Many people mistakenly believe that frying with olive oil or sunflower oil dramatically reduces the harm of fried foods. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all.
As numerous studies show, the use of almost all vegetable oils in this case will be detrimental to your health. This is especially true when preparing food for children.
In this article, we will look at what specific harm fried foods can cause to your health, whether it is safe to fry without oil, and how to find an alternative to fried foods.
To fry or not to fry – that is the question.
Today, almost no one doubts that fried food is harmful to health. Doctors and nutritionists on screens only repeat: “give up fried foods, fried foods are harmful and poisonous.” But even I, I admit, did not fully realize that frying (in particular in oil!) is infinitely harmful.
And the point here is not even that with oil we eat tens of times more unnecessary calories (and many people don’t even think about it when they pour oil into a frying pan: an extra 100 ml of this product adds at least 900 kcal to our dish , just think, almost half the daily requirement!).
Having understood the issue, I realized that everything is much more serious than just fat, which will certainly be deposited on the sides. So what exactly is the main danger of fried foods?
Why is it harmful to fry in oil?
Most types of vegetable oils that are supposedly intended for frying (sunflower, corn, etc.) have a smoke point lower than the temperature to which electric and electric frying pans can heat up. gas stoves. The smoke point of vegetable oils is the temperature at which the oil begins to produce toxic substances and carcinogens that contribute to the occurrence of malignant tumors.
In order to exceed this smoke point, it is not at all necessary to fry in the same oil repeatedly. Depending on the stove and frying pan, the temperature during frying can easily reach 250-300 degrees. This means that in oil (for example, Olive Extra Virgin maximum smoke temperature - 191°C) at this temperature, reactions are triggered to form toxins and carcinogens, and it simply turns into poison.
If you do fry, what is the safest way?
An important point to remember first when frying is to use exclusively refined oils (the refining process increases the smoke point). The fact is that unrefined oils are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, and when they are cooked, free radicals are formed. They provoke the development of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other deadly diseases, and also destroy the DNA structure.
Therefore, any unrefined (salad) oils are not suitable for frying in any way! But many people are deeply mistaken about this, thinking that frying in Extra Virgin oil is most beneficial.
Remember, if we are talking about any unrefined oil, then frying in such vegetable oil is harmful.
I think it goes without saying that you can’t re-fry in oil that has already been used (even if it looks “like new”). Once used, it quickly oxidizes in air, and during subsequent frying, the amount of oxidation products in it increases sharply.
Smoke point of vegetable oils.
I will give several types refined oils with indicators of their smoke point (I’ll make a reservation that these indicators differ slightly in different sources - it all depends on the degree of refining. I’ll take the average values):
- Grapeseed oil – 216°C
- Corn oil – 232 °C
- Olive oil – 242 °C
- Sunflower oil – 227 °C
- Coconut oil – 232 °C
- Peanut butter – 232 °C
- Rapeseed oil – 240 °C
- Oil walnut– 207 °C
It would seem that everything is simple: fry yourself slowly in olive or rapeseed oil, not letting it burn, but that’s not the case. There are also pitfalls here: smoke point vegetable oil in principle higher than that of animal fats and proteins. This means that when frying meat, fish or poultry, the bulk of carcinogenic substances are formed from burning fats and proteins from these products, and not from oil.
Thus, as we see, the harm of fried food is not only that it is fried in oil.
And if you are wondering: “is it possible to fry without oil,” then, I believe, the argument above should dot all the i’s (at least when it comes to food of animal origin). Of course, for the same reason butter frying is harmful ( its smoke point is 121 -149 °C).
Let me just say in conclusion that you can always find a tasty alternative to frying (whether it’s baking in the oven or stewing with a little water over low heat). Now I know for sure: whether it’s chicken, fish or cutlet, for delicious cooking you can find them in many ways and variations 😉
What type of oil is best for frying food? This question arises because not every oil suitable for this purpose in preparation. Of course, no one can forbid us to use the oil we are used to, but since both the quality of the prepared food and our health directly depend on it, we will pay detailed attention to this topic. A detailed consideration of the benefits and harms of the most popular types of oil for frying foods may prompt you to reconsider your attitude to the choice of oil.
