Pan Cooking Oils

#1

Aside from lard, butter, meat fats, chicken fat, which of the following are recommended and which should be avoided:
Olive oil, sesame oil, almond oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil, canola oil sunflower/safflower oil, toasted sesame oil, and red palm oil

(KM) #2

I have always been told that sesame oil should not be used for cooking, it loses its flavor at high heat. Put it on last as a seasoning. I don’t pan cook with any of the others, but if it were a necessity I’d stick with olive oil, as it’s an easily extracted fat. I believe avocado oil has the highest smoke point of plant oils and is the least likely to degrade at temperature, and ghee will hold up better than butter, but they’re not on your list.

#3

Obviously the real fats are best, although I’d leave out meat fats, fats from the meat itself isn’t the same as lard and tallow. I’d add Ghee and and Avacado as they’re both very heat tolerant though.

For lower temp cooking, olive, sesame, still mixed on safflower (that was a big one in the Atkins days). T

Here’s the problem, The reality is there’s a chance some of the seed oils could actually be better than using (good) oils that aren’t meant for the high temps, simply because they’re harder to damage and oxidize, which is when the real damage happens and they become more unhealthy. Starting off not great is one thing, but holding together and not oxidizing is better than an oil that started good, then became oxidized to hell in the process.

Also remember, it’s not just about temp, it’s about time there! If you’re frying, that tallow and sometimes lard all day long, but just sauteing something, Ghee and avacado and food depending, olive oil.

#4

Can I use sesame oil for cooking egg omelets and does it have a high temp threshold for cooking longer in the pan?

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #5

Only time I use oil is to treat my skillet

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Polyunsaturated fatty acids are highly unstable when heated. The compounds created when they break down have not bee fully studied, so far as I know, but the research so far has shown them to be detrimental. See the work of the late Mary Enig, who was the first to raise the alarm.

So any oil that is high in polyunsaturates should be avoided. Here is a chart of some common oils, with the analysis of their fat content:

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As you can see, palm and olive oil are pretty low in polyunsaturates, but the other oils you mentioned are very high and should therefore be avoided.

Personally, I find that lard, bacon grease, and butter have the best flavour as cooking fats. Those are the fats we mostly cook with in our household.

#7

Thanks for the detailed analysis. Looks like most plant oils are high in the polyunsaturates. How do both sesame and toasted sesame oils, and avocado oil fare on this chart? High or low in polyunsaturated fat?

I’ve also heard that palm oil, used many prepared foods is an unhealthy oil. Any truth to that notion?

(Bob M) #8

The problem with palm oil is that some are cutting down forests and the like to plant palms.

Sesame and similar oils are probably best to add as flavor.

The one thin that I can’t figure out is what to put on my grill. It can get to 600F, and everything I’ve tried can catch fire. Tallow, liquid coconut oil, etc.

(B Creighton) #9

Sorry Bob, you really shouldn’t cook at that temperature. High temp cooking is generally detrimental. It just makes more harmful chemicals no matter what you do. I have a brother who likes to burn his toast, and then scrape off all the blackest parts. Still, he is getting all the consequences of the Maillard reaction which did the browning. Ok, I’ll shut up now.

(B Creighton) #10

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I don’t really care for this particular graph. What are “other fats?” There really are no other fats. All fats are saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. From the looks of it, they are calling MCT fats “other fats,” but they are saturated fats. But, I have to second guess that because in the palm oil line, they have other fats at a very small proportion, when I know they are fairly rich in MCTs.

However, your point is well taken, which is why I typically use coconut oil or butter for skillet “frying.”

(B Creighton) #11

As cooking fats, I generally use virgin[not refined] coconut oil or butter. Olive oil is sometimes used but only at 300 F. I just like its taste of it in some foods like my roasted lamb. However, coconut oil and butter have about the same temp limitations. Palm oil is also acceptable. Those others just really aren’t acceptable. Grape seed oil has a high smoke point, but I just don’t use it anymore. Those other oils just shouldn’t be used for cooking for multiple reasons. Soy and corn are fairly high in oxylates, which can get into the oil. Most of them are also GMO so they can be sprayed with glyphosate, and typically are in the states, which means it is becoming rather ubiquitous in the food supply. For these reasons the only other oil I will use is cold-pressed canola oil, if its non-GMO or organic. I use it quite sparingly in my cooking, because I enjoy butter and olive oil too much. Paul’s chart doesn’t really show it, but the polyunsaturated fats in canola are roughly broken down into equal amounts of omega 6 and omega 3 ALA fats, which I find to be an acceptable ratio. I now just stay away from the high omega 6 fats, because they compete for the same enzymes omega 3s need to be utilized by the body. I believe glyphosate is quite damaging to the gut microbiome, and even if that cheap oil has only trace amounts of it, the constant use of the stuff in the SAD ads up to lots of gut dysbiosis, which we are seeing in the US. Just steer clear.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

Nina Teicholz covers this in her book. This canard was started by American producers of corn oil and soybean oil in order to prevent (cheaper, foreign-produced) palm oil from taking their market share. They simply played into the fear of saturated fat they had already been inculcating.

