Cooking With Oils For Healthy Eating

Most everyone knows the proper foods to be eating for the improvement of your health. But it is just as important to know how to best cook the food in a healthy way. Since there are now so many different butters and oils claiming to be best, it is difficult to figure out those that are healthy and which ones are not.

Canola Oil

Canola oil is a very popular oil, and there are many claims by physicians that it can lower the risk for heart disease. Canola Oil is lower in saturated fats and high in mono-unsaturated fats, and it also has the best fatty acid mix when compared against other oils. Canola oil works well with low-heat stir frying and even as a marinade. Canola oil is a light flavored oil, so it works well to not interfere with the other flavors of the foods.

Olive Oil

Olive oil has a very distinctive flavor, and it is packed with many healthy ingredients that are excellent for the health of your heart. This is an oil that is rich in mono-unsaturated fat, and it is very helpful in lowering cholesterol levels, along with reducing risks of cancer. Olive oil is also rich is antioxidants, and it has a very long shelf life. Olive oil works fine for cooking with, but it is the healthiest form when uncooked, such as in a salad or as part of a dipping sauce. It is important to remember that if you are cooking with olive oil, make sure and only heat on low or medium heat, but never on high heat temperatures, because it will burn easily.

Butter

Butter is a food item that has been used for many, many years, and it is a very tasty type of food flavoring that can be cooked with or just spread on or blended in foods. Butter offers several nutritious sources of fat soluble Vitamins, including Vitamin A , Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and even Vitamin D. Butter is an all natural product, with no chemical or artificial processing. This is a versatile product that can be used with cooking, baking , and even as a food spread.

Margarine

Margarine was first created as an alternative to butter, because butter is high in saturated fats. The first types of margarines were loaded with trans fats, but this was before we knew that trans fats were so bad for us health wise. We now are aware that trans fats raise bad cholesterol levels, but these trans fats are no longer a part of most all newer brands of margarines on the shelves today. When using margarine as a cooking oil, there is a tasty buttery flavor added to your foods. It isalso lower in fat compared to all other oils and regular butter. Margarine is very easy to spread, and it is also available in several different products. As far as nutritious, it is a source of Vitamin E.

For healthy eating, when it comes to oils, there are many choices at your disposal, even more than we have mentioned above. Eating healthy only really counts if you are cooking the foods in a healthy way too, this is why knowing more about your cooking oil options is important.