Proponents of a healthy diet are categorical on this issue and believe that frying food in oil is extremely harmful. Such conclusions exist not without reason, since:
- Calorie content increases. Fried food necessarily absorbs some of the heated oil, especially with regard to potatoes and pies.
- Vitamin value decreases. When heated, most of the useful components are destroyed.
- The toxicity of fat breakdown increases.
But those who love should not despair fried food, if you fry it correctly and use the right oil for frying, then the food will be enjoyable and beneficial!
Why is frying oil harmful?
Because even the most valuable oil When heated, it can turn into poison and become toxic, you need to be accurately aware of what oil is intended for frying. Reaching heating after 100 degrees, the so-called unsaturated fatty acids When broken down, they subsequently form toxic isomers - aldehydes, ketones. Any oil containing a significant percentage of polyunsaturated fats, which are easily destroyed at high temperatures, causes more harm to the body. In our article, critical heating, when the oil begins to burn, smoke and produce hazardous substances, is called smoke point. To make the dish attractive golden crust, the heating of the oil should reach 180 degrees. Being carried away by such food, a person risks gaining overweight, because body fat and carcinogens actively accumulate, and arteries and vessels narrow and become clogged with waste. Besides, impurity content should also influence our choice of suitable frying oil.
Heating temperature of food and oil:
Simmering food | 60-80 C˚ |
Stewing dishes | 80-95 C˚ |
Frying in a pan | 120-180 C˚ |
Deep frying | 150-200 C˚ |
Baking food in the oven | 150-250 C˚ |
Roasting over an open fire | over 220 C˚ |
Types of oils and their effect on fried foods
Butter
Such oil, although it forms pleasant aroma when frying, as well as an appetizing crust, it is suitable for this purpose only at low degrees. Smoke point or oxidation point of any butter from 120-150 C˚. It is 85% animal fat, the rest is just water and milk protein. That is why, with intense heating, it begins to quickly burn, smoke and go rancid - these are the impurities that burn. Since it is natural oil, without having it added vegetable fats Now it is difficult to find, in addition, store-bought dairy products contain a high content of antibiotics, hormones, and they are fed not with grass, but with feed, there may even be a question about whether it is worth using butter at all.
How and when to fry in butter
- Only at low temperatures;
- To give the dish a pleasant creamy aroma;
- It is necessary to form a golden crust, for example, on stuffed pancakes;
- When it is necessary to slowly simmer a dish in oil.
Clarified butter ghee
Ghee has already been freed from impurities, but this does not increase its benefits, especially if it was not homemade. An important plus is the high smoke point, about 250 degrees. If you keep this oil on the stove, it will not smoke, because it no longer contains sugars, proteins and moisture. You can fry on it, stew, and use it as an alternative to butter.
When to fry in ghee
- When you want a golden crust;
- When you need to stew or simmer a dish;
- When it is necessary to fry over high heat.
Refined vegetable oil
Refined oil is the most accessible for us, especially due to its low cost. It has a high smoke point, so it is certainly suitable for deep-frying and frying. But do not delude yourself, because such oil is harmful in itself. As a result of chemical purification and deodorization, it contains up to 25% trans fats, the so-called freak molecules. They accumulate in the body and are practically not excreted. Although unrefined oil is healthier for eating, when it comes to frying, it is recommended to use refined oil. It is devoid of taste and naturally vitamins, so it is better to use it in extreme cases. Sunflower oil, even refined, like corn oil, considered one of the worst for frying!
When to fry in refined vegetable oil
- To avoid the occurrence of foreign odors and tastes;
- When you need to quickly fry food over high heat.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The smoke point of unrefined, cold-pressed Extra Virgin oil is 170-180 degrees, which is quite low to fry food in a frying pan over high heat, but it is quite acceptable to stew or cook dishes in a slow cooker. Since Extra Virgin Olive Oil is extracted mechanically, without adding chemicals, it retains its olive flavor and aroma. therefore, it is considered that it best for dressing salads and sauces. It is recommended to use this oil beneficially in pure form, but it is also suitable for short frying. If olive oil starts to smoke, it will also produce toxic substances.
When to Fry with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- When it is necessary to stew or simmer a dish in oil;
- When a dish needs to be lightly fried;
- For stewing dishes in a slow cooker and giving them an appetizing olive flavor.
