Cooking oils are unavoidable in a typical Indian kitchen. Experts say that a blend of rice bran oil and canola oil makes for the best cooking which helps to beat cardio-vascular diseases. Pioneer Health reports
Cooking oils are particularly suitable for making Indian foods more palatable by spreading heat more evenly while cooking. They also serve as the best source of healthy fat in the body provided the right kind of oil is chosen.
“Unhealthy fat accumulates in the arteries that distribute blood from the heart, making them narrower and eventually clogging them. This can lead to various disorders of the heart for which prevention is the best cure. Prevention could begin with the simple step of choosing the right cooking oil for your vegetables and grains,” Priyanka Kharbanda, educator, Public Health Nutrition, says.
Necessity of Oil in diet
Fats are used by the body to absorb nutrients. They power your muscles while you exercise and are the reason you feel satisfied after eating a meal. But one cannot avoid eating fat or oils completely. In fact, American dietary guidelines recommend an intake of at least 20 to 25 percent fat in the body. However, only nutritious sources of fat ought to be used to provide the body's basic needs.
For example, rice bran oil, which is extracted from the bran fraction of rice, contains large quantities of gamma oryzanol, which is a mixture of antioxidant compounds. “The main benefit of oryzanol is its medicinal effect on high levels of bad cholesterol. It manages this by disallowing the absorption of certain unhealthy fats in your food. Hence, it promotes blood circulation and overall physical health,” Kharbanda says.
Further, rice bran oils have been observed to be quite safe as far as adverse reactions are concerned and very few minor allergic reactions have yet been reported as a result of regular use.
“When used as cooking oil, rice bran oil, known for being a high smoke-point oil, is good for deep frying without providing excessive smoke when heated to high temperatures,” Kharbanda tells you.
High cholesterol risk
High cholesterol in the blood leads to deposition of fatty substances in the blood vessels. The accumulation of such deposits will eventually result in obstacles to blood from the heart reaching all tissues through the arteries. The heart fails to gain enough oxygen-rich blood for its needs and hence the risk of heart failure increases. A reduced blood flow to the brain can also cause a stroke. Fortunately, high cholesterol is most often the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices and can be prevented and treated.
Pick the right Oil
A substantial number of Cardiovascular disease (CVD) victims can trace their condition to physical inactivity and unhealthy diets. As Indians, we are used to cooking our vegetables in oil. Frying food in oil enables better transfer of heat where the oil acts as a fluid conductor by uniformly allowing heat to pass through the uneven surfaces of the food article and the utensil being used.
“What we eat should provide us with carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water based macronutrients, vitamins and mineral micronutrients. Certain essential nutrients can’t be produced within the human body. The body needs mono-unsaturated fatty acids and poly-unsaturated fatty acids but saturated fats can be produced internally and are bad for your health only when consumed in excess.
Benefits of Canola Oil
Considered to be one of the healthiest cooking oils available, canola oil, contains two main essential fatty acids. These are Alpha Linoleic Acid (ALAs), which is an omega-3 fatty acid known for lowering harmful cholesterol, and Linoleic Acid (LA), which is an omega-6 fatty acid, known for brain development in infants,” Kharbanda explains.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), canola oil contains Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) which lower Low-density lipoprotein (LDLs) (unhealthy cholesterol) and help bring blood-glucose levels under control. Canola oil contains the lowest saturated fat quantity in comparison with all other vegetable oils used for cooking.
“It is the only oil to have been described as zero trans-fat rated oil. A typical serving of canola oil every day provides roughly a quarter of the vitamin E required by an individual. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that shields your body's fats and proteins from free radical damage. It may also help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and memory loss,” Kharbanda says.
Blend Oils
It is unhealthy to totally avoid oil-based foods as high-density lipoproteins (HDL) (good cholesterol) are essential for tissue function and cell memory. Plants are the best source of essential fatty acids. But, not all cooking oils have equal levels of unsaturated fats. Both rice bran oil and canola oil have the advantage of low levels of LDLs and high levels of HDLs.
“The blend of rice bran and canola oil maximises its benefits while ensuring that a wide variety of non-communicable diseases associated with the functioning of the heart and the prevalence of obesity are avoided and overall health maintained.
“Both rice bran and canola oil are observed to work well with Indian vegetables and grains in particular. They make food softer and easier to chew (and hence more digestible) and ensure that your food is more evenly cooked. This particular blend is particularly good for the heart because of the mixture of omega-3, 6 and 9 fatty acids apart from MUFAs and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), one of the highest anywhere and the presence of oryzanol,” Kharbanda says.
Cooking oils are virtually unavoidable in a typical Indian diet. But those at risk of cardiovascular diseases do not need to resign themselves to plain food for life.
