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.
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.
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.