Health and Lifestyle

6 Best and Worst Oils for Your Health

Dr. Veena Madhankumar

Jul 25, 2019 — 3 min read

Today’s food market has a wide variety of options while you are looking at options for cooking oils. The choices you make must be based upon your specific requirements when it comes to cooking. But people usually go on choosing oils which are very popular or commonly consumed traditionally.

You need to understand what the composition of each oil is and what its effects are before making a decision. Read further to know about a few of the healthy cooking oils you can use.

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Extra virgin olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil is very versatile. They can be used for cooking and can also be used as a seasoning for your food. The tag extra virgin indicates that the oil is usually not refined and has been processed only minimally. It has both monosaturated and polyunsaturated fat in them. This helps in reducing your cholesterol and also in keeping your heart healthy.

Peanut oil

Amongst cooking oils, peanut oil is the one that has the highest content of monounsaturated fat in them. Peanut oil cooks well in high heat and is very flavourful with a nutty taste and smell. It can be fun experimenting in the kitchen with nut oils like peanut oil, given their different varieties.

Avocado oil

Avocado oil is very good for high-temperature cooking since it has a high smoking point. They have a higher content of monounsaturated fatty acids. This helps keeps your cholesterol level healthy and enhance nutrient absorption.

Sesame oil

Sesame oil has a very potent flavor. Even a small quantity can give out a lot of flavor. Though not rich in other nutrients it has a lot of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The cooking oils you ought to avoid:

Palm oil

Palm oil has a high content of saturated fat in them. This creates a risk of heart disease. Hence it is better for people with diabetes to keep an eye on their consumption of palm oil and avoid is as much as possible.

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Vegetable oil

Vegetable oils are the ones which are most commonly found in the market today. Vegetable oils are extremely processed and have very little of the vitamin and mineral content present in the actual vegetables. Majority of the vegetable oils are the combination of soybean, sunflower, palm and safflower. The processing of the oil overloads it with omega-6 fatty acids, which result in increasing the inflammation in your body.

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