As I understand it, some are pretty unhealthy, seems years ago they knocked coconut oil as bad for you, as well as palm kernel oil. Then the market introduced cottonseed oil, safflower, corn oil, soybean, a big raft of them. I think there are basic differences between plant and animal oils, but do not understand it. Is there any easy answer? Frank
No easy answer, lol. Different opinions on it too. Don't over heat any oil is true though. I always use olive oil, haven't gotten on the coconut oil bandwagon yet. It's not a big issue with me because I don't even cook anymore. Hungarians cooked everything in pork fat! Yummy.
Vegi oil (Wesson) is the only oil we use in our Deep Fryer for French Fries. We also use the same kind of oil for fried eggs and fried potatoes. Healthy? Never said we ate that healthy, but we try........some of the time.
I believe I was a kid when Wesson-oil was introduced and touted as healthful; cottonseed oil I think it was. Lard is said to be real bad, with butter second. My Mother, being Middle-European born, used lard and butter for everything. When Oleomargarine was introduced, she refused to have it in our house! Common Sunday dinner fare was Roast Pork and Dumplings. The "drippins" from the pork were carefully saved. They had some dark, thickish tasty stuff which was always floating on the bottom of the gravy-boat. Each person stirred it quickly to get some of that good stuff up top, then smothered the dumplings with it, after they had been topped with either sauerkraut or sweet-sour cabbage. Yum, yum! Ate this sort of unhealthy diet most of my life, must have "lucked-out", Cholesterol runs around 205, Triglycerides bottom of the scale, B.P. fair, never any chest pain. Would love to tell you about the wonderful Pierogi! Fear boring you folks, though. Sanoica is a Polish name. Frank
I grew up on a Hungarian diet, Frank. Nobody on my side of the family died because of heart problems. And no margarine allowed in our house either, that is still something that I won't eat, nor will my children and their children, lol.
Hungary has a most rich heritage including one of food, I believe. My forebears (wrong word?) are Polish and Czech; what a combination! A number of the world's foremost Scientists, Physicists, came from Hungary prior to WW-II.
We use Land O' Lakes Butter Spread on bread, mashed potatoes, etc.. For popcorn, will melt some real butter and pour over. That's the way we like our popcorn at the theater. I tell the Refreshment person, "more" when he squirting on the butter oil and we never forget the salt and Coke.
All bottled oils are dangerous because when you open it the oxygen enters and oxidizes the oil. Now you are putting in your body a free radical and if you are to heat it becomes a trans fat which is even more dangerous. Good oils are your omegas which are en capsulated in a non oxygenated process. Oils became popular because the American Heart Association tried to say that saturated fat was bad and had no scientific proof. Now finally the FDA has come out to say the problems of arteries clogging was from oils and not saturated fat.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/healthy-cooking-oils-buyers-guide?page=2 This article should help you Frank.
I too like to use healthy oils for cooking and baking. Here is a site that makes things a whole lot easier to understand about oils. http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/healthy-cooking-oils-buyers-guide I use olive oils the most for they are the healthiest. I buy the virgin which is green in color and the light olive oil. The cheapest store I've seen so far for oils is Walmart. Good luck in choosing a healthy oil for your family.
Lately, my wife cooks a lot without oils of any kind. She has tried the ceramic fry pans, and likes them. Tonight she re-heated some ham we brought home yesterday from an overly-abundant breakfast meal. She tossed the ham on one of the new-fangled skillets, heated it until any possibility of bacteria was gone, no oil or shortening of any kind. Technology is good, if one uses it correctly, IMO. Frank
I use olive oil to cook and butter as a spread. I never use processed oils or spreads, as I believe the natural products are the healthiest and have a superior taste anyway. I was reared on a lard and butter with lashings of beef dripping and all sorts of fatty goodies, but as in @Chrissy Page case no one in my family died of heart or vascular problems.
If you want to see what oxidization it is easily just cut an apple leave it out and see how fast it goes brown that is the oil in the apple oxidizing. If you put lemon juice on it when you cut it which is an antioxidant this process of going brown takes a lot longer. Even though they say olive oil is good it will also oxidize when exposed to the air. I use lard and butter even making banana chips in the oven with lard only heating it to 325 degrees. We don’t fry but I use the fry pan to make scrambled eggs in butter at low temperatures.
We have gone back to natural products as much as possible starting at least 20 ears ago. Lard or bacon grease,not Crisco. Butter, not margarine. Cane sugar, honey, maple syrup, not artificial sweeteners. I use peanut oil in the deep fryer and besides lard or bacon drippings, I have added coconut oil recently for frying. I usually fry eggs in butter. We have not eaten white bread in at least 30 years. I think that was our first thing to change. The grocery stores are so full of unhealthy things it's near impossible to avoid them all, but we do the best we can.