Olive oil
This subspecies includes all types of oil except the Extra Virgin variety. These types of olive oil are purified from impurities, and their named smoke point is much higher - up to 240 degrees. Oil pomace olive oil is poured for deep frying and used for frying meat in a frying pan. By heating up, naturally, before it begins to smoke, the oil does not produce harmful carcinogens. Feel free to fry and simmer on it.
When to fry in olive oil
- For stewing and simmering dishes;
- When to cook a deep-fried dish;
- To add olive flavor to cooked food.
Coconut oil
The smoke point of natural coconut oil ranges from 180-230 degrees, this is due to the fact that it consists of 92% saturated fat. Only 2% of polyunsaturated compounds undergo destruction, so it is ideally suited for frying over high heat. Coconut oil is very valuable in its original form, and even when it is heated, useful substances may remain in it, but do not heat the oil so as not to negate its value.
When to fry in coconut oil
- When you need to lightly fry or stew a dish;
- When it is necessary to fry over high heat;
- When to bake a dish in the oven.
Animal fat, lard, lard
Lard is more acceptable for frying than lard, since it no longer contains proteins and other impurities. Modern housewives, especially city dwellers, have long stopped using animal fat to prepare their dishes. It has a low smoke point, only 160 degrees, a special smell when heated, animal fat, absorbed into food, changes its taste. If you continue to fry with lard or lard, do not get too carried away, since livestock breeders feed their charges far from ideal food, often with the addition of antibiotics and hormones.
When to fry in lard or lard
- When a dish needs to be given the taste and aroma of fried lard;
- When frying is at low temperature.
Fried potatoes, juicy steak, crispy chicken crust, fried pies– all this may be tasty, but as we have already learned, it is not entirely healthy. When choosing oil for frying in a store, be sure to take into account the factors described above, but definitely, you can come to the conclusion that it is ideal for frying over high heat. refined olive oil and coconut, it is better to be careful with other types of oils.
An alternative to frying food may be steaming or baking in a sleeve or foil. Take care of your health!
The beneficial properties of vegetable oils can be listed endlessly. Daily consumption of vegetable fats helps people maintain health, get rid of many diseases, and also make their skin, hair and nails more beautiful.
At the moment, there are a huge variety of vegetable oils consumed by humans as food. The most common are olive, sunflower, corn, flaxseed, mustard, sea buckthorn, coconut, grape seeds, almond, cedar, sesame, rice, soy, pumpkin, peanut, apricot, etc. Rarer types include cashew oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil, manketti oil, borage cucumber oil, black cumin oil, rosehip oil and others. All
types of vegetable oilsthat are eaten all over the world cannot even be listed. And each of them has healing properties.But if you look into this issue in more detail, it turns out that not all oils can be used for cooking. More precisely, you can add them to salads, since in this case
vegetable oilnot subject to heat treatment. But using them for baking, frying and deep-frying can be not only unhealthy, but also very dangerous. Therefore, we invite you to figure out together which oil is better to fry in so as not to harm your health.In a matter of choice good oil For frying, one simple principle applies: in order for the oil not to break down during the heating process and turn into a dangerous form of carcinogen, it must consist of more saturated fat. Due to the denser molecular bonds of fatty acids, the composition of the oil should not change under the influence of oxygen and high temperatures. This is what you need to keep an eye on.
Myself vegetable fatcan be very useful. For example, flaxseed oil is simply a magical product that, along with fish oil, is a source of omega-3 fatty acids and also helps get rid of diabetes mellitus, gastritis, intestinal diseases, skin problems, and with constant use reduces the risk of stroke by almost 40%. But it can only be used in fresh, adding to salads and cereals. When heated, this valuable product it simply turns into poison.
In order to avoid such unpleasant metamorphoses, you should always try not to heat the oil too much. At the moment when it smokes in an open frying pan, very dangerous compounds are formed in it, which after some time enter the human body with food, begin to negatively affect his cardiovascular system and contribute to the growth of cancerous tumors. If the cooking technology requires particularly intensive heat treatment, you need to choose an oil that is more resistant to high temperatures. Such oil should contain less unsaturated fatty acids.