#13

I’m getting a “variety” of opinions here as to which fats are healthy and which to avoid and why so. I really don’t see any consistency in your responses here except to say that olive oil although not good for extended frying is a good one and meat chicken lard ghee, coconut are better for longer cooking times. As we all know the medical profession will emphasize to stay away from saturated fats for our heart, cholesterol, strokes, etc. What are the real facts regarding mono, poly and saturated fats for our health?

(Bob M) #14

There are plenty of people who agree with you. Though what I find odd is that the French seem to have put words to this, and, as far as I know, use this all the time. Yet they live a lot longer than we do in the US:

But there are so many differences between the two countries, it’s hard to tell what matters.

I don’t end up cooking at that temp, but it starts at that temp.

#15

Don’t you find that cooking with bacon grease, lard, tallow, chicken fat can raise your bad cholesterol levels?

(B Creighton) #16

Saturated fats will tend to increase cholesterol levels because the body uses them to make cholesterol - another lipid. However, I believe if your body is making cholesterol, it believes it needs it. I don’t believe high cholesterol is what causes heart disease, which has been the fear for some 70 years now because of Ancel Keys. BTW, he did studies using corn oil vs the usual saturated fats, and his studies showed higher rates of death for the “vegetable” oil dieters - who were patients in mental institutions - so one of the best controlled studies ever done on the subject. Ironically, he retired to Acciorola, Italy, one of the longest lived communities in the world, where plenty of olive oil was used, and he himself joined the centennarian community by dying at 100.

There are people who I believe should not do carnivore for long periods of time. These are lean-mass hyper-responders. Evidence is showing they just absorb a lot of the cholesterol in their diets, and their LDL levels go sky high. For them eating a just a little bit of carbs will increase insulin levels enough to allow them to clear out the high cholesterol levels, and I believe they accordingly will fare better on the keto diet or very low carb. Soluble fiber from vegetables will also tend to pass more cholesterol through, and prevent its reabsorption…

One of the problems with using “vegetable oils” for cooking is that they are oxidized in the refining process, and even more in storage before use, and even more while cooking with them. While I do not believe naturally made cholesterol is a cause of heart disease, once it becomes oxidized, and the oxidized LDL particle gets lodged in the artery walls, there is lots of evidence that it begins the process of atherosclerosis. However, what seems to be the main cause of the oxidized particle getting lodged is too much sugar in the blood. Soluble fiber is undigested by humans, but the gut can turn it into SCFAs. The endothelial cells of the artery walls seem to like burning SCFAs, and they “relax” and the arteries allow more blood flow and lower blood pressure. However, when they are burning sugars, they tend to overpopulate, and narrow the arteries, also causing breaks in the artery walls where oxidized LDL particles can get lodged into the walls. So, all this is to say don’t worry too much about higher LDL levels. Worry more about higher blood sugar levels and insulin levels. The sugar is also glycating the LDL, and causing advanced oxidation. This is largely the reason people with higher A1c levels are more prone to heart disease and diabetes.

I am not saying saturated fat cannot be a problem. It definitely can be if combined with too much carbs. But, they are the safer cooking fat because they are less prone to oxidation and to start the oxidation process of LDL. A single oxidized polyunsaturated fat molecule can start a chain reaction of oxidation until quenched by an antioxidant, and this is a major reason I believe they aren’t a good cooking fat. The saturated and monounsaturated fats of coconut oil, olive oil and avocado oil resist oxidation. The “vegetable” cooking oils tend to cause an imbalance of omega 6 fat to omega 3 fats too, because they compete for the same enzymes to be absorbed and utilized by the body, while essentially providing little or no omega 3s. This results in a deprivation of the essential omega 3 fats needed by the brain, eyes, etc, and hence it shouldn’t be surprising that we are seeing a rise in dementia diseases, Parkinson’s, macular degeneration of the eye, etc.

Long, drawn out answer, but I hope it answered your concerns.

(Bob M) #17

The evidence that “saturated fat” raises LDL is sketchy at best. I went on a very high saturated fat diet,and my LDL went down (because if you eat more calories, which I was, your LDL goes down since it’s not really shuttling energy around).

Now, could you go on an extremely low saturated fat diet (like vegan/plant based) and if you then went on a high saturated fat diet, could you get high LDL on the latter? Maybe, but there are so many variables that it might not be the saturated fat causing much of this.

You don’t want to wade too far into this, though, because it becomes overwhelming. Here’s a study where they compared low fat yogurt + butter (the “bad” saturated fat in butter) with full fat yogurt:

This was a cross-over study, meaning the same people did the test for both. But the fat in dairy is > 50% saturated, normally, so you’re looking at different saturated fat, but it’s still all saturated fat. And there’s a 10 point difference in markers, which doesn’t seem like a lot.

I think they wanted to demonize butter, but it’s not that demonizing.