Avocado Oil

Chrismadison100

I was using strictly olive oil in lieu of butter, margarine, oils but discovered that I was getting too many hidden calories from it. A woman at my health club suggested that I use avocado oil. Has anyone used it? What is the differences between olive oil and avocado oils?

Alatariel75

Oil is fat and has higher calories as a result. That's not 'hidden'. Oil is fat, fat is 9 calories a gram. Change oils for taste or other health benefits, but these's no real difference in calories.

DaddieCat

I'm pretty sure that all oils have the same amount of calories, since they are a refined fat... which means 120 calories per tablespoon no matter which one you choose.

Chrismadison100

Health wise. Is one better than the other?

DaddieCat

I've never seen any evidence to make me think so. To my current knowledge, the only fat to be concerned with is Trans Fat, which is getting harder and harder to find anyway.

lucys1225

I use both olive and avocado oil. Since avocado oil has a high smoke point, I use that for sautéing and anything using a high cooking temperature. I use olive more for finishing and dressings. Both are healthy.

jeebieheebies

For baking, use mashed veg/fruit (like banana, applesauce, avocado, sweet potato puree, pumpkin puree).

Instead of sauteeing, use a non-stick pan and water/wine/veg broth.

When roasting, use parchment paper or a silpat mat.

All a lot lower calorie than oil In stuff like hummus or tomato sauce, I omit it or replace it with water and don't notice any difference, esp. for saving 100s of calories.

cee134

I like to look at the smoke point of oil because once it hits that any health benefits goes right out the door.
But bottom line: measure how much of any oil you use to know the calories your are getting from what you are cooking.


Avocado seems to be impressive (don't know about cost)
Smoke Point: 520°F (271°C)
Omega-6: Omega-3 Ratio (plus other relevant fat information) -12:1, 70% monosaturated, (68% Omega-9 fatty acids)
High in vitamin E.

verybrit

Best price on avocado oil is at Costco.

Chrismadison100

I will keep that in mind. I discovered that Trader Joe's carries it as well.

VeryKatie

It has the same approximate calories as all other oils, including olive oil. The calories aren't hidden if you just count them in your diary like everything else.

extra_medium

whether something is "healthy" or not needs to be taken in context of your overall diet. You can't just look at one ingredient by itself and label it healthy or unhealthy. Olive oil and Avocado oil are both oils, both fats, and will both have the same calories.

Chrismadison100

Yes. The bottom line is they are both fats and fat=calories.

RodaRose

Avocado oil is good on salads -- no cooking.

Chrismadison100

cee134 wrote: »

I like to look at the smoke point of oil because once it hits that any health benefits goes right out the door.
But bottom line: measure how much of any oil you use to know the calories your are getting from what you are cooking.


Avocado seems to be impressive (don't know about cost)
Smoke Point: 520°F (271°C)
Omega-6: Omega-3 Ratio (plus other relevant fat information) -12:1, 70% monosaturated, (68% Omega-9 fatty acids)
High in vitamin E.

And it is a healthy fat but it is still calories.

savithny

How are there "hidden" calories in olive oil?

It's a single-ingredient product. Olive oil. 119 calories per tablespoon.
Where would they be hiding?

cwolfman13

Chrismadison100 wrote: »

I was using strictly olive oil in lieu of butter, margarine, oils but discovered that I was getting too many hidden calories from it. A woman at my health club suggested that I use avocado oil. Has anyone used it? What is the differences between olive oil and avocado oils?

I use avocado oil...it has the same calories as olive oil or any other oil. It has a high smoke point and is a great source of monounsaturated fat. I use extra virgin olive oil for things like dressings and only for cooking if the heat is going to be low...mostly I use it to finish things or sauces, dressing, etc.

pinuplove

Chrismadison100 wrote: »

cee134 wrote: »

I like to look at the smoke point of oil because once it hits that any health benefits goes right out the door.
But bottom line: measure how much of any oil you use to know the calories your are getting from what you are cooking.


