What Are The Best Oils For You?

What Are The Best Oils To Cook With?

When you stock your kitchen with the best oils it is easy to make good choices. When deciding what oils to stock your pantry with, there are three things to consider.

Health Benefits Of Oils

When choosing your cooking oils think about more than just health benefits. Consider these three things:

1. Nutritional health benefits: Use the oils that add value to your health. Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are the “good fats.” They are good for your heart, your cholesterol, and your overall health.
2. Flash or smoke point: How hot can it be heated and what types of cooking do you do? Many oils burn or smoke at temperatures too low to cook in a skillet.
3. Flavor: Intense flavors are good in some dishes and not others. Do you want your cake tasting like olives?

3 Best Cooking Oils

These are the three best pantry basic oils to stock your kitchen with.

• Olive Oil: With a moderate smoke point, olive oil is one of the best all-purpose oils for your kitchen. It is a good-for-you oil that has all the properties that are attributed to lowering cholesterol (mono & poly  unsaturated fats).

With a smoke point of over 400 degrees, you can do most stir fry or skillet cooking with it. Reserve the extra virgin for not-cooked recipes like salad dressings, as it has a lower smoke point and more intense flavor.

• Grapeseed Oil: This is probably the oil I use most often. With a light clean flavor and a higher smoke point, it is perfect for both baking and cooking applications especially when you do not want any flavor.

The “good” properties exceed that of olive oil. Grapeseed oil has been shown to reduce cholesterol levels when consumed daily.

• Dark Sesame Oil: This flavorful oil will add flavor to any dish even when using very small quantities, making it a perfect way to stir fry. The nutty flavor adds full fat mouth feel and flavor into your recipe with a low fat quantity. It also makes intensely flavored sauces and dressings with very little fat added. Dark sesame oil is right up there with the other two in terms of value to your health.

There are many other good-for-you oils that, but unless you are a trained gourmet chef these are good kitchen basics. A healthy diet will focus on picking the “good for you” oils.

Avocados Are Healthy Calories

Ripe Avocados

The avocado is frequently called the butter pear for good reason. A ripe avocado is smooth, silky and  as satisfying as butter. It also has a reputation for being almost as bad for you as butter is.

Avocados Calories

I do not know how many times I have heard “I can’t believe you eat avocados; they are so high in calories (or fat)!” Actually, when avocados are in season which is in the winter here in Pennsylvania, I probably eat a half of one a day. A perfectly ripe avocado is better than butter! One whole avocado is 165 calories. Does anyone eat a whole avocado? On occasion I may eat one whole half of an avocado in one sitting, but most often I have  about a quarter of one at a time.

The avocado is a fruit which actually is a berry from a tree that is native to the Caribbean, Mexico, South and Central America.  Most avocados eaten in the US now are grown in Florida and California.

Avocado Nutritional Information

The nutritional advantage to eating avocados far out weights the calories and fat.  Your body  needs fats to stay healthy and avocados have the fats that we should be seeking out.  When you look at the nutritional information, avocados have the good, monounsaturated fats in them. The total fat content of a WHOLE avocado is 14.66 grams. Butter has 11-12 grams per tablespoon.   What makes avocados so good for you though is that 9.80 grams of the fat is monounsaturated fat and 2 grams are polyunsaturated. This leaves less than 1.75 grams of saturated fat. Butter is almost totally reversed with three-quarters  of the fat being saturated fats.  In addition to the good fats, other nutrients found in avocados include substantial amounts of magnesium, calcium, phosphorus ,  potassium, iron, and a wide variety of B vitamins.

Avocados Health Benefits

Avocados may be high in fat compared to other berries, or vegetables as we think of them, but  they are the good fats! Studies have shown that a diet high in avocado will reduce blood serum cholesterol levels.  Some studies have gone so  far as to report a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels in 7-10 day tests.  The same studies have also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL (good cholesterol) levels.*

The relatively low carb addition to your diet is also a good fiber source. Stop giving avocados the bad rap. Make avocados a part of your healthy diet program and dd them to your meal plans.  Enjoy the pleasures of a rich good-for-you  food.

Eat Avocados For Your Health

It is easy to incorporate avocados into your everyday  diet and improve your health.  You do not have to eat a whole one.  Just incorporate them into a wide variety of dishes in almost any meal.

• Spread them on your toast
• Add them to salad
• Cut one in half and fill the hole with a low fat salad dressing and just eat it
• Chop and toss with prepared salsa and serve over fish or chicken
• Sprinkle it over cream or bisque soups (I love it chopped into tomato soup.)
• Make guacamole
• Stir into your stir-fry

Avocados ripen after picking so buy one that is slightly soft and then allow it to ripen at room temperature until it is soft when pressed with the flat of your thumb.  It is almost like picking a ripe peach.

Recipe For Easy Avocado Guacamole

We frequently buy guacamole in the prepared section of the grocery store, but it is easy to make.  Just peel and cube the avocados, then mash with the following ingredients  and allow to sit for an hour or so before serving with tortillas, celery or any dipper.

2 ripe avocados
½ cup onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 ripe tomato, chopped
1 lime, juiced
salt and pepper to taste

*National Institutes of Health, Office of  Dietary Supplements

Flax Seed Adds Essential Fats To Diet

Flax Seeds High In Essential Omega-3 Fats

The health benefits of flax seeds were well known to many long lost eras. Flax was popular for medicinal purposes during the era of the Roman empire. Hippocrates, the Greek physician born in 460 BC praised flax for its medicinal value, yet by the 19th century flax had been demoted to a commodity used to make paint and linens, and to roll cigarettes. Today, flax is returning to popularity, due to the “new” research on the seeds that show a very highly concentrated source of protein, soluble fiber and essential omega 3 fats.

Flax High Omega 3 Fats

Omega 3 fats are those found in fish oils and are essential or necessary to our body’s metabolism because we are not capable of manufacturing these essential fats or nutrients. Anyone who attempts to eliminate all fats from her or his diet is only sabotaging the body’s ability to maintain an ideal weight and immune system.  All healthy diets include good fats.

Add Flax To Your Diet

Omega-3 fats and other essential fats allow your body to perform all the duties necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Although flax seed is rarely eaten alone, it is easy to add to other food items.

• Add ground flax seed as a topping to yogurt, cereal or salads
• Many cereals have flax seed incorporated into them-check the ingredient lists
• If you make homemade granola, add some ground flax seeds into it
• Flax oil can be mixed into baked recipes like breads or cakes
• Mix flax oil with your salad dressings
• Stir flax oil into cottage cheese or even a portion of yogurt
• Sprinkle ground flax seeds over cooked vegetables

Flax Seed Needs Refrigerated

Your flax oil and seed need to be refrigerated to maintain freshness. Actually, fresh seeds store well in the freezer. Grind seeds prior to eating so that you get all the benefits from them. Grind only the amount you need as the seeds lose nutritional value quickly after grinding. If purchasing pre-ground seeds, get a small amount at a time and be sure to store them in the freezer.