Award Winning Author
Face Reading with Before & After Photos
Oil Shopping Guide
Quality Unsaturated Vegetable Oils
There is much confusion and misinformation about what constitutes a quality vegetable oil. But it’s really pretty simple to make a healthy choice, and it starts with looking for the words “unrefined” or “extra virgin” on the label. All other vegetable oils are refined.
But reading a label isn’t enough, because the terms “pure,” “natural,” “cold pressed,” “unrefined” and (olive oil excepted) “extra virgin” are not federally regulated. So manufacturers making these claims on the label could in fact be selling you a refined oil. To sleuth out the best oils, I recommend a two-pronged method: one, rely on reputable manufacturers to fully disclose their processing techniques, and two, use your sense of taste and smell. Happily, using good oils is a win-win: they’re not only better for you; they’re more flavorful too.
How to Be Sure about Your Oil
First, check out the company’s web page. Producers of quality foods are forthcoming. They take the extra, more costly step to produce quality oil. Since they know that an informed consumer will pay extra for the best, they have incentive to inform us of their manufacturing steps.
A reputable manufacturer will explain that a quality unrefined or extra virgin liquid oil is made from the first pressing of seeds (such as sesame or corn), nuts (such as almonds), or fruits (such as olive or avocado). This pressing is achieved without applying excessive heat by using an expeller or screw-type press. The mash is then filtered to remove large particles and bottled. Eden Foods, for example, specifies that their oil is “double filtered at ambient or lower temperature through a 100% cotton canvas filter press resulting in a clear, bright colored oil. This pure unrefined, extra virgin oil is then nitrogen flushed and bottled in amber glass to protect the aroma, flavor, and valuable nutrients.”
Your second guideline for determining quality in oil is to smell and taste it. Open a bottle of unrefined avocado oil and it smells just like a ripe avocado. Now taste it—its complex, rich flavor tastes exactly like the essence of avocado. How reassuring that your sense of smell and taste unerringly informs you about quality fat. When a fat tastes like the food it was made from, gleefully drizzle it on.
How High Can You Heat Your Oils?
Forget about smoke point. Fats are denatured long before they reach the flash point when bluish smoke erupts before bursting into flame. Liquid vegetable oils contain heat-sensitive omega-3, omega-6- and omega-9 fatty acids. Numerous studies show that prolonged cooking and/or high temperatures denature omega fatty acids. For baking, frying and cooking at high temperatures, favor saturated or semi-saturated fats.
How Long Will Vegetable Oils Keep?
Unrefined and extra virgin unsaturated oils have a finite shelf life. It’s not only heat but also moisture, light and air that trigger oxidization. Purchase oils in small quantities in light-protective, dark glass bottles (plastic containers are less light-protective).To prevent oxygen from getting into your oil, keep the bottle tightly capped; in other words, bypass those convenient oil pour spouts. Keep unrefined oils refrigerated, and if they’re not used up within a few months—or if they start tasting less than wonderful—toss them. The one exception to this rule is olive oil, which has a shelf life of a year or more and is best kept unrefrigerated.
Staying Clear of Refined Oils
Today the vast majority of oils are refined in this way: the oil-containing food is crushed or expeller pressed and then heated beyond the smoke point. The resultant mash is then treated with a mix of industrial chemicals to extract the most oil, resulting in oil that will have the same pale color and bland taste regardless of what it was made from. Refined oil smells like putty or crayons and leaves a greasy, viscous and unpalatable feeling in your mouth, whereas an unrefined oil leaves your mouth feeling clean and fresh.
The process of refining denatures fragile fatty acids, which can lead to the formation of carcinogenic free radicals. That’s why the masquerade of refined oils such as canola, corn, grapeseed, peanut and sunflower as pure heart-healthy oils is one of the most serious health concerns of our time.
How reassuring it is that we can rely on reputable manufacturers and our own sensory perceptions to shop for quality oil.
May you be well nourished,
Rebecca Wood
What about bacon fat? I so miss that fat with fried chicken and a dollop in collard greens. Is that so bad?
By all means, yes, animal fats like lard are healthful. See the accompanying article: Saturated Fats
Rebecca, just to thank you very much for a great newsletter.
There are a few rice bran oils out there that say cold pressed and unrefined….are we not to believe this?
Also, of all the vegetable oils, which would you recommend for making mayonnaise?
If you were to press a handful of olives, you could see the oil they exude. Imagine doing the same with a handful of rice bran! The fatty acid content of rice bran is minuscule and it therefore requires high tech process to remove it (like extreme heat and/or using hexane). Why go there? Again do the taste and smell test and you’ll know.
For mayo, I use extra virgin olive oil. Yummy!
I thought coconut oil and butter were killer’s?
That information has been perpetrated by manufacturers of liquid vegetable oils since the 1950s and is incorrect.
Hi-what oils or butters or more specifically, fats can I use in salads, on toast, in cooking etc etc?
Thanks
E.V. olive oil, sesame, coconut oil are three excellent ones. See my articles linking to this one for more detail.
Hello Rebecca. Thank you for a great website. What do you think of Rice Bran Oil for cooking? And if Coconut Oil is refined to remove it’s coconut taste, is it now deemed toxic? Also, what do you think of Palm Oil for cooking if it sustainably sourced? Thank you for your advice.
Rice bran oil is a byproduct produced by either extreme temperatures and/or solvents. While you can squeeze oil from a ripe olive with your hand, you couldn’t do so with rice bran.
Yes, if coconut oil has no aroma or flavor, don’t use it. Yes, sustainably sourced Palm Oil is an excellent article as I’ve described in the accompanying article: Saturated Fats.
What about Peanut butter.I believe it is healthy Am I right?
Thank you
Healthy relative to what? It depends upon the pb quality as well as the quantity you’re eating. If it’s a staple, you deserve far better.
Is there a max temperature Salmon can be cooked at due to the omega-3? Thank you.
All omega-3s start the process of oxidization at temperatures above 100F. So I cook mine at moderate temperatures and then eat it freshly cooked.
So what I have been reading is NOT to consume canola or corn oil…which is best other that olive oil example: popcorn popper ( no we do not like air-popped)
We are then better off eating small amounts of butter and olive oil instead of the plastic margarine and most oils on the market??
Why do you say: “small amounts of butter and olive oil”? I say: enjoy enough quality fats to be satisfied. We need good quality fat.
For popcorn use a fat that withstands high heat: butter or coconut oil. Or air pop and mist with olive oil.