Passionate Homemaking

Here we are again with more about other healthy and nutri­tious oils to enjoy in your cook­ing! Much of this infor­ma­tion is pro­vided through research as I per­son­ally have not exper­i­mented with many of them. I love my olive oil and coconut oil, what can I say? But after research­ing these oils and learn­ing their value, I may start explor­ing more in this world of good oils some more!

For part 1, visit here.

Sesame & Peanut Oil

Both Sesame & Peanut oils con­tain a high per­cent­age of omega-6 (peanut oil has 34% and sesame has 43%), which presents a poten­tial danger, accord­ing to accu­mu­lat­ing research fol­lowed by Sally Fallon. She encour­ages strict lim­ited usage. They are rel­a­tively stable and there­fore appro­pri­ate for stir frying on occasion.

Recent research has revealed that too much omega-6 in the diet cre­ates an imbal­ance that can inter­fere with pro­duc­tion of impor­tant prostaglandins.³⁴ This dis­rup­tion can result in increased ten­dency to form blood clots, inflam­ma­tion, high blood pres­sure, irri­ta­tion of the diges­tive tract, depressed immune func­tion, steril­ity, cell pro­lif­er­a­tion, cancer and weight gain.³⁵

Read more here.

How to use?

Unre­fined sesame oil can be used for light sautéing, or as a key flavor com­po­nent in sauces or dress­ings. Refined sesame oil has gone through pro­cess­ing, and there­fore loses a major­ity of its nutri­tional value, and thus is not strongly encour­aged for use.

Toasted unre­fined sesame oil works well for stir fries and Asian sauces and dips. A little dab will do you. Use toasted sesame oil as a rich, fla­vor­ful condi­ment, or as a key ingre­di­ent in mari­nades or sauces.

Try using just small amounts and com­bin­ing with other oils to get a better bal­ance of omega-3 to omega-6! Coconut oil, olive oil and sesame go well together.

Peanut oil is supe­rior for dis­tinctly fla­vor­ful sauces, mari­nades, light sautéing and Asian-​inspired stir-​frying or frying in gen­eral. Com­bine with sesame oil for good flavor. And it’s the oil of choice for oil-​roasting all vari­eties of nuts — just add a little salt (the oil helps the salt stick to the nut).

How to buy & store?

Look for cold-​pressed unre­fined sesame oil (cold pressed pro­duces the high­est qual­ity of oil) . Unre­fined oil may be kept in the refrig­er­a­tor for up to six months. Napa Valley Nat­u­rals (pic­tured above) is a good brand for sesame oil.

Buy cold-​pressed unre­fined peanut oil and store in refrig­er­a­tor for up to 9 months.

Palm Oil

Red palm oil is made from the fruit of the oil palm. It is about 50% sat­u­rated, which makes it very sim­i­lar to coconut oil and also con­sid­ered a trop­i­cal oil.

Whole Foods pro­vides the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion: “Palm oil con­tains sig­nif­i­cant quan­ti­ties of antiox­i­dants, includ­ing vit­a­min E, which help to pro­tect against oxida­tive damage and free rad­i­cals. Red palm oil, a vari­ety of this oil that is a staple in parts of Africa, has a won­der­ful rich flavor. The red color comes from high levels of carotenes (antiox­i­dants like those found in car­rots that give them their orange color).”

Sally Fallon says: “Red palm oil has a strong taste that most will find dis­agree­able - although it is used exten­sively through­out Africa - but clar­i­fied palm oil, which is taste­less and white in color, was formely used as short­en­ing and in the pro­duc­tion of com­mer­cial French fries…the sat­u­rated fat scare has forced man­u­fac­tur­ers to aban­don these safe and healthy oils in favor of hydro­genated soy­bean, corn, canola and cot­ton­seed oils.”

How to buy?

Read labels care­fully! Make sure it is har­vested in envi­ron­men­tally friendly man­ners. Many farm­ers have destroyed sen­si­tive land­scape for palm plan­ta­tions. Best choice is red palm oil for increased antiox­i­dants, but more dif­fi­cult to find. Wilder­ness Family Nat­u­rals is a good source for all nat­ural palm oil (pictured).

Veg­etable short­en­ing made with organic palm oil is also avail­able, and is a health­ier alter­na­tive to con­ven­tional short­en­ings. I under­stand that it works well in replace­ment of var­i­ous short­en­ings and lards (i.e. Crisco) for baking and cooking.

