There are a lot of health myths being spread out there! There are a lot of people who have the desire to eat healthy, nutritious food and many of them fool themselves they actually do it. I have noticed that most healthy eaters consider olive oil to be the best fat source and use it for everything. When I go to a friend’s house, all of them always rush to show me the olive oil and start bragging that they are living healthy!
I will first say that there is nothing wrong with olive oil, but as long as you do not use it for cooking- i.e. olive oil is great for your salad, but it is not a good idea for your scrambled eggs!
In order to understand what I am trying to say, I will allow myself to simplify fats, by dividing them in two groups- saturated fats and unsaturated fats.
Saturated fats, unlike the unsaturated fats are more stable. What that means is that under heat, saturated fats’ chemical structure can’t be broken down easy. Unsaturated fats, though, have the opposite characteristic- heat and light can easily change their chemical structure!
In order to keep on going with my explanation, I will give you a couple examples for both type of fats, so you can visualize what I am talking about! Saturated fats are animal fats, coconut butter,palm butter. Unsaturated fats are olive oil, sesame oil,avocado.
Did you ever give it a thought why your olive oil comes in dark bottles? One of the reasons is that unsaturated fats, go bad not only when heated but when exposed to light. Thus, if you leave olive oil in a bowl on your table for a night it will probably become rancid. And I assure you that this ain’t gonna happen if you leave your butter on the table for a night.
When exposed to heat, unsaturated fats break down quickly and this oxidizes them and they become toxic!
Fats that became toxic, once ingested,and don’t get accepted by your body as natural fats. The body doesn’t recognize them and mistakens them with toxins. Toxins are stored in fat cells. That in turn, leads to inflamation and inflamed cells are the reason for a lot of diseases and weight gain!
Because I know that it is terrible when somebody says “Don’t do that!” but never gives an advice what you should do, I will divide fats in three groups- fats that are good for cooking over heat, fats that are good for cold use and fats that you should forget about!
Right now, these are the fats I could think of. If you can think of more, just share them in the comments and I will add them in the list!
No matter how you eat, what is your nutrition plan I ask you to quit using olive oil when cooking! Even its smell when heated is terrible! Stop using unsaturated fats for cooking! Use butter,ghee and lard and you won’t be sorry!