Cooking Fats and Oils: Which to Include and Which to Avoid

Fats and oils are a necessary part of cooking, but using the right ones are down right essential to living a healthy and vital life. Just like rest of what we eat, a good rule of thumb with fats and oils is to always opt for organic and you should avoid overly-processed, highly refined fats and basically anything that your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as traditional food (i.e. basically ALL highly-refined vegetable and seed oils) – but to be frank, there is a lot more to the story! Not only do the types and quality of fats and oils matter – but so does their proper use. Honoring the various molecular structures of the different fats is the best way to insure that you are using them appropriately, without causing damage to the fats and in turn, negative affects on our health.

Here is a quick resource guide including the various uses for each:

AVOID:

 

• margarine
• hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil based “buttery substitutes” and spreads, like Earth Balance, Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, etc.
• soybean oil
• canola oil (rapeseed oil)
• sunflower oil
• corn oil
• cottonseed oil
• “vegetable” oil
• safflower oil
• peanut oil
• grapeseeed oil
• rice bran oil
• shortening (made from any of these above oils)

These oils are all highly refined, often sourced from genetically modified plants and are extracted using solvents and other chemicals. By the time these inflammation-inducing cooking oils reach your kitchen, before you ever even begin to cook with them it is likely they are already rancid and full of cancer-encouraging free radicals! PLEASE, I beg of you, read the post 4 Reasons to Avoid Vegetable Oils to learn more about why these oils are so bad and why it is gravely important to avoid them!

Additionally, do not be fooled by clever marketing techniques selling you on the “high smoke point” of these oils. This is only relevant information if the fat or oil is stable to begin with, these above oils are often already damaged and/or rancid due to their processing, rendering the high smoke point to be irrelevant, and the heat of your cooking will actually just continue to do further damage.

INCLUDE:

 

Saturated fats: Fats and oils that are primarily saturated are the most stable and best suited for your high heat cooking, they are not chemically altered with heat nor are they prone to oxidation – so they can be used both in high and medium heats as well as used cold. Saturated fats stay solid at room temperature.

Monounsaturated Fats: Fats and oils that are primarily monounsaturated fats, but that still contain a high level of saturated fats, these are ok for moderate heat cooking and cold uses. They are less heat stable than the saturated fats but are less likely to oxidize than polyunsaturated fats.

Polyunsaturated Fats: Fats and oils that are primarily polyunsaturated fats, can go rancid very easily and they quickly oxidize when heated. They are also highly sensitive to light and air. Cold pressed oils that are unrefined and in their natural state are preferred. Unfortunately the term cold pressed is not regulated with the US and often expeller pressing and other methods use great pressure which in return creates heat and can damage them fast. Without knowing the process in which these oils are pressed it’s best to always avoid expeller pressed oil for that reason. Polyunsaturated oils should never ever be heated, they should be stored with great care, for a short amount of time and consumed in small amounts.

Note: Most cooking fats and oils contain a combination of saturated, mono- and poly-unsaturated fats. When categorizing, the fats/oils are placed in the appropriate group based on their fatty acid composition, meaning the fat type they are most abundant in, percentage wise.

Saturated Fats:

Most Stable Fats. For High-Heat Cooking, Medium-Heat Cooking and Cold Uses: 

• Beef or Lamb/Mutton Fat (aka Suet and Tallow) from Pasture Raised Animals
• Unrefined Cocoa Butter
• Unrefined Coconut Oil
• Palm Kernel / Palm Oil*
• Ghee from Grass-fed Cows

* Please note: Palm oil and palm oil products, when not sourced sustainably can contribute to massive deforestation, slave labor and the extinction of various species. The damage from palm oil is immense. There are plenty of responsible companies employing sustainable practices, so it’s always best to research where your palm oil is sourced from, first and make an informed decision from there ensuring that they meet strict social, environmental and technical criteria.

Highly Stable Fats. For Medium-Heat Cooking and Cold Uses:

(while these fats do contain a large amount of saturated fat, these also contain a higher amount of monounsaturated fats than the above fats, so best used in moderate heat vs high heat)

• Lard from Pasture Raised Hogs
• Bacon Grease/Fat from Pasture Raised Hogs
• Schmaltz from Pasture Raised Chickens
• Duck Fat from Pasture Raised Ducks
• Goose Fat from Pasture Raised Geese
• Grass-fed Butter*

*Please Note: Butter by fatty acid profile is definitely more of a saturated fat, however since it does contains milk fat it has a lower smoke point and it is best eaten raw or gently cooked in medium-heat.

Unsaturated Fats:

MUFA = monounsaturated fatty acid

PUFA = polyunsaturated fatty acid

Moderately Stable Fats. MUFAs – For Some Medium-Heat Cooking and Cold Uses:

 

 

SaveSave