How to choose the right one
frying oil? Of course, we will help you with this. The very first thing you need to know is that you cannot fry in everyone’s favorite sunflower oil. This oil is an excellent source of polyunsaturated fatty acids. And it is very useful to add to salad. But pouring it into a hot frying pan is strictly prohibited. The same goes for corn, flaxseed and safflower oils, as well as animal fats (butter and lard). They begin to smoke very quickly, leaving dangerous components in the pan.Olive, hemp, coconut and
peanut butter can be used when cooking dishes, but it is important to monitor their temperature. It is recommended not to allow these oils to burn, and to always maintain a moderate temperature when frying or baking. To make it clearer to you, we will give a small example. The combustion temperature of sunflower oil is 107°C. That is, even if it just heats up in a frying pan, it will already begin to disintegrate and change its composition. The decomposition temperature of olive oil is already much higher - as much as 190°C. But even such a high indicator does not allow us to use this oil when deep-frying and baking dishes in the oven for temperature conditions 220°C. For this it is better to take rice oil with a combustion temperature of more than 230°C.The group of oils with high decomposition temperatures is quite extensive. And you won't have any difficulty finding one of them in the supermarket. The main thing to remember is to always buy healthy oil for refueling separately. fresh salad and separately saturated oil for grilling, deep-frying, frying and baking foods in the oven.
So, suitable oils for frying are: rice, rapeseed, mustard, red palm,
Sesame oil , as well as grape seed, hazelnut and avocado oils. As you can see, there are a lot of options. Be sure to switch to safer alternatives that will keep you and your family healthy. It is important to understand that some types of oils are better tolerated heat treatment and are ideal for frying, others, on the contrary, are ideal as a dressing and are not at all suitable for frying and deep-frying, others are entire storehouses of nutrients. Let's look at which oils are useful to us and which can harm us. It is necessary, of course, to fry in vegetable oil. Those. in no case with butter or any other fats. But again, we must remember that this oil should be very small. And if we can do without it for frying, then that’s generally the best thing. What oil is best to cook with? It is quite difficult to prepare lunch or dinner without vegetable oil. Olive oil is ideal for vegetable salads and fish snacks.Most housewives have long realized that frying, stewing and baking is much more profitable and tastier in natural oils. But which one should you choose for each type of cooking? There are many varieties of vegetable oils that are used as food. However, not all oils can be used for frying.
Recent studies by European scientists have shown that under no circumstances should you fry with linseed oil. The fact is that during the frying process, the fatty acids contained in flaxseed oil are converted into trans fatty acids, which are very dangerous to health.
These substances can provoke the development of cancer and digestive disorders.
It is best to fry in sunflower, corn, mustard or olive oil. Some nutritionists recommend frying in oil with the highest boiling point. From a medical point of view, of course, and not from a culinary point of view. This includes palm oil, but it is more common to fry it with olive oil, corn oil or soybean oil (but special ones for frying). Their boiling points are: sunflower - 120-140, olive - 160, corn, soybean - 180.
1.
When frying, we use oils with a high combustion temperature and low fat content.,
for example oils such as avocado oil, sunflower oil, corn butter, peanut oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil
2
.
When stewing, we use any low-fat oils., such as rapeseed oil, avocado oil , safflower oil, corn oil
, olive oil, walnut oil, peanut butter
3
.
We add any oils to salads,
both refined and unrefined,
but low in fat
Butter
Let's start the conversation with fat, which can replace sandwich margarines - spreads. Nutritionists believe that there is no better solid fat for humans than butter. Milk fat, they say, is an extremely healthy product, indispensable in the diet of most people, including those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases. Milk fat is especially useful for children whose digestive, immune and endocrine systems have not yet become stronger, as well as for people with diseases of the liver and biliary tract. Any Frenchman will tell you that it is tastiest to fry in plain butter. This is one of the main "secrets" of French cuisine.
Unlike spreads, butter contains many biologically active substances useful for humans: vitamins (A, beta-carotene - provitamin A, E, D), micro- and macroelements, phospholipids, lecithin, sterols, etc. And since during the production of butter Milk fat is not exposed to high temperatures; these substances are in an active state.
