All About Oil and Cooking

Last week I was watching America's Test Kitchen.  In that episode, Chris was giving the results of their tests on olive oil.  I was particularly interested as I have been telling patients for years that the best source of olive oil was Spain, as it contains the greatest concentration of proanthocyanidins (the good nutrients in oils) in the world.  Sure enough, after all the testing that was done, his conclusion was the the olive oil from Spain was the best.  It's also the most expensive...around $38.00 per liter.  The reason for the cost is the quality of the oil.  Other olive oils don't contain the same quality of phytochemicals, even if the label says, "extra virgin."

What many don't know is that there is no defined quality control by the FDA as to what parameters constitute the extra virgin label.  As such, what Chris and his researchers found out is that the less expensive imported oils are in reality of lessor quality...my guess is that Italy keeps its higher quality olive oil for itself and ships us the leftovers.

Additionally, I agree with Chris in that one should not use olive oil in cooking...get a vegetable oil or high heat oil for those purposes.  The benefits of olive oil are optimally obtained in its raw or unheated state.  Avocado oil takes heating better than most other oils.  But, the rule when cooking is only cook oils in moderate heat.  Also, if you want to cook meat in oil, don't put the oil into the hot pan, but put it on the meat and then cook it on a moderate heat setting.

I encourage any of you who appreciates the benefits of olive oil not to cook with it but use it liberally on salads and cooked vegetables after they have been taken off the heat. Substitute oil for butter whenever you can.  It's truly worth the extra cost, especially since you don't need to use  much of the high quality olive oil.

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