There’s Fats and Better Fats

This topic has come up a bit lately, and here’s the latest on what I’ve been reading.  Plus a great pdf resource you should have handy at the end.

There’s a few reasons why you will want to avoid certain fats and oils for cooking, and many of them seed oils.

1st.  Saturated fats are more stable than unsaturated fats.

The chemical structure of saturated fats will not be easily damaged by things that will easily damage and oxidize unsaturated fats, namely: heat, light and air.

Ever wonder why a lot of olive oils are in a dark green glass?  It’s keeps light from damaging the oil.  Ever wonder why coconut oil doesn’t go off or smell rancid from sitting out on the counter without the lid? – but vegetable oils like corn or soybean oil will?  Air oxidizes those oils and makes them rancid.  That is, damaged beyond the point they were when first bottled.

What separates the saturated fats from the unsaturated fats is the presence of a hydrogen bond at every instance of a carbon in the chemical structure of the fat.  When there is a double bond in the chain of carbons, it creates a more unstable structure, which you can see when a fat is liquid at room temperature.  So…
    – The group of unstable fats together form a liquid   vs.
    – The group of stable fats together which form a solid or semi-solid.

2nd.  Seed oils are extremely high in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) at varying ratios, all of which are prone to oxidation, PUFAs most significantly (Check these out in the chart below).

So – you wouldn’t cook with fish oil, right?  Why would you want to cook with other oils that are very high in PUFAs?  Even beyond PUFAs, MUFAs are pretty easy to damage as well (olive oil is very high in MUFAs).

Canola and other seed oils all made by expeller and chemical extraction methods are already rancid once they’re bottled.  Dr. Mary Enig author of, Know Your Fats, puts the process of getting oil from seeds, again different from oil from fruits:

“Fats or oils from some seeds, such as sunflower, are extracted fresh from the seed by grinding of the seeds, followed by expeller pressing with or without a solvent such as hexane. Some seeds require pre-cooking before the grinding and the pressing. Rapeseed (Canola) is such a seed. Mechanical extraction is considered to be a safe method, but because the recovery of oil by this method is less than the industry desires, most oils are extracted using a solvent… In this case, the oils are pressed from the seeds without the use of solvents, and without increased yield. These oils are usually more costly in the marketplace. The steps in commercial processing from the seed to the oil include crushing, extracting (by mechanical means or by use of solvents), degumming, neutralization, dewaxing, bleaching, filtration, and deodorization. Oils are frequently referred to as RBD, which stands for “refined, bleached and deodorized.”

The process explained above does not apply to fruit oils such as olive, palm and coconut.  Extracting oil from fruits doesn’t require as convoluted of a process and also doesn’t involve chemical solvents.  Hence leaving us with a healthier oil. We could probably make these oils in our own kitchens if we had some simple tools and patience. We couldn’t, however, do the same from rapeseeds and make canola oil (check that process on youtube).  So hopefully you understand the basics of how fats and oils are named and made, consider those that your using/heating/consuming and go with the better one’s. 

3rd.  Buyer Beware – Many refined seed oils are marketed as having a high smoke point, therefore making them “ideal” choices for cooking.  Whole story?  Nope.  A higher smoke point is valid only if the fat or oil is fairly stable to begin with.  Simply using the smoke point is ineffective if you already have a rancid oil (most likely, due to how it was initially processed) and one that you’ll possibly damage further with the high heat of your stove top.

4th.  Remember that man made trans-fats are never healthy to eat.   Crisco’s, Margarine, Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and blends of coconut and soybean oil spreads   … yeah, don’t touch em. 

So here’s this chart put together by Diane Sanfilippo – It’s inside her book, Practical Paleo.

Friday’s W/U:

Coach’s Choice   

Friday’s Skill:

A. Reverse Tabata  hold 2 inches from the bottom of a Push Up

B. Reverse Tabata hold @ the top of a ring dip (rings turned out if possible)

Friday’s WOD:

“Mary”

– 5 HSPU
– 10 Pistols
– 15 Pullups

Rounds in 20min

Saturday’s W/U:

Coach’s Choice – Include Hand Cuff Press  

Saturday’s Skill:

Jerk Dip (pause @ the bottom 3 sec) + Split Jerk, 3 reps, 4 working sets

 Workout:

– 10 Jerk (115/85lbs)
– 10 V-Snap

5 Rounds