For The Love Of Healthy Food : Vegetable Oil vs Palm Oil

This debate will not even come up when you are cooking certain things, for instance, I definitely don't want to eat fried rice or potato chips made with palm oil! However, for long term reasons, the 'what type of oil is best for me' question is a very relevant one that begs answers. For someone like me who loves fried food (anything from doughnuts to akara and dundun and everything in between. Lol.), it is important to know. I recently came across an article about this and I think these excerpts are very enlightening:

Most of the oil labelled as Vegetable oil is refined soybean, cottonseed, corn oil or other oils produced under the impact of high heat, pressure and industrial solvents. Oils processed under this industrial conditions are UNHEALTHY for you. 

The problem with so called Vegetable oil processed under this condition is that these oils contain a type of fat called, Polyunsaturated fat which is the most reactive type of fat which releases free radicals when subjected to the pressure of heat and light, and hence is prone to oxidation. 

Processed vegetable oils contain Polyunsaturated fat which due to their nature of high reactivity under heat and light causes the most inflammation inside the human body tissues when consumed, thus bringing about ill-health effects like heart disease, diabetes and other degenerative diseases under prolonged usage. 

Take note that what makes the so-called vegetable oil to be unhealthy for fat burning is the production process it undergoes. 

Saturated fats (found in palm oil) are more stable in nature and do not produce as many inflammation in the body tissue when exposed to heat and light. 

That is why common overlooked oils like Palm oil and coconut oil are the best source of oil for cooking. These oil have little polyunsaturated fats and contains more of natural saturated fats which are not reactive under heat, light and pressure and hence no oxidation which cause the inflammation in body tissues. 

This is also the reason why natural butter (Not Blue band Margarine) is one of the best oils for cooking in addition to Palm oil and Coconut oil. 

To recap, your best cooking oil is Palm oil, or Coconut oil or natural butter. Vegetable oil which is industry processed oil from soybean, cottonseed, corn oil, etc are less healthy for cooking or baking. 

However, as with everything in life, there should always be moderation. Even when you cook with saturated oils like Palm oil, use it minimally as too much use of it can actually help us gain fat fast. As much as possible reduce your oil intake.

                                                                                                     Healthylivingguy 

My Takeaways:

1. I should experiment with coconut oil and butter more for such dishes that won't fly with palm oil.

2. Even though palm oil is better, the local and unprocessed one is the way to go since lots of heat and light is used in the processing it and that might make it a bit less healthy.

3. I should try to reduce my oil intake generally. 

4. i should avoid overheating oil as much as possible.

What are your own take outs?

Source: fabafriq