Avocado seems to be impressive (don't know about cost)
Smoke Point: 520°F (271°C)
Omega-6: Omega-3 Ratio (plus other relevant fat information) -12:1, 70% monosaturated, (68% Omega-9 fatty acids)
High in vitamin E.

And it is a healthy fat but it is still calories.

Are you still using avocado oil, 2 1/2 years later?

Tacklewasher

Chrismadison100 wrote: »

cee134 wrote: »

I like to look at the smoke point of oil because once it hits that any health benefits goes right out the door.
But bottom line: measure how much of any oil you use to know the calories your are getting from what you are cooking.


Avocado seems to be impressive (don't know about cost)
Smoke Point: 520°F (271°C)
Omega-6: Omega-3 Ratio (plus other relevant fat information) -12:1, 70% monosaturated, (68% Omega-9 fatty acids)
High in vitamin E.

And it is a healthy fat but it is still calories.

Have you been using it for the last 3 years? How do you like it?

AnnPT77

Yes to most of the above, but in to add: Some fat intake is essential to nutrition. It's needed for cellular health, hormone balance, smooth digestive throughput (avoiding constipation, to put it bluntly), and more. It's also needed in order to absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) from foods.

Fats are obviously calorie dense, so it's not super-unusual to see people around here avoid them beyond the point of good, balanced nutrition - to try to get them out of their eating as much as possible. That's not a good idea.

Personally, I'm a believer in targeting something in the range of 0.35-0.45g per pound of healthy goal weight daily.

Which ones to use is a matter of choice, though there's some indication MUFAs and PUFAs (including olive and avocado oils) have some health benefits, and of course processed trans fats are not considered healthful.

estherdragonbat

Chrismadison100 wrote: »

Health wise. Is one better than the other?

I know that different oils have different smoke points and I occasionally hear things like "If you heat olive oil beyond its smoke point, it either loses some of the health benefits or turns dangerous". When I went here: https://scienceornot.net/2012/09/15/is-it-safe-to-cook-with-olive-oil/, I got (Note: the "here"s are hyperlinked at the original site. Bolding of the last point is mine):

Vegetable oils oxidise as they age and are exposed to air and light. This process is accelerated when they are heated (here, here).
Some of the oxidation products are toxic (here, here, here and here), but (here) we have good natural defences against such substances.
The ease of oxidation of an oil is influenced by its degree of unsaturation. Polyunsaturated oils oxidise more easily than saturated oils (here).
Corn oil and sunflower oil contain high proportions of polyunsaturated oils; they oxidise easily. Coconut oil is high in saturated oils; it doesn’t oxidise easily.
Olive oil contains a high proportion of monounsaturated oil. It oxidises less easily than polyunsaturated oils (here, here).
Virgin and extra-virgin olive oils also contain antioxidants which help resist oxidation as the oil is heated (here, here and here). Several studies have shown that virgin olive oil produces fewer oxidation products than polyunsaturated oils when heated (here, here)
If an oil is heated beyond its smoke point, it gives off toxic smoke. The smoke point of olive oil is around 200°C. Some refined oils, such as palm, peanut, safflower and soybean oils can have smoke points around 230°C to 260°C, but unrefined oils can have smoke points in the low hundreds.
I could find no studies showing evidence of damage to the health of humans resulting from oxidation products of cooking oils.

So, to answer your question, IMO if you keep the oil below the smoke point, you retain more of the health benefits. Heat it beyond and some may be lost. Different oils have lower (e.g. walnut) or higher (e.g. grapeseed) smoke points.

Personally, if the recipe doesn't specify, my defaults are olive for cooking, canola for baking, and grapeseed if cooking at temperature higher than medium. For affordability reasons, if I were deepfrying, which I seldom do, I'd use canola for that, but just because it's cheaper than grapeseed.