprays) can increase your risk of lung disease. With long-term or repeated exposure, diacetyl can cause serious respiratory disease. While many cooking spray manufacturers no longer use this chemical, researchers are still concerned about the risk of lung disease.
Propellants: When oil is placed in an aerosol can, you need to add some sort of force to get it out of the can and into your pan. That’s where propellants enter the picture. While most of the commonly used propellants are on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) “Generally Recognized As Safe” (GRAS) list and considered safe to consume, I’m still uncomfortable adding chemicals like as isobutane or propane to my family’s diet. Butane, isobutane and propane are colorless and odorless compressed gases that are derived from petroleum and natural gas.
Even though many experts and the FDA deem cooking sprays to be safe, as a certified nutritionist and mom I prefer to keep the chemical consumption in my home at a minimum.