Butter contains cholesterol, which many people fear. However, in a daily serving of oil (25-30 g) there is only about 50 mg. And in small quantities, it is vitally necessary for the body to maintain the structure of cell membranes, the synthesis of steroid hormones, and immune cells that protect the body from pathogenic microbes.
It is better to use butter in in kind, spreading it on bread, cookies, pastries, adding to cereals and others ready meals. Nutritionists do not recommend cooking, let alone frying, with butter, since even short-term high-temperature heating significantly reduces its biological value. The oil has emollient properties and has a calming effect on irritated mucous membranes. Therefore, the medicine in the form warm milk, honey and oil are an excellent remedy for sore throat.
Now butter is 90% fake. Pay attention to the labels. If the butter has some name - “Kremlin”, “Smolensk”, “Vologda”, etc. - It’s better not to buy this. “Kremlevskoye,” for example, is a bad margarine.
Among the trusted manufacturers, these are Prostokvashino, Vesely Milkman, Summer Day, Anchor, and Domik v Village oils. The standard designation for butter is GOST 37-91. The date of manufacture and expiration date must be clearly printed and easy to read. When heated to a temperature of 100 degrees, the oil loses all its beneficial properties. It turns into unhealthy fat. But if you melt the butter without heating it too much and pour it over the dish, it will not only be tasty, but also healthy.
Melted butter
Ghee cow butter is not only a universal fat product for culinary products, which is good for frying cheesecakes and scrambled eggs, baking pies and other delicacies. It also has medicinal properties: stimulates digestive processes, in particular improves the functioning of the small intestine, has a beneficial effect on liver function, and nourishes the brain.
In Russia, melted butter has always been a popular fatty product and was produced in significant quantities. Nowadays it is rarely found in stores, but it is not difficult to prepare it yourself.
How to cook melted butter. Place the butter in a saucepan (preferably stainless steel) and melt over low heat. When the butter is melted, reduce the heat to low, ensuring that only a few bubbles rise from the butter. These bubbles form foam, which must be periodically skimmed off with a spoon until the oil becomes transparent and vegetable-like in color, and a dark brown sediment forms at the bottom of the pan. Pour the finished oil through a strainer into a clean glass container, cool and seal. High-quality ghee should be yellow in color, have the smell and taste of milk fat and have a fine grainy consistency.
The process of preparing ghee takes about two hours. The amount of product obtained depends on the fat content of the melted material. cow butter. From 1 kg of butter with 72.5% fat content, about 600 g of ghee is usually obtained, and from butter with 82.5% fat content - about 800 g. The resulting butter can be stored for up to a year in a dark place at a temperature of 2 to 6 ° WITH.
Pork fat
A good alternative to synthetic fats is lard. Our ancestors fried and stewed on it, melted pork fat added to dough for pies and other baked goods.
Modern scientists have proven that moderate heating of pork fat is not harmful - when melted, its biological properties and digestibility only improve. You can not only fry it, but also simply eat it. Moderately salted lard, with black bread and garlic, is not only tasty, but also healthy.
Unlike other animal fats, which consist mainly of saturated fatty acids, pork fat contains many beneficial unsaturated fatty acids, including arachidonic acid, which is rarely found in our diet. The ratio of saturated, mono- and polyunsaturated acids in it is approximately 4:5:1, which is quite close to the optimal - 4:6:1.
Modern scientists believe that pork fat is one of the most complete among vegetable and animal fats. In terms of biological activity, it is 5 times superior to butter.
Short-term heating of fat when frying foods increases the digestibility of refractory fats - beef and lamb, does not change the digestibility lard and reduces the biological value of vegetable oils and butter. In this regard, ghee and lard should be used for frying. With prolonged heat treatment, not only the destruction of biologically active substances contained in fats occurs, but also the formation of toxic products of fatty acid oxidation. With repeated heat treatment, oils become carcinogenic.
So, the quality of beef and lamb fat improves when heated, vegetable oils deteriorate, and when pork fat is heated, nothing happens to it.
Vegetable oil
You can cook food not only with milk and lard fat, but also with vegetable oil, which has a high smoke point. This is what experts call the temperature at which oil heated in a frying pan begins to smoke. It is impossible to cook food in oil with a low smoke point: it produces many products of high-temperature oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are harmful to humans.