How to use?

Like coconut oil, palm oil can be used for high-​heat cook­ing, saute­ing, and frying. Best for fish and curry dishes.

How to store?

Palm oil is extremely stable and can be kept at room tem­per­a­ture for many months. This means that it does not nor­mally go rancid, even when heated for cook­ing or baking.

Grapeseed Oil

Most grape­seed oil comes from Italy, France and Switzer­land and is extracted from the seeds of grapes, a byprod­uct of the wine-​making indus­try. Please note that grape­seed oil con­tains 75% omega-6, which may be a poten­tial health danger (see also sesame & peanut oil in this respect).

Accord­ing to Mary Enig, PhD, “Grapeseed oil con­tains phe­nols that raise the smoke point. How­ever it is very high in omega-6 fatty acids, so it not a good choice for our diets–we need to avoid excess omega-6 fatty acids as much as pos­si­ble. Also, grape­seed oil is indus­tri­ally processed with hexane and other car­cino­genic sol­vents, and traces will remain in the oil.”

Good qual­ity grape­seed oil in small amounts can be used along with olive, walnut and avo­cado oil on salads, raw veg­gies and in dips, sauces and salsas. Mix it with garlic and basil and rub it into French bread then lightly toast and top with grated cheese. Because it is a light oil, it holds fla­vors beautifully.

Grape­seed oil has excel­lent emul­si­fi­ca­tion prop­er­ties, which makes it ideal for salad dress­ings that do not cloud when chilled or whipped may­on­naise and dress­ings that do not sep­a­rate when chilled. Napa Valley Nat­u­rals is a good source.

Flaxseed Oil

Flaxseed con­tains a high amount of omega-3 con­tent, which pro­vides a remedy for the omega-6/omega-3 imbal­ance that is very preva­lent in the Amer­i­can diet. Keep­ing a proper bal­ance is the key. The oil of the flaxseed is rich in vit­a­mins A, B-1, B-2, D, and E, lecithin and phos­phatides that assist in fat diges­tion, and most of the major and trace min­er­als. Flaxseed oil has been found help­ful in arthri­tis, in asthma relief, in pre­vent­ing colon and breast cancer, in improv­ing moods, in PMS, in pro­duc­ing health­ier skin, in dimin­ish­ing aller­gic responses, and the list goes on.

How to use?

Flaxseed oil is used more as a sup­ple­ment rather than a cook­ing oil. It is best assim­i­lated when thor­oughly mixed with cot­tage cheese. Flaxseed oil can be used in shakes, in veg­etable juice drinks, or in salad dressings.

How to buy & store?

Buy cold pressed flaxseed oil in small quan­ti­ties, and store in refrig­er­a­tor or freezer, as it goes rancid quickly.

As flaxseed oil is more costly than the reg­u­lar flaxseeds (for exam­ple, 3 1/3 Tbsp seeds at $.15 pro­vide the same amount of fat as 1 Tbsp oil at $.45), I nor­mally stick my cook­ing to use of the seeds. Flaxseeds are very cheap and con­tain sol­u­ble fiber which assists in reg­u­lat­ing cho­les­terol levels. Again, they are the high­est known source of linolenic acid, the omega-3 essen­tial fatty acid that is com­monly lack­ing in the diet of most Amer­i­cans. We use ground flaxseeds in smooth­ies, breads, pan­cakes, oat­meal, and over fruit and yogurt.

In conclusion…

The best oils from my research prove to be olive oil, coconut oil, red palm oil, and flaxseed oil. Cold pressed and unre­fined, if it can be found, is the best option for receiv­ing the high­est qual­ity of oil with­out the lose of any nutri­tional value. They cover all the bases for cook­ing uses, good bal­ance and nutri­tion! Due to their high omega-6 con­tent, grape­seed, peanut and sesame oil use should be strictly lim­ited. Above all, keep all oils stored in a cool, dark place and tightly sealed (although flaxseed, grape­seed, sesame & peanut oils should be stored in the refrig­er­a­tor). Pur­chas­ing in smaller quan­ti­ties is rec­om­mended unless you have the refrig­er­a­tor space to store larger quantities.

Enjoy!

Sources:

A Primer on Cook­ing Oils

Know Your Fats

The Skinny on Fats

Sue Gregg’s Break­fast Cookbook