Monday, August 15, 2011

Healthy Homemaking Series: Evaluating Fat Choices

Baby Step 11 - Evaluating Fat and Oil Choices

Challenge: Remove one bad fat or oil choice, and add one good one.

Why:
The fats we ingest have an effect on our hormones, skin, tissue, hair, brain development and function, heart health, cancer risk, and more.  This is why the type and quality of fats chosen is critical.  It is also important to note that some fats are only suitable when produced, stored, or used in particular ways.

How: I had a bit of a hard time with this baby step because I really rarely use fats.  I only own organic butter (which I switched to from margarine in the Lighten Up Your Pantry baby step post) and extra virgin olive oil.  I was pleased to see that these are both considered good fat choices.  I wasn't particularly into the idea of buying another type of oil from the good fats chart as they are expensive and mostly said to use sparingly anyways.  Instead I am just going to stick with what I have and talk about that.

 Organic butter.

According to Stephanie's The Good Oils chart, butter is useful for baking, frying, sauteing as well as spreading on toast or adding to steamed veggies.  Buying organic is ideal since most toxins are stored in the fat of animal products.

Extra virgin olive oil.

Extra virgin olive oil is best for non-heated use such as salad dressings or dipping bread but can also be used for frying at low temperatures.  Look for tins or dark glass bottles and store it out of the light to prevent spoiling.  Extra virgin is a better choice than virgin which is a better choice than regular.

Other good fats I may have to consider trying in the future are...
-coconut oil
-palm oil
-grapeseed oil
-sesame oil
-sunflower oil
-peanut oil
-flax oil

What fats and oil do you use?

3 comments:

  1. So my email is andrea.coats@yahoo.com! And I thought I had sent it sooner but guess not :)

    I use organic butter from a local dairy farm in the area. It is ten times better than store bought anything! Also, I love olive oil! I use it daily...

    Andie

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  2. I like coconut for higher heat cooking, and I like palm oil for frying things like tortillas for making tostada or flautas. I also have a very large thing of organic sunflower oil I was given a great deal on a while ago (10 dollars for 10 gallons) which I use for making things like fried chicken (which I don't make often). I use olive oil for dressings or lower heat cooking, and I keep organic butter around for baking and for making things like eggs and for adding to steamed veggies.

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  3. you should definitely try coconut oil - it is wonderful for SO many things! I've been using it for cooking/baking for over a year now

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