Refined oils: healthy or unhealthy?

Refined Oils are healthy or Unhealthy?

Refined Oils are very popular in Indian cooking. Whether it is traditional festival, birthday party or get together, on every occassion, Refined oils are used intensely.

Refined Oils are extracted from plants using either a chemical solvent or oil mill. Then they are purified, refined and sometimes chemically altered.

Refining reduces the nutrient level of Refined oils.

Why Refined Oils are labelled healthy

Refined oils are often advertised as heart healthy oil.

•  They are considered as polyunsaturated fat to a reduced risk of heart disease as compare to saturated fats.
• Refined oils contain omega 3 fatty acids and omega 6 fatty acids that are also essential fatty acids for our  body as our body cannot produce them. But these acids should me taken in a certain rate that is 1:1.

Having vegetable oil in adequate amount is not unhealthy. These are also necassary for some of our body requirements such as absorption of food.

Why Refined Oils are Unhealthy

• Refined Oils contain trans fats. Transfats  are artificially hydrogenated oils used primarily to extend the shelf life of food.

Transfat increases bad cholestrol and insulin levels. It also increase many diseases like cancer, diabetes, obesity etc.

• Reheating and recooking  the refined oil also makes the refined oil unhealthy. These polyunsaturated oils have to be treated with care.
• Vanaspati oils are bad for health as they contain trans fat.
• Shalimar Basmati rice bran oil with trans fat content 3.3% and Saffola gold blended oil with 2.4 % transfat are not good as they found to exceed  the limit of trans fat.

All vegetable oils having trans fat in limit are permitted by food  experts. These limits say that trans fats in oil should not exceed 2% of total oil.

Virgin Oil and Refined Oil

Vegetable oils are classified into virgin oil and refined oil on the basis of the way it is extracted.

When we extract oil by pressing then it is called virgin oil and when we extract oil by solvents, it is called refined oil.

Virgin oil is pure, somewhat expensive with its taste and aroma. 

Refined oil is long lasting( because of extraction using chemicals), cheaper and profitable for industries without taste and aroma.

How to buy good refined oil

Trans fat is the best criteria to search for good refined oil. You should check for the trans fat level in the refined oil before purchasing it. Some popular Indian oils used for cooking which are save to use are

1. Sundrop sunflower oil (0.3%)

2. Dharma refined oil (0.6%)

3. Parachute coconut oil (0.3%) 

4. Ruchi gold palm oil (1%) 

5. Fortune soya oil (1.5%)

These are absolutely safe for cooking.

Best vegetable virgin oils

1. Groundnut oil

2. Mustard oil

3. Sesame oil

4. Avacado oil

5. Olive oil

6. Palm oil

7. Sunflower oil

8. Soyabean oil

These oils have trans fat less than 2%.

Dietary Requirement

ICMR  has issued some guidelines regarding to consumption of refined oils

30% of the total energy intake per day should come from dietary sources of oils and fats. 30 gm of oils should be consumed per day.

How to choose oils for different purposes

Choice of oil depends on the type of cooking, you are doing. An oil has a smoking point on which oil starts burning and smoking. If you heat oil beyond its smoking point, it harms the flavor and degrade the nutrients of oil. It will also release harmful compounds called radicals. Reusing oil also leads to some potential health risk.

Naturally refined oils are filtered and strained with some additional heat but without damaging or harsb chemicals. It removes particles and raisins and make refined oils more stable for longer to use, more resistant to smoking and good choice for high heat cooking and frying.

Recommended refined oils for deep frying are sunflower and peanut oils. These oils are high in monounsaturated fats which are well suitable for high heat.

On the other hand, olive oil has lower smoke point so it is ideal for low or medium heat cooking such as dressing of salads.

Conclusion

As we can see that all refined oils are not unhealthy if taking them in adequate manner wisely. They have minimum level of trans fats and having a good mixture of omega fatty acids. So Indian families, enjoy your meals with healthy refined oils.