Why You Should Never Use Vegetable Oils

If you are like anything like 'the rest of us' you have a cupboard filled with old and probably out of date cooking oils like canola and corn oil.

The other day, I went on a cupboard cleaning binge and literally threw out the entire lot of these oils. It was in my Grandmother's day that these oils were considered 'heart healthy', but recent science and changes in farm practices have dramatically changed this idea.

Sources of 'fat' has always been and probably will always be a source of great confusion. With 'low-fat', 'no-fat', 'good-fat', 'bad-fat' and other similar phrasing, it is difficult to know what to buy.

Some is okay to heat, others is dangerous...so how do we navigate the grocery store with all this conflicting knowledge floating around in our brains.

Processed vegetables oils, have always been marketed, as low in cholesterol and saturated fat, so always a better alternative to things like lard and butter, right?

Well, with changing times, this thinking is not always correct.

There are current research links that an increased consumption of vegetable oils like canola and corn oil are actually contributors of certain diseases like cancers, mental diseases and digestive diseases.

Part of this comes from how they are grown and processed and part of comes from the high heats that they are exposed to during cooking.

The sad truth in America is that most oils that are commonly used like canola and corn come from genetically modified

plants.

During processing so that they are palatable, they are often deodorized with chemicals so that they are more edible.

They are also processed so much that most, if not all, of the nutritional value are removed so that they do not go rancid on your shelf. Ever wonder why that out of date canola oil still looks and smells alright?

So what should you choose?

Butter (farm fresh when possible) is what we choose instead of vegetable shortening for baking.

Coconut oil is a great choice for cooking with high heat, because it has a high tolerance and is less likely to break down and give off toxic by products. Also, once it is cooked the coconut smell is so much less than when it is raw.

Grapeseed oil is another good option for cooking with.

For salad dressings, I like to use a mix of cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil, flax oil and hemp seed oil.

If you want to learn more about smoke points of certain oils, check this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

Grandmother's Kitchen Nutritionist - Heidi Rasmussen, BScN