How much oil is good for you?

Chennai

Traditional Indian cooking oils like ghee, coconut and mustard oil are healthier than the modern day refined or olive oils, according to experts, writing in the Indian Heart Journal (IHJ), the official peer-reviewed open access journal  of the Cardiological Society of India (CSI).

Experts say that refined oils degrade easily, and therefore, should be avoided for frying. On the contrary, oils high in saturated fats (like ghee or coconut oil) can be used for Indian cooking, as they are comparatively stable during frying.

Grandmother’s wisdom across India varies when it comes to cooking oil. Coconut oil is omnipresent in states like Kerala, while mustard oil alone makes the cut in the Bengal belt. Each of these oils is a part of regional cooking culture, but have now gained enhanced currency with doctors terming them the ‘healthier’ options.

Refined or traditional?

Refined is the process and should not be confused with the category of oil, says consultant dietician Dr Dharini Krishnan. She says, “Refining is only  a process of cleaning and could be anything from refined sunflower to refined coconut oil.”

She adds that the aspect of degrading while frying applies to olive oil since it has a very low melting point. “But that’s not true of sunflower oil; mustard, groundnut and gingelly oils are better and have three essential fatty acids in proportion, needed for healthy heart,” Dr Dharini observes.

When you overheat oils during frying or deep frying, it leads to hydrogenation and there is lot of bleaching, points out Dr B Madan Mohan, interventional cardiologist, Fortis Malar Hospital. “As a result, refined oils turn into trans fats that are a huge  risk factor in cardiovascular  diseases,” he says.

Any oil in excess is bad

For the diabetics and those with hypertension or high cholesterol, the standard advice from doctors has always been ‘avoid oily food’. And this holds good, whether you are using mustard, coconut, sunflower or olive oil, says Dr RP Rajesh, consultant diabetologist, Dr Mehta’s Hospitals.  “But whether you are diabetic or not, always restrict your oil consumption to three or four spoons a day. This includes occasional indulgence in deep-fried products. For a diabetic, it is not just important to monitor the consumption of sugar, but also the calorie count, which increases with deep-fried food,” he adds.

Which oil is good for you?

No one theory can be generalised, especially in a country like India, with cooking methods being part of a region’s culture and defying  standardisation and the widely differing prevalence rate of diabetes—17 per cent in big cities and about 6 per cent in Kashmir. “But ideally, the oils should be a combination of saturated and unsaturated,” Dr Rajesh says.

Dr Madan Mohan says that all oils have both components and they should be taken as per recommendations. “Rice bran oil is very good, so are sesame and sunflower oils,” he adds.

Coconut oil was once put on the backburner because of studies terming it unhealthy, “But after another set of studies revealed that this may not be true, it is in huge demand today in the US,” Dr Dharini says, adding that moderation is the key in all cases.

Facts about oil

Coconut oil is one of the richest sources of saturated fat, with almost 90 per cent of the fatty acids in it being saturated.

Sesame oil is composed of the following fatty acids: linoleic acid (41 per cent of the total), oleic acid (39 per cent), palmitic acid (8 per cent), stearic acid (5 per cent) and others in small amounts.

Mustard oil has about 60 per cent monounsaturated fatty acids (42 per cent erucic acid and 12 per cent oleic acid); it has about 21 per cent polyunsaturated fats (6 per cent omega-3 alpha-linoleic acid and 15 per cent omega-6 linoleic acid), and about 12 per cent saturated fat.  Sunflower oil is high in the essential vitamin E and low in saturated fat. The two most common types of sunflower oil are linoleic and high oleic. Refining