Cooking With Olive Oil

I have been doing some reading in the World healthest foods book that I recently bought.  The author discusses that he doesn't believe we should be heating up olive oil but rather using it cold.  Reasons being that the health benefits change once heated.

What do you think?  Have others heard about this too?

I really should buy that book.  I use their website all the time.

I don't fry anything anymore, but when I did it was with canola oil.  If I want olive oil, which I do, I drizzle it on at the end.  The flavor is much fresher and distinct so you don't need much to give you that taste.

In spite of what those cooking shows tell you, Italians don't waste extra virgin olive oil in cooking.  The use the second or third pressing which we sometimes call light because it's a lighter color.  The real old fashioned way, from the area of Italy where my family is from, uses lard for frying.  Nobody does that any more.

yup. heat converts the monounsaturated fats in olive oil into saturated ones i think? so heating it makes it no different (health wise), from any other normal cooking oil that you use--and it's more expensive too!

i second the drizzling method. (also, dipping bread/pita/naan/*insert equivalent here* in an olive oil based mix is wonderful too--the greeks do it all the time :3)

Interesting about cooking with olive oil. I'm going to start saving it for the last drizzle and use canola for cooking!

How about baking with oil? I hate to use margarine with all the transfat. But if I bake with oil does it turn into saturated fat during the baking? I know my brownies will never become a health food but I'd like to make them a little less bad for my skinny kids.

BTW, how do you start a new topic in a group?

http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_o il.htm

Olive oil will almost always be a healthier choice than margarine. Any amount of saturation or oxidation that occurs while cooking at home with olive oil is miniscule compared to already saturated or trans fats found in butter or margarine.

I use grapeseed oil to cook with as I was told by another diet company that this is the healthiest choice.  I have to agree that I have always been told not to cook with olive oil as heating it alters its fats from 'good to evil'! 

Olive oil is great to utilize as a dressing on salads.  One of olive oils best uses I have found is to use when you cook salmon cutlets in the microwave.  Here is how it goes.  Start with 1 Salmon cutlet drizzle with Soy sauce.  Cook  salmon cutlet in microwave on high for 3 minutes, when finished drizzle 1/2 table spoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon peanut oil over top.  Serve with your favourite vegies and you have a very healthy low Cal meal with the good monosatuated fats included.

Original Post by salome190:

I have been doing some reading in the World healthest foods book that I recently bought.  The author discusses that he doesn't believe we should be heating up olive oil but rather using it cold.  Reasons being that the health benefits change once heated.

 

What do you think?  Have others heard about this too?

That's a rather general statement by the "world healthiest foods" author. Actually, really, the only thing that it loses is it's beneficial taste and fragrance that we use when cooking with it.  They make olive oils specifically for that, they are refined.  Also, olive oil is better in some cases for repeated low level frying, it's very high in monounsaturated fat therefore resistant to oxidation and hydrogenation (what makes saturated fat) and if it does suffer it's a very minuscule amount.  Dr. A. Kiritsakis would have some beef with that author me thinks.

In short:

1.) No it does not lose it's health benefit.
2.) You can buy refined Olive Oils that have higher smoke points for frying.
3.) No it does not convert to saturated fat.

Actually, you will find a lot of the best chefs in the world boil some meats with olive oil not only for taste but because of it's health benefits.   The smoke point of olive oil is less then the boiling point so you can make up your own opinion there.

You're dietician is wrong, some studies have shown that Coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils in the world if not thee healthiest.  Olive, Coconut and Grapeseed oils are the healthiest in the world.  Cocnout has anti-viral and anti-microbial properties and is being used in some AIDS treatments.  Oliveoil is high in monounsaturated fat, which is very healthy for the heart. And if you have low anti-oxident levels grapeseed is good.  It's really up to the type of diet you NEED.

Soy sauce is more unhealthy then most oils if used right - well in the amounts that most people use soy sauce =/.  While from a general diet perspective it's very healthy, from a diabetics perspective, it's a killer.  This is exactly what you need to think about when using oil, which one has the benefits your diet needs. Anti-Oxidants or Monounsaturated fat?

The main thing is, don't let it get to the smoke point.  That's when it breaks down and it also alters the flavor.  If you are going to cook on high heat, in my opinion it's better to use a good stainless steel pan with no fat and sear the food dry to seal it. If you let it get a golden crust on one side before turning it won't stick.  The searing process allows it to break free from the cooking surface.   Or put it on the grill. 

Heating an oil cannot possibly turn its fats from unsaturated to saturated; you need hydrogen gas to do that.  It *might* be able to turn some unsaturated fats into trans fats, but that would take a lot of heat for a very long time. 

Heating olive oil may very well evaporate out some of the flavour molecules, though, so that may be why some prefer to add it after cooking.  (I don't really like the flavour of olives so I'm okay with losing that flavour.)