Your Health

What are the Best Cooking Oils for Your Health?

healthy cooking oils

The world of cooking oils can be a confusing one; there’s so much choice out there, that it can be hard to know which are a healthy choice.

 

Cooking oils don’t just add flavour to dressings, crunch to stir fries and moistness to bakes, but they can also help your body to absorb nutrients from food.

 

But with so many cooking oils to choose from, what makes a healthy one?

 

Look for Cold-Pressed Oils

 

Many cooking oils are heavily processed using high heat and chemicals, including hexane, which is a neurotoxin.

 

Consuming these oils regularly can lead to high cholesterol, as well as other inflammatory issues.

 

cooking oil

 

Instead, look for cold-pressed oils, as these aren’t processed as heavily and typically do not contain toxic chemicals. Demand is growing for cold-pressed cooking oils, which means there are plenty of options to choose from.

 

Choose Single Source Oils

 

Single source oils are cooking oils sourced from one farm or other single place of origin. Single sourcing can increase the purity of oil and it provides you with the assurance offered by transparency from the producer. It also means there’s likely to be greater consistency in terms of quality.

 

Which Cooking Oils are Healthiest?

 

Look for oils labelled as ‘extra virgin’, as these are minimally processed without chemicals, meaning they maintain more of their nutritional value.

 

healthy cooking oils

 

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

 

Coconut oil is a saturated fat, but it’s regarded as a ‘good’ saturated fat because it contains lauric acid, which can help to lower bad cholesterol levels.

 

Our Garden of Life Raw Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is ideal for adding to smoothies, bakes and creamy salad dressings. It’s naturally rich in medium-chain fatty acids and is produced using a centuries-old method. Meat from organically grown coconuts is shredded and cold-pressed to create coconut milk, then filtered and separated to extract only the highest quality oil.

 

 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 

Extra virgin olive oil is a great kitchen staple to use in everyday recipes. You don’t need to use an expensive one (although this could add extra flavour to your cooking) – just make sure you look for a single source oil.

 

Extra Virgin Avocado Oil

 

Avocados are another ‘good’ source of fat, meaning extra virgin avocado oil can be a good option when you’re looking for a healthy cooking oil.

 

Extra virgin avocado oil is able to handle high temperatures and it has a neutral flavour, making it a great addition to lots of dishes.

 

avocado oil

 

Which Cooking Oils Should I Be Mindful Of?

 

Some of the oils that you may want to be more mindful of, because they’re typically heavily overprocessed oils and contain hexane include:

 

  • Peanut oil
  • Sunflower oil
  • Safflower oil
  • Rapeseed oil
  • Soybean oil

 

You should also be mindful of using cooking oils that don’t provide the assurance that they contain Non-GMO tested or certified products.

 

Focus on extra virgin coconut, avocado or olive oil for a healthier choice; remember, extraordinary ingredients can empower extraordinary health.

 

Discover more reasons to switch to coconut oil here:

 

5 Reasons to Switch to Coconut Oil

Your Health

5 Reasons to Switch to Coconut Oil

Explore the benefits of using coconut oil in your baking.

2020-09-15 16:14:48By Garden of Life



Garden of Life

Garden of Life

Writer and expert