Things to look out for while choosing a cooking oil

Dhwani Vora | May 21, 2019, 15:17 IST
What is that one thing that ensures that whatever you eat keeps you healthy? It's the cooking oil, without which major part of the food that you consume is incomplete. The choice of oil that you make also ensures how nutritious and delicious your meal is going to be. And this is why you're supposed to consciously pick it well with all the research that is needed.

For starters, you should pick cooking oils that are stable enough under any kind of high temperature. But since you can't always check it manually, there are a few other things that help you pick the right cooking oil for you and your family.

- Low saturated fats content (SAFA): Most of the saturated fats comes from animal sources. And not all saturated fats are bad, contrary to popular belief. This is because these fats resists oxidation as well as aides digestion, but you should always consume it in limits.

- Balanced Poly-unsaturated fats (PUFA): Usually it's very rare that you might find food that claims to have high PUFA. The popular ones are Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. Foods like nuts and seeds, fish and other seafood and plant oils are rich in Omega 3. Whereas eggs and nuts, vegetable and seed oils also have high Omega content.

- High Monounsaturated fats (MUFA) content: These fats have a few health benefits and foods rich in MUFA are olive oil, avocado oil and nut oil. These fats can helps with weight loss, decreases inflammation and also reduces the risk of heart diseases.

- Presence of Vitamin A, D & E: Vitamin D is very important for immunity, vitamin A reduces stress caused by lifestyle, vitamin E helps with heart issues and all of which protects the body from any kind of lifestyle diseases. Hence, all the three vitamins are necessary.

- Ideal Omega-6 : Omega-3 ratio: The ideal quality fat for good health is the one that maintains a good balance, the ratio between Omega 3 and Omega 6 between 5-10 in the total diet. For vegetarians who don't eat fit and other sea foods for Omega 3 intake, the consumption of cereal-based diet is very essential.

So the next time you go around choosing the right kind of cooking oil, this is all that you need to read before you make the decision.
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