which cooking oils are considered more harmful to the body?

[Rasel Ali (IT)]

I have researched on this topic very well and I think It's time for me to spread the word.

When I was a student away from home, I did not take care of my body as I should have.. It backfired.I was diagnosed with a degenerative inflammatory disease of my backbone( it means non reversible) and I didn't know that the pain was connected to my diet. I suffered for a year with so much pain. But I learned more in that period about human physiology than in my graduation years. I changed my diet. And the most significant improvement came after I changed the cooking oils. I realized that just by removing oils like sunflower,soy,corn,rice bran etc, I was able to get away from the inflammation. Because they all had mostly Omega 6 fatty acids and no Omega 3.

It's been many years since I had any pain. Simply by changing my diet, I saved my health.

Below are the types of oils you should avoid.

1. Hydrogenated vegetable fat aka vanaspati (indian name)

It's basically vegetable oils that went through ‘Hydrogenation’. It's a process where the oil is treated with hydrogen under high temperature and pressure resulting in butter like end product which is spreadable. This process also creates a lot of trans fats which is the nightmare of our hearts.

It is a highly stable fat and can't go rancid for a very long time. ( I experimented with a packet of Dalda. I tried a 4 year old opened package last year and it was still fresh smelling..!).

It's heavily used in place of ghee in bakeries in India. You can feel it when you eat a sweet. It creates a gummy mouth feel whereas pure ghee just melts away.

Indians naively call it Dalda ghee or vanaspati ghee. It's like calling an aggressive dog “a tiger cat”..!

2. Commercial farm raised Ghee

stay away from the commercially made ghees. In Most farms The animals are not fed on grass but rather on grains which makes the fatty acid profile of the ghee entirely different from ghee made from an animal that's grass-fed and free ranged. Most of The commercial ghees literally spikes the LDL level..!

Buy only those brands that have grass-fed and free ranged animals. They will specify it on their label if so and the ghee will be more expensive too. They don't add colour (natural or natural identical) to their ghee to make it yellow. Always read labels before buying anything.

Ghee made from grass fed milk is a very healthy fat. Its very good for your heart in moderate amounts. Trust me on this. I fed it to a person with high cholesterol for a month. His LDL became normal..!.

changes I made in his diet are—throwing away store bought butter and ghee from the fridge,including river fish, mustard oil and homemade ghee. His LDL level came down from 170 to 96 in a month.

3.Palmolein oil

I saw that someone in an answer said palm oil is the worst oil.! But in reality it's not true. Palm oil in it's pure from is a good fat like coconut oil. It's deep red in color and is one of the least processed oils in the world. The only negative side of palm oil is the ethical issues regarding Environmental degradation and sustainability. It's made from a tropical plant and in the countries where it's produced, large scale deforestation is happening to develop huge plantations of this tree. 45% of the current Palm plantations we're tropical rainforests 30 years ago.

But there is one kind of palm oil that is bad for you. It's called “Palmolein oil”. It's a highly refined, bleached and deodorized form of palm oil which is extensively used in bakeries and restaurants. Great for frying foods due to it's high smoking point and the ability to keep the fried food fresh for long time without going stale. That's why it becomes one of the worst oils. People reheat it several times and still never goes stale. Bakeries usually top the old batch with new one and continue using it. Some places will have many years old palmolein in their frying pans.

Everyone should know that reheating vegetable oil is a dangerous thing to do. Never do it. The oil becomes toxic to your body. The free radicals will eat away your cardiac health and can even lead to several types of cancers..

In India, several brands of palmolein oil is available but there are many adulterated brands as well. Palmolein is one of the cheapest oils you can find in the market and it's used to adulterate expensive oils like coconut oil and sesame oil. And somehow people adulterate the adulterant itself..! How strange?..!!!

4.Refined vegetable oils

Did you know that most of the vegetable oil used in India are imported(>70%)? In fact India is the biggest vegetable oil importer in the world.!

palmolein oil, soy oil, and sunflower oil Constitute more than 98% of total vegetable oil imports. They come from Malaysia, USA, South America and some other countries.

There's a big problem with highly refined vegetable oils. They look clean and taste clean but they are most likely unclean. The problem lies in the production process..

vegetable oils are extracted using a solvent, mostly hexane, a chemical used in solvent extraction of seed oils. Hexane makes the oil extraction very easy and fast. You must be knowing how expensive is normal mustard oil or peanut oil or coconut oil extracted by using ‘Ghani’ method. Because its time consuming and some of the oil is lost too. Hexane takes care of it in modern factories.

Since hexane is not an ingredient but a processing agent, oil companies are not required to mention the residual hexane in their products. But it sure is present in the oil. Even FDA doesn't have any regulations on it. How can we expect other small countries to be taking action?!!

Hexane is a neurotoxic, highly polluting chemical.

Vegetable oils also go through The RBD process- refined, bleached and deodorized. Most of the vegetable oils that have high amount of Omega 6 are inflammatory as well.

I'm writing this based on the books and articles I read on the subject and my personal experiences. You may or may not agree. And India can't live without refined vegetable oils anyway because it is the most popular in our oil industry.i will not cause any issues if you decide to go with them..

For those curious ones out there, In my kitchen i use coconut oil, raw mustard oil, peanut oil, extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, grape seed oil and homemade ghee.

The numbers given in the answers are changeable over time. If you think I should update it, please suggest an edit.

Source : https://www.quora.com