How to Choose Best Cooking Oil

     When shopping for cooking oil, you always wondered which is the best for the dish making and what the actual differences are between them? So, which oil is the right choice? The answer actually depends upon the type of cooking.

I am not an expert but based upon some studies and my experiences, I would try to chalk out the easy way to select the best cooking oil.

I will focus on most easily available oils namely:

  1. Olive Oil
  2. Avocado Oil
  3. Vegetable Oil
  4. Canola Oil
  5. Sunflower Oil

Olive Oil
There are different kinds of olive oils: extra virgin, virgin, and extra light olive oils. Extra virgin olive oil is the most common of those used. It is considered the most healthy of all oils. It provides our body to get good cholesterol and shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Many doctors recommend the usage of olive oil in our daily meals.
No doubt, Olive oil has many benefits and is heart healthy in the true sense but in my opinion, olive oil should be used when you want to eat it in raw form. It should be used as a dressing on salads or appetizers like skewers and Guacamole.  (If you want to learn about how to cook these healthy appetizers, click here: Vegetable Skewers and Guacamole).Olive oil is the first choice for these sort of recipes.

However, in most Indian foods, we use oil for frying and have to boil our food. Here, comes my favored category of oil for such kind of food. As a cooking oil, we should select an oil that has a high smoke point and doesn't lose its nutrients. Most of the vegetable oils, canola oil, sunflower oil comes under this category. Their chemical structure remains intact at high temperature. 


Avocado Oil
Avocado oil has a downside that it is not easily available and is very costly. Otherwise, it is the best oil as it has a high smoke point and good for high heat cooking. It is also rich in vitamin E, monosaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids which are heart healthy. Additionally, it can be used for raw foods like salad dressing. It contains good fat and ideal for any cooking.

Canola Oil
Commonly used when frying at medium-high temperature. I recommend canola oil for Indian style cooking as it has a high smoke point. Additionally, Canola Oil has the least amount of unsaturated fats which is good for a healthy heart.

Vegetable Oil
Vegetable oil is actually a blend of several oils such as corn, soybean, palm, and sunflower oil. They also have a relatively high smoke point and good for frying but most of the vegetable oils are processed and thereby lacking most of the nutrients during the process.

Sunflower Oil
Sunflower oil also has a high smoke point and doesn't have a strong flavor thereby making it a fit for cooking at high temperature. Sunflower oil is also high in Vitamin E. It also has high omega fatty acids which are good for our body but only in moderate quantity.
   


***I recommend not to use the leftover oil after deep frying foods like Puri, Pakora, and Samosa, etc. With repeated usage of oil in deep frying increases the fatty acids in the oil and increases bad cholesterol in our body. Try to use little quantity of oil to start with***


****Recently, I saw a video by a famous heart physician. The best advice from the video which I liked the most is "Do not use any kind of oil in your food to keep your heart healthy".****

I will update soon more of such recipes. Do not forget to check my website.

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