Fats and oils: the good, the bad and the positively ugly

The different types of fats and oils

Do you know the difference between fats, oils and something called trans fats? Most people don't, so here goes with an explanation. This is as simple as I can get.

All fats and oils are technically fats, although we tend to call those from animals, fats and those from vegetables, oils.

Fats are is essential to your body in too many ways to mention, so you must make sure you have enough of the right kinds of fats - and oils - in your diet.

There are three classes of fats, saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats. 

• Saturated fats are found in animal products, coconut oil and palm oil and are solid at room temperature. 
• Unsaturated fats come primarily from plants, are liquid at room temperature and are easily broken down in your body. The three types of unsaturated fats are: 
• Omega-3 essential fatty acids. These are super-unsaturated. Once broken down they are used in numerous, vital health building processes. 
• Omega-6 essential fatty acids. These are polyunsaturated fats. They too are easily broken down and used throughout your body. 
• Omega-9 essential fatty acids. These are monounsaturated fats. 

Good fats, average fats and bad fats (trans fats)

Some fats are healthy and some fats are deadly. It is a good idea to know the difference.

• Good fats are naturally occurring fats that have not been chemically altered and that have the right balance of Omega-3, 6 and 9 for the human body.
• Average fats are naturally occurring fats that do not have the right balance of Omega-3, 6 and 9 for the human body. They are good but can do us harm if we have too much of them.
• Bad fats are any fat or oil from any source that has been hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, or in any way chemically altered. These are called trans fats and are reputed to cause heart disease and hormone imbalance. Even if the fat in your fish and chip shop fryers was once good fat, after heating a few times it has become a trans-fat or a bad fat. Never eat fried foods that have been cooked in old oil and even worse, old oils that have been commercially “cleaned” and recycled.

The balance of good fats – or what’s wrong with most vegetable oils?

Whilst vegetable oils have the good polyunsaturated fats that are essential to good health, most have them in the wrong combination. Most have far too much Omega-6 compared to the Omega-3 and Omega-9. It is possible to have too much of a good thing and the western diet tends to have too much Omega-6 for the amount of Omega-3 consumed. The reason we take fish oils is to increase our Omega-3 levels to match our Omega-6 levels. We can overdose on Omega-6 oils. We cannot overdose on Omega-3 oils.

Omega-3 oils

There are a few different types of Omega-3 oils, but it is enough for us to understand that we don’t get enough of them so we need more of these foods:

• flax seed oil 
• dairy products 
• broccoli 
• salmon 
• trout
• sardines
• walnuts 
• beans 
• mackerel 
• herring
• albacore tuna

Omega-6 oils

We get lots of Omega-6 oils in the following foods and remember, we have too much of these, so the oils below should be avoided:

• corn oil 
• safflower oil 
• soybean oil 
• sunflower oil
• cottonseed oil

Omega-9 oils

These are found in olive, almond, avocado, peanut, pecan, cashew, filbert and macadamia oils, and to some extent in butter and meat.

The good oils

Olive oil

Extra virgin or raw, unprocessed olive oil has long been known as a healthy oil and is known to be good for the brain. It is best used for salad dressings rather than for frying food as it will burn at high heat. There is some debate as to whether it becomes a dangerous fat when overheated.

Macadamia oil

Macadamia oil has the advantage of having the perfect balance of Omega-3, 6 and 9 fats for the human body. It is a nice sweet oil that goes well in sweet dishes and salad dressings where you want a sweeter flavour than provided by olive oil.

Sesame oil

Sesame oil is also considered a good oil, with a high burn temperature so that it does not easily become a trans-fat. It also has many nutritional benefits.

Butter, ghee and other animal fats

These are the best fats to cook with as they do not turn into trans fats under high heat. You can fry with coconut oil, but you might find that your food will not brown and has a greasy feel to it.

Oils that should be avoided

Apart from generally avoiding oils that are too high in Omega-6, there is a lot of controversy about what oils are good for you and what oils are not.

However, as there are plenty that we know are good, if there is any doubt about a particular oil, then the best bet is to avoid it. You should have enough variety with the saturated fats, olive oil and macadamia oil, but if you have a recipe that calls for another oil – much Asian cooking does – then check it on-line before you use it. Avoid margarine at all costs.

A final word on canola oil

When I wrote my cookbook I was living in Australia but since then I have lived in England. With apologies to all the good cooks in England, the English as a nation are reputed to be notoriously bad cooks, except for the Sunday roast which, in my childhood, they cooked superbly. I loved the Sunday roast with it's rich caramelised vegetables and freshly home made mint sauce or gravy made from the pan juices. But I was amazed, on my return, to find that the English no longer cook a good roast. The reason? Canola oil!

There has been a serious pro-canola oil campaign in the UK to convince the population that canola oil is good for you and that you should use it to replace everything else. It is used for roast dinners and salad dressings alike. It works for neither. The roast vegetables soak up all the oil until they are saturated with it but never brown or caramelise. They taste and look like slippery, greyish, oily, over-boiled vegetables. The salad dressings make the salads equally oily, but taste of nothing but the acid that has been used, often really cheap vinegar - but that is another story. Canola oil is proudly labelled on all processed foods as something good.

It is vile, but apart from being vile, canola oil is bad, for so many different reasons I will not try to list them all here.

If you are worried about GM - genetically modified - foods, stay away from canola. Most of it is GM.

But if this alone does not put you off, that fact that it goes rancid very very easily should. Rancid oils not only smell and taste bad, they are bad for us, confusing the body into doing all sorts of wrong things. The industry knows we don't like the taste of rancid oils - the bad taste is a warning for us to avoid the food that tastes bad. So the industry adds chemicals to stop the rancid smell. So now we are eating a bad oil with bad chemicals in it.

The answer is simple. Never eat canola oil or anything made with canola oil.

Don't believe me? Then here are some articles to read that go into much more detail than I have.

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/health-food-imposter-your-pantry
http://www.naturalnews.com/026630_oil_canola.html
http://www.foodrenegade.com/why-canola-oil-not-health-food/