Ideal for cooking are olive, grape and high-oleic sunflower oils - all of them consist mainly of oleic acid, which is fairly heat-resistant.
In principle, it is possible to fry in unrefined vegetable oil: sunflower, corn, etc., but only at a moderate temperature (150-170°C), which should not be exceeded. The fact is that they contain a lot of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which, when heated above 180°C, begin to intensively oxidize with the formation of peroxides, ketones, aldehydes and other chemical compounds, which not only give the product an unpleasant taste and smell, but are also toxic substances, adversely affecting human health.
Palm oil can be a good alternative to hydrogenated cooking fats. In our country it is currently used mainly in the food industry, but it is also quite suitable for home use. You can fry, bake, and season salads with it.
Like lard, palm oil is composed primarily of the heat-stable fatty acids saturated palmitic and monounsaturated oleic, so it can withstand temperatures that would cause most other oils to smoke and break down.
In addition to high thermal stability, palm oil has other advantages. To begin with, benzene and other organic solvents are not used in its production, so it is environmentally friendly. Further. Products fried in palm oil have a beautiful golden color. In addition, palm fat has the ability to retain tiny air bubbles on its surface, giving the finished product a thin taste qualities and friability. Therefore, they not only fry with palm oil, but also add it to the dough for cookies, cakes, muffins and other confectionery products.
Despite its excellent consumer properties, palm oil until recently was considered by many, and some continue to be considered, almost the worst vegetable oil due to its high content of palmitic acid. There is really a lot of this atherogenic fatty acid in palm oil - about 50%. However, in the world of fats, not everything is so simple. Biochemist scientists have proven that the nature of their effect on the human body depends on the location of saturated fatty acids in triglyceride molecules (in fat molecules). In palm oil, a significant part of palmitic acids is in the second, so to speak, position that is not harmful to human health. It is interesting to note that the same position in the fat molecule is occupied by part of the palmitic acids found in cow's milk.
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) have been studying the safety of palm oil for human health for several years. His research showed that people who switched to consuming palm oil had a significantly reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared to those who continued to consume hydrogenated fats with 20% trans isomers.
And the everyday experience of the peoples of tropical countries, who traditionally consume palm oil as food, indicates that it does not have a negative impact on health. The people of these countries suffer from hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, which are associated with saturated fats and cholesterol, less often than Europeans or Americans, who until recently did not consume palm oil. Taking all this into account, WHO experts consider palm oil as one of the most promising oil and fat products that can replace hydrogenated fats.
Replacing hydrogenated fats in your diet with natural ones is just the first step in the right direction. In order to completely cleanse the body of trans isomers, you need to do the second thing - abandon finished products made using synthetic margarine. This is not difficult to do if you carefully read the labels on the products you buy.
Today many are switching to healthy eating, refuse fried and fatty foods. This, of course, is correct, but how sometimes you want to pamper yourself with crispy potatoes, a juicy cutlet, and when you remember the fragrant pasties, the desire to forget about healthy foods and healthy eating. Moreover, if it is necessary festive feast, then your guests are unlikely to be satisfied steamed vegetables With lemon juice And boiled breast. Therefore, today we will talk about how to make it least harmful. This greatly depends on the quality of the product itself, the temperature to which it will be heated and also on the chosen oil. Let's do some research and find out which oil is best for frying.
What do we usually use in everyday life?
It will not be a secret that every housewife has a bottle of sunflower oil at home. It is used primarily for frying, added to dough, and seasoned on salads. However, the first criterion that formed the basis of this choice was the low cost and availability of this product. When talking about which oil is best for frying, you should remember that it is best not to use sunflower oil in your kitchen at all. The only option is to take a small bottle that smells like seeds and season salads, that is, use it without heating.
Choosing oil: what to look for?
We will wait a little longer to answer the main question about which oil is best for frying, because for this we need to deal with one more topic. Many of us were taught to focus on the smoke point. That is, the higher the temperature the oil can withstand before smoke appears above the frying pan, the less dangerous such frying is, which means that much fewer carcinogens will be formed. In fact, this is not true at all. We need to buy the oil that is the most stable, then there will be practically no danger from it. What does stable fat mean? That is, the likelihood of oxygen oxidation is minimal. When choosing which oil to fry in, be sure to pay attention to this point. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that produces free radicals and other harmful compounds.
