Health Talk: Why You Should Not Reuse Oil That You Use To Fry

At first the oil is fresh and clean, then you use it to fry plantain and keep it. You bring it out the next day and use it to fry yam, and then meat later in the day, on the third day, you use it to fry fish and then use that same oil to cook your stew. Does that sound familiar? I thought as much! While this is excellent practice in terms of saving cost, it is terrible practice when it comes to your health, according to experts, overheating oil harms your heart. Read the proof.

Jane is a leading nutritionist who writes weekly about health on the Dailymail. In a recent article, Jane shared the dangers involved in consuming overheated oil. According to Jane, 

While most people know it's better for our health to cook using oils rather than saturated fats such as butter, many don't realize that some oils should not be reheated or overheated. That's because this turns them into dangerous trans fats.  

Having said that, I don't think we should become obsessive about this. I've come across people who think they need to get the thermometer out and be exceedingly careful about the temperature of the oil, which just isn't the case. The rule is simple: there is a problem only when you reheat vegetable oils repeatedly, or if you let them get so hot during cooking that they start to smoke.  

By vegetable oils, I mean oils that come from olives, nuts, sunflowers or any other vegetable or fruit. These are rich in polyunsaturated fat. While this is regarded as a 'good' fat, because it helps lower cholesterol, if it's heated too much it can break down into harmful trans fats. 

Trans fats are even worse than saturated animal fats (such as those found in butter and lard) for pushing up your levels of bad cholesterol, potentially clogging up your arteries and causing heart disease. 

So, rather than getting confused about which oils are suitable for what, just remember you shouldn't use oil that's been heated more than a couple of times. It's perfectly fine to shallow-fry fish in a pan with some oil, and then if you need to fry more later on that day use the same oil for the next piece of fish. After that, however, you should ditch the oil. 

The real problem lies with some fast-food outlets such as fish and chip shops, where deep vats of oil are being heated continually at high temperatures and not being changed regularly.

As for giving you a guide for which oils to cook with, it really doesn't matter - you can use anything as long as you don't allow the oil to get too hot and start to smoke, as this is when it starts to break down into trans fats.

On the other hand, if the oil is too cool, the food will soak it up, increasing the fat and calorie content of whatever you're frying. One temperature test is to drop a piece of bread into the pan and if it sizzles and bubbles within a few seconds, it's about right. If the oil starts to smoke, it's getting too hot.

So, there you have it. Protect your heart. Managing heart disease costs a lot more than extra bottles of oil.