Oils and their quality in your diet

Oils play a vital role in the low-cholesterol diets, since they should be considered in the consumption of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils.

A plate of fried vegetables just has the fat of oil used for frying. If you use peanut oil, it’s monounsaturated fat, and if is safflower, it is polyunsaturated.

Types of Oils

The safflower and sunflower: are light in color and neutral flavor and can be used interchangeably in meals. They are ideal for salad dressings, for sautéing and baking. The sunflower is often used in the production of polyunsaturated margarines.

Soybean oil: it is light and has mild flavor; it is the world leader as the main ingredient of the combined oils and polyunsaturated margarines.

Peanut oil: has a slightly nutty flavor and is used in cooking guides, especially for frying.

Olive oil: is regaining popularity since it is known to be an excellent partner to reduce blood cholesterol levels. It contains 77% monounsaturated, containing more than any other vegetable oil. It is believed that thanks to it, there is the lower incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean countries.

Corn oil: Extracted from the cobs and is popular in America, where the crop is abundant. Has slightly spicy flavor when cooked and is predominant polyunsaturated fat.

The sesame oil, walnut or grape: These special oils are sold in health food stores and their importance lies in their exotic flavor. A few drops of sesame oil or walnut oil in a salad dressing, produce a huge difference and gourmets always appreciate these expensive oils.

Avocado oil: in recent years has gained in popularity, is a very stable to temperatures, and whose properties resemble olive oil, with the difference that adds virtually no dominant flavor to food.

Mixed oils: a combination of several oils. Can contain some polyunsaturated, but must specify so on the labels.

The palm and palm kernel oil: extracted from an oil palm is grown in tropical countries. Contains 90% saturated fats and is similar to coconut.

Coconut oil: It is a commercial ingredient, which is used to mix, cakes, pies, pastries, etc. It looks unique and hard enough without rancidity. In recent years, there have been several research that has shown that despite its mostly saturated fats, actually its health effects are not similar to saturated animal fats, and is highly recommended for consumption, even helps slimming.

Oils and fat quality

All oils have the three types of fat, but the predominant is the one that gives its classification.

Polyunsaturated oils: In this classification, we find safflower, sunflower, walnut, corn, soybeans, wheat germ, cotton seed, sesame, grapeseed.

Monounsaturated Oils: The oils in this group are the olive, canola, peanut and avocado.

Saturated oils: coconut, palm and palm kernel.

Depending on the amount and quality of oil, vegetable oils are a good addition to your diet, remember that fat is necessary in our diets, and even in the midst of a diet is recommended to consume at least 3 tablespoons of healthy oils daily.

Fat is important not only as an energy source, since is also involved in the absorption and transportation for nutrients.

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