What Are The Best Healthy Oils?

We have all been deceived by the clever marketing of canola oil. We have been led to believe this is a healthy oil, high in monounsaturates. That is is true, but it is NOT a healthy oil. Here's why.

Canola is made from rapeseed,a member of the mustard family, which was bred over the years to reduce it's problematic component, erucic acid. If you google canola oil, you will see that erucic acid is no longer a problem in this oil, but there are other issues. Canola oil is typically 55-65% monounsaturated fat and 28-35% polyunsaturated fat, with just a small amount of saturated. We've been led to believe that high monounsaturated fat oils are good for us (which they are), but canola oil has more detriments than it does benefits. The problem is that the polyunsaturated component in canola oil is highly unstable under heat, light, and pressure, and this heavily oxidizes the polyunsaturates which increases free radicals in your body.

The end result of all this refining and processing is an oil that is highly inflammatory in your body when you ingest them, potentially contributing to hear disease, weight gain and other degenerative diseases.

The reason that extra virgin olive oil is good for you is that it is cold pressed. EVOO also contains important antioxidants that help protect the stability of the oil.

So what are the healthy oils? EVOO (use for low temperature cooking or salad dressing), Udo's Choice Oil Blend(use for salad dressing only, not cooking, it's a blend of healthy cold pressed oils), Virgin cocnut oil (use for cooking at all temperatures, it stays stable when heated), Organic grass-fed butter(has a healthier omega 6 to omega-3 ratio than standard butter).

There may be some canola oils out there that are cold pressed, but these would be the only canola oils that could be considered healthy. Heating canola oil changes the architecture of the product. Stick to one of the several healthy oils listed above and your body will thank you. Do not be fooled by clever advertising.

Information for this article was taken from a variety of nutrition and exercise experts. The consensus among the experts I studied was that canola oil is not a healthy oil.