How To Choose Best Cooking Oil For Your Family?

Being a woman means lots of responsibility and one of the major responsibilities is of taking care of the health of the family. While selecting healthy and nutritious foods is one step towards maintaining healthy lifestyle, cooking oil is another factor that needs to be considered if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle for your family.

Since we are family of three with two adults and a child, I need to be really careful about the cooking oil that is good for the adults and aids in healthy growth of my child. Though I use very less quantity of oil, still the right selection of that small quantity matters a lot to contribute towards family health.

Living in a city we have become used to a sedentary lifestyle, hence choosing right cooking oil becomes all the more necessary. Thus let’s be real and practical and try to consume very less oil due to many medical reasons. Now days we hear so much about cholesterol and heart diseases and in turn so many advertisements about different oils that we should use leaving all of us confused. Again though suitability of oil may vary from family to family, I would like to highlight which generally should work for every one of us!

What Things You Should Keep In Mind While Cooking?

These are general things that need to be kept in mind while cooking whether you are cooking in olive oil or mustard oil or any other preferred cooking oil.

1. Total quantity of oil consumption should not cross 2 teaspoons per person per day
2. One of the most important things to keep in mind is - that oil behaves differently when heated, it changes texture, color, taste as well as its nutritional properties. When the oil reaches its smoking point, a lot of the nutrients are destroyed and it can sometimes potentially form harmful compounds. Also, different oils have varying amounts of fats - Polyunsaturated, Monounsaturated and Saturated fats
3. We should not hesitate to add ghee in the food items for growing child
4. Always use mix of different types of oils during all seasons as different oils have different benefits and similarly harmful effects as well

What Is Cooking Oil?

It is a plant, animal or synthetic fat used in frying, baking and other types of cooking. Cooking oil is an edible oil and at times also used for dressing up a salad.

How Does The Selection Of Cooking Oil Changes From Season To Season?

Selection of cooking oil changes from season to season depending on the type of foods you eat in that season. For instance in rainy and winter season you like to eat lots of fried foods and parathas. And hence you need to choose oil with a high smoke point.

Why Should You Use Mustard Oil In Winters?

Mustard oil is the preferred cooking oil in winters because of the following reasons.

1. Mustard oil is more beneficial during winters as it fights dry skin and also fights skin problems, remove TAN and is also perfect for hair care and is also used to cure cold , cough and other issues
2. Mustard oil also helps in digestion which can be a huge problem during winters ad help in regulation of circulatory and excretory systems

Some Common Oils You Can Use For Cooking Healthy Meals

1. Sunflower Oil: It has a high quantity of vitamin E, which makes it excellent for being used in. Sunflower oil is a mixture of monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids. It has a high smoking point, which means that sunflower oil holds onto its nutritional content at higher temperatures, which is probably why this oil is widely used in deep frying chips, samosas and vegetables. People with diabetes may need to be careful about sunflower oil as it may lead to the possibility of increasing sugar levels
2. Coconut Oil: This oil is full of saturated fat. Studies suggest that diets high in coconut oil do raise total blood cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Coconut oil also seems to raise HDL (good) cholesterol and it has the advantage that it behaves very well at high temperatures. It is particularly rich in a fatty acid called Lauric Acid, which can improve cholesterol and help kill bacteria and other pathogens .The fats in coconut oil can also boost metabolism slightly and increase feelings of fullness compared to other fats
3. Mustard Oil: Has a near ideal fat composition but not very good as it contains high amounts of erucic acid ranging from 35 to 48%. It is recommended that you don't use mustard oil as the sole cooking medium. It has a high smoking point so it's very good for deep frying
4. Olive Oil: If you use Olive oil regularly, you are consuming monounsaturated fats that will help you lower your risk of heart disease and breast cancer, and that's possibly because of its high monounsaturated fat content, which lowers cholesterol. I find olive oil brilliant for with pastas for breakfasts, works like a dream with eggs, pancakes, you name it

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