Classification of fats
It's not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. There are only three types of fats, and therefore, when deciding which oil is best for frying, you must keep this in mind. The most unstable oils are polyunsaturated ones. They should not be used for heating or cooking food. This method will saturate your food with free radicals and increase the risk of developing various chronic diseases. This is primarily sunflower, rapeseed, corn, peanut, grape seed oil and some others.
The second type is monounsaturated fats. In principle, they are also unstable, and it is better not to heat them at all. The most famous representative of this species is olive oil. Very useful, but it should only be used cold. Finally, the last type is saturated fat. They are ideal for baking and frying and can easily withstand heat. This is butter and coconut, ghee and animal fat. If you choose from them which oil is best for frying, then the opinions of experts were distributed as follows. In first place was Coconut oil. A completely atypical product for our stores, but it contains 90% saturated fat, that is, it is the most resistant to heat. But that is not all. It can remain fresh for up to two years and, in addition, contains a huge amount useful substances. This oil is very multifunctional, so if you are thinking about which vegetable oil is best for frying, then this is the ideal option that will help you out more than once. Be sure to choose unrefined, organic oil. The second option suitable for heating is palm. Choose unrefined organic red oil.
Refined or natural
There are quite a lot of disputes on this topic. Both one and the other have their advantages. Refined food has no taste or smell, but there are no beneficial substances left in it. The only plus is that unrefined requires a higher temperature, which means it takes a little longer to reach the smoke point. However, as already mentioned, this does not guarantee that your food is free of carcinogens. Unrefined oil has a bright aroma and taste, which means your dishes will be especially tasty. But it doesn’t like heat even more than the purified one.
Healthy French fries
In fact, this is nonsense, you want healthy potatoes- cook mashed potatoes or bake in a sleeve. But you can somewhat reduce the harm of this delicious dish, and then the question arises about what oil is best to fry potatoes in. Choose coconut or palm oil; if this is not on sale, then it is better to stick with cracklings or animal fat. You won’t get a lethal dose of cholesterol, and your body will accept such a dish much better.
When frying with unrefined sunflower oil, acrylamide is formed - a dangerous substance. Therefore, if the choice of vegetable fats is very limited, then give preference to olive oil or, as a last resort, refined sunflower oil. But add it a little so that only the potatoes do not burn. We think it’s already clear without additional comments which olive oil is best for frying; you should use only refined oil.
Meat and fish
Fried meat is very tasty, although it is not the healthiest food. On the other hand, this is precisely the product that requires long-term heat treatment, which means that the question of which oil is best to fry meat in has no answer at all. Any vegetable oil, when heated for long periods of time and at high temperatures, will become a source of carcinogens. So do it another way. Make the marinade by adding a small amount of oil, but it doesn’t really matter what it is. The meat will absorb it - and you can fry it either on the grill or in a dry frying pan.
Speaking about which oil is best to fry fish, I would like to quote the advice of experienced chefs: it is best to sprinkle the fish with lemon and olive oil, and then bake it in a sleeve.
Cutlets
Juicy and tender, these meat balls are the most common second course. But what oil is better to fry cutlets in is not the easiest question. The fact is that the cooking technology requires heating the frying pan to maximum. Due to this, the crust quickly sets and all the juice remains inside. At the same time, in order not to harm your health, it is better to do without vegetable oil, replacing it with melted and well-heated fat.
Dough products, pasties and pies
When choosing which oil is best to fry pasties, do not forget that you need to change it every time after preparing the next portion. You cannot use deep fryer many times in a row. Ideal option it can become a mixture of beef and lard with the addition of. Moreover, if it is possible to fully use it, it is better to use it.
So, the most popular today are olive, sunflower and linseed oil. Almost no one uses the latter for frying, which means we are left with two “candidates” for the title of the most harmful. Olive oil you need to boil much longer for harmful substances to begin to form in it. And experienced chefs advise pouring a little water into the frying pan before frying, then add all the ingredients and finally add oil. You can try another option: fry in a dry frying pan, adding oil only at the end of cooking. And don’t forget to choose good non-stick cookware, because we add oil precisely so that food does not stick to the surface.