There are many myths surrounding the best type of oil to cook with. Mediterranean folk have cooking with extra virgin olive oil for centuries whereas in Britain, many people in the public seem to think you can’t cook with extra virgin olive oil! By no strange association, we even see producers of other types of cooking oils making unproven claims that olive oil is not safe to cook with. Is this what is misleading consumers in Britain into believing that olive oil should not be used for cooking?
Now, groundbreaking research in Australia proves that extra virgin olive oil is in fact the safest and most stable oil to cook with. Scientists at the Acta Scientific Nutritional Health journal tested the smoke point and various other heat tests on popular cooking oils including extra virgin olive oil, rapeseed oil, coconut oil and several others. In doing so, they monitored the quantity of harmful substances called polar compounds released by each oil. Polar compounds have been associated with the development of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease*.
Of the 10 cooking oils tested, the results have shown that extra virgin olive oil released the lowest number of polar compounds, remarkably the results were approximately 3 times lower than rapeseed oil.
This further reinforces the virtues of the Mediterranean diet and it’s benefits for human health. We hope you will find this Blog post helpful and feel encouraged to use extra virgin olive oil more in your life!
Notes:
The full study can be read by clicking here
The study refers to Rapeseed Oil as Canola Oil, which is the name commonly given to Rapeseed Oil in America and Australasia. Click here to read more about this
* Sarah Gray, pharmacist and nutritionist at the Olive Wellness Institute, quoted in Olive Oil Times (see here)