Know your cooking oils.

While oil is an important ingredient in cooking, not many of us are aware that in our journey to good health, cooking oils play an important role. As much as we should know the healthy oils, it is equally necessary to know the oils to avoid. 

Though it may come as a surprise, there are good enough reasons to avoid vegetable oils like sunflower, safflower, canola, soya bean oil and corn oil. We will tell you why!

Let us look at some of the important reasons to avoid these oils:

1. Vegetable oils like canola, soya bean oil, corn oil, sunflower and safflower are genetically modified which makes them unhealthy. These oils are best avoided.
2. What makes them unhealthy is - during the extraction process of these oils, the seeds are subjected to extremely high temperatures,that alters their chemical structure. This results in a complete loss of all the vital vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. It also negatively impacts the taste and flavour. To understand the bad influence of such cooking oils, it is important to know that fat is a major component of every living cell in our body, not merely fat cells as is commonly thought! Therefore the quality of fats in the food impacts the efficiency of body cells.
   To prove this, let us look at the way Canola oil is extracted, Canola oil is extracted from a toxic seed called rapeseed. Harsh chemicals are employed during the extraction process in a bid to make it healthy for the heart!
3. Vegetable oils contain omega 6 fatty acids in increasing levels. Overdose of omega 6 results in inflammatory diseases in our body.
   There is an increasing risk of conditions like Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity, heart diseases, asthma, IBS and Rheumatoid Arthritis with consumption of vegetable oils. Those with the condition could experience worsening of the condition if they continue to use vegetable oils.

Healthier cooking oil options:

Often, we have faced questions if oils from seeds or nuts such as groundnut or sesame are healthier than vegetable oils. To clarify,

1. Groundnut, sesame and mustard oils, found easily in India,  have the right combination of omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9.Even though there is an evident shift towards canola, soya or rice bran, it is wise to use groundnut, sesame and mustard oils. The filtered varieties of these oils are recommended rather than the refined ones.
2. Coconut oil is the magic oil for body, skin and hair. This is because of its unparalleled anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. Research has also proved  that  consumption of coconut oil helps improve key risk factors like Total, LDL and HDL cholesterol, and offset heart disease.
3. Tap into the unique fatty acid structure present in clarified butter or desi ghee, which is an option we wish to highlight. Desi ghee is a healthier option because it targets the obstinate fat from the body and helps mobilize it.

So it's time to take stock of the oils stacked in your kitchen cabinet and replace them with healthier options.