When we talk about using less oil in cooking, the most excited population is ladies, the cooks and the food lovers; who are curious to know that the oil they use is good or bad.
So if it is good, they have liberty to use in excess.
My first sentence would be “No oil is Good or Bad”. It’s just that which is better. There is no oil which I can tell you is good and advise you to use it liberally. Oil is one of the empty calorie foods which will not give you any nutrient. It will give you only unhealthy calories. So any oil you take
1gm is 9Kcals
An average consumption of oil is 50-60gms per day for an individual. This is way too high. At this point, it is important to understand what is role of oil in your diet and where you should use it. Oil should only be used as an ingredient and not as medium for cooking. So try to use minimum oil in cooking. Consider non stick cooking, pressure cooking etc
Some good readers will say what about fat soluble vitamins? How will they be absorbed? Very true!! I would not advice you to go on NO FAT DIET as I know that is not a practical solution which you will be able to sustain for longer duration. There is visible fat and invisible fat in our diet. Invisible fat is something which is already present in diet. Some sources of invisible fatty foods are nuts, coconut, seeds, dairy etc. And rest is what we add externally while cooking. So average consumption of oil should be around 15-20gms in a day which is 3-4 teaspoons
So which ever food group we talk about, Moderation is the Key. Now keeping this moderation factor in mind which will be the best quality of oil is the next thing to be discussed. There are n numbers of oils in market who advertise in different way to increase their sales. The companies are doing its job but are we really doing our job of feeding our body to keep it healthy?
Oil has many components in it which makes it better and better. I would like to discuss these components in small so that next time you purchase your cooking oil you see for these components.
When you see the Nutritional Facts label on any Oil packet you will notice that most of the categories are empty with zero value only the Fat component will be present. As I said in starting of this write up that it is empty calorie food. So when you will read you will find some values under these categories
Total Fats
Saturated Fats: Saturated fat intake should be less in than 7% of total calories you consume. Saturated fats are also produced by some foods like meat and dairy. Similar to transfat, Saturated fats adds on to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke as it raises level of Bad cholesterol called LDL
Polyunsaturated fat : Types of polyunsaturated fats are omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Both are essential fatty acids that cannot be produced by the human body. They are “heart healthy”. Ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 should be 4:1 in your diet.
Monounsaturated fat : These are “heart healthy” fats. It can increase the amount of HDL or “good” cholesterol in the body, reducing the risk of heart disease.
It is always preferred to have lower amounts of saturated fats and higher levels of unsaturated (preferably monounsaturated).
I would like to share few self explanatory images which will help you to understand this better.
How is your Oil’s performance?
There are different oils which have different properties and hence can be used for various purposes like frying, stir fry, deep fry etc.
Fry Life: Use oil which has longer fry life. The longer the fry life, the fewer times the oil needs replaced. The resulting benefit is less oil use.
Shelf Life: Duration where oil can be stored without becoming unsuitable for use or consumption.
How one oil is different from other?
Three main pillar to distinguish cooking oils is health, taste and performance.
Health: As we discussed the health benefit each component of oil will give us eg ratio of omega6 and omega 3.
Taste: Some have neutral taste whereas few oils have strong flavour that enhances taste of food.
Performance: Fry life, shelf life and smoke point will decide the performance of oil.
Is it important to use different variety of oil?
As we discussed above the different components present in oil. So you choose 2-3 different variety of oil which is comfortable to entire family and use it on rotation basis (preferable on monthly basis) so that you get goodness from each of the variety.
My personal lists of oil are olive, groundnut/peanut oil, rice bran oil which I change it on monthly basis on an average. Using unrefined oil is better than using refined oils. Look for Kachi Ghani oil on youR oil packet or UNREFINED oil. Also make use of ghee as source of fat but not additional to the diet but by replacing oil with ghee.
So keeping all the factors in mind, make a good selection of oil. It is you who can choose good oil and make difference to your family’s health
Oily food ad fried food is always tastier, but maintaining the frequency of having tasty food and healthy food should be balanced. Healthy food will allow you to eat tasty food for long years, whereas tasty food will allow you to eat only healthy food in future (food restrictions because of any health condition)
If you feel you have had a really heavy and fatty meal, It’s time to get active. Go or walk or run or exercise and just burn off those extra you had. This is the best way you can get rid of that excess fat.
SO EAT HEALTHY IN A TASTY WAY!
RD Neha Kava
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