I get that there is probably a more complex answer in reality, and probably an objective ranking, but I’m interested in what people’s perceptions are.
I avoid them if at all possible, including olive oil because it’s often mixed with seed oils.
If I’m eating at a restaurant I can’t control it and roll the dice, but at home I cook using tallow, lard, butter
My personal philosophy is if I can’t make it myself, at least once, I don’t want to eat it. So no processed foods at all. I’ve churned butter, I’ve rendered lard, but I can’t make seed oils at home.
Why can’t you make seed oils at home?
Why can’t you make seed oils at home?
Mix every 1/4 cup (59 g) of sesame seeds with 1 cup (237 mL) of oil. Pour your sesame seeds inside a medium or large pot. Then, pour in a cooking oil of your choice, based on the amount of sesame seeds you are using.
Well yeah, but the oils separate and you can skim off the sesame oil, then filter the seed fragments out. Is it just the hassle? That’s understandable, but I’ve made butter and that’s a hassle too.
Olive oil can be made at home by crushing fresh olives, similar to peanut oil, and sunflower oil, and probably several other plant oils I haven’t looked up.
Olive Oil: Healthy
Motor Oil: Unhealthy
I was in a post on reddit sometime when we all got lectured about how every vegetable oil sucks and it’s better to eat lard or duck fat or tallow. “You clearly don’t know about lipids”. Haven’t figured out of that’s true or not but I’d definitely rather use butter than margarine.
Coconut, olive, anything else just for occasional flavor but better if avoided, canola and soy are the worst. that’s my personal unresearched ranking.
Researched input on your ranking: canola and soy are healthier than coconut since they’re both multiply unsaturated whereas coconut is saturated and has shorter chains. As far as I can tell, canola has a pretty good profile of fatty acids.
Okay, again I haven’t read a thing so I’m not saying you are wrong. I’ve just heard too many times that coconut is better for cooking, especially frying, and also to be eaten raw. Something about oxidation and temperature. Whatever. If canola is healthier I might switch to it, it’s far cheaper after all.
Hmm maybe that means it yields some better results, flavour and texture-wise? I’ve only ever used coconut oil as a cosmetic, and the only research I’ve done is health-based. As a general rule of thumb though, saturated fats are worse for you than non-saturated ones, and the less saturated a fat is, the lower the temperature where it goes from liquid to solid. Ie, butter melts at a higher temperature than coconut oil, so it’s more saturated. Coconut oil melts at a higher temperature than canola (canola goes solid way below the freezing temper of water), so it’s more saturated.
