Diets and Dieting for Weight Loss.

Healthy Diets: Cooking with Oils

We’ve all been taught through the years, what to eat for good nutrition. Follow the four food groups and you’ll be set. But the way you cook your food can play a major role in nutrition.

There are so many cooking oils and butter products on the market, each one claiming to be better than the others, it’s a little confusing to know which cooking oils to use for good nutrition, and which to avoid.

Editor: Miss Fitness

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1. Canola oil
Canola oil is a popular oil. Many doctors claim that it can lower the risk of heart disease. Canola oil is low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and offers the most favrable fatty acid composition when compared to the other oils.

Use canola oil in sauting, as a marinade and even in low temperature stir frying. It has more of a bland flavor, making it a great cooking oil for nutritional foods that contain many spices. Unlike other oils, this won't interfere with the taste of your meal.

2. Olive oil
Cooking with Olive oil offers a very distinct flavor with plenty of heart healthy ingedients. The oil is rich in monounsaturated fat, helps to lower cholesterol
levels and reduce risk of cancer. It's also rich in antioxidants and has a very long storage life.

It can be used in cooking, but it is the healthiest when uncooked, such as with a salad or dipping sauce. When cooking with olive oil, heat it on low to medium temperatures, avoiding higher heat as to not cook out the nutritional components.

3. Butter
Cooking with butter is one of the oldest ways to cook your food. Butter tastes good, and offers sources of nutrition in the way of Vitamin A and other fat soluble vitamins such as E, K, and even D. Butter is also made from natural ingredients and not chemically or artificially processed.

Cook with butter when baking, or even as a spread. Use it also when making creamy sauces, marinades, baked dishes, or even bread.

4. Margarine
Margarine was first introduced as an alternative to high fat butter. When it was first created it was loaded with trans fat, a substance that we now know raises bad cholesterol. Margarine has reduced its trans fat, but you should still check the label.

As a cooking oil, margarine tastes good, it's lower in fat than most oils and butter, and it's easy to spread. It's available in a number of nutritional products and a good source of vitamin E.

When it comes to cooking with oils, there are many to choose from, many more than what is mentioned in this nutrtion article, although the described here are the most popular. Knowing your nutrition and Eating healthy involves cooking healthy food - which is where your cooking oil really takes center stage.