Cooking oil. Coconut oil or other healthy alternative?

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  • missomgitsica
    missomgitsica Posts: 496 Member
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    For eggs I just use a zero calorie non stick spray, so there's no added flavor or calories but my eggs still cook and they don't stick. I also use the spray on veggies if I'm roasting them instead of tossing them in oil.

    Really though, I think your best bet is to get a good nonstick pan and just use less oil when you need it.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    neely47 wrote: »
    Hello, I am eating healthier and exercising nowdays and am looking to switching cooking oils. I currently use olive oil (the Fillipo Berio brand) but want to switch to a healthy alternative. I tried using coconut oil (virgin, unrefined) to make eggs today but I found the taste of coconuts so empowering that I couldn't eat the eggs and had to throw them out. So, does anyone know if there is a scent-free version of coconut oil or is there an alternative cooking oil that I can use that is relatively scent/taste-free?

    I believe there is a refined version of coconut oil that is deodorized but I don't think it has the same nutritional benefit as unrefined?

    Thanks

    Pick any oil you like that has a smoke point above whatever suits your cooking methods. Personally, I stick with olive oil because it's affordable and I like it, so I'm no help on alternatives.

    smoke_points_chart_2-002.jpg
  • ruffalicious
    ruffalicious Posts: 799 Member
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    I used coconut oil for cooking. sometimes water
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited March 2018
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    blackcatfitness wrote: »
    k642s14uzdsv.jpeg
    We eat from our garden. Can’t beat that. Enjoy your animal flesh

    If I had to eat from my garden only, I'd be pretty darned malnourished right now given how little grows in early March (or Feb or Jan) where I live.

    I am looking forward to planting when I can.

    I live in the desert...*kitten* doesn't grow here except green chile which grows well in sand with little water. Exceptions would be living in the river valley, which I don't.

    My wife and I gave a garden a go a few times...spent a fortune just getting the soil right and then we still got *kitten* for yield except for our jalapenos and zucchinis. I'm convinced that zucchinis will grow in anything.

    Try certain fruit trees, they're not as demanding and don't require replanting every year. It gets hot here and the soil isn't that great, but we have successful peaches, apricots, figs, apples, mandarin oranges, lemons, kumquat, grapes, and almonds.
  • angmarie28
    angmarie28 Posts: 2,786 Member
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    nowine4me wrote: »
    I’ve replaced oils with veg stock when I sauté.

    This. or even just water works too

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    In the northern prairie fruiting trees are limited to the berry bushes, Saskatoon, and crabapple.

    This guide recommends 1/4 acre dedicated to a vegetable garden per prairie farm.

    http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/aac-aafc/A53-1070-1962-eng.pdf
  • Kristianleeming90
    Kristianleeming90 Posts: 8 Member
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    Gonna sound weird but trust me... When doing fried eggs I use the tiniest amount of coconut oil to grease the frying pan... Crack my eggs in.. Let the base cook slightly then add Water and cover the frying pan for a minute or two and the steam cooks top of the egg perfectly! No overpowering oil taste and perfect eggs!
  • SabAteNine
    SabAteNine Posts: 1,866 Member
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    I really LOVE olive oil. I have a 10 liter supply from a sort of a team building traditional olive picking (I really need to finish it in three years, as my husband is more a fan of sunflower seed oil and doesn't like the taste - weirdo).
    I tried other oils but they taste really unpalatable to me. Worst were sunflower and flax seed oils. I mean stand-alone they are interesting, but they spoil my food, so I think all my alternative bottles of oil in the kitchen are expired.
    Also, lard and butter are great for cooking too!
  • Dame_sans_merci
    Dame_sans_merci Posts: 74 Member
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    Not sure if someone else commented with this already, but a nutritionist told me to buy the best quality ‘cold pressed’ oil you can afford. I have had a fabulous extra virgin olive oil from Aldi (Toscano I think) which was £5.99 and have just finished the bottle in 6 weeks. Lovely stuff to cook with or drizzle over salad. Soon to start on a new one from Asda which was on offer at £4.99 from about £8.

    I have recently been reading about coconut oil having a higher saturated fat level (baaaad) than olive oils....but that might be a story started by the Italian olive growers haha.
  • Dame_sans_merci
    Dame_sans_merci Posts: 74 Member
    edited March 2018
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    There's everything wrong with vegetable oils...... There's as much calories in a teaspoon of oil as there is in 2lbs of broccoli.

    Use water in place of oils.
    Remember - you wear the fat you eat.

    This seems like a very poor ill-thought response. As someone with an under active thyroid...eating large quantities of broccoli (cruciferous vegetable) is way worse for my body than me consuming a small amount of oil. The oil will also leave me feeling more satisfied after a meal than broccoli would.

    Oil is most definitely not evil.
  • goatg
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    edited March 2018
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    High oleic sunflower oil if you’re cooking high temps.

    Nothing wrong with olive oil or coconut oil imo. Fish oil for health, hemp oil for omegas. Check smoke points.
  • neely47
    neely47 Posts: 30 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Thanks everyone. I will stick with Olive Oil. Which brand do all of you use? I use the Fillipo Berio brand, is this a "good" brand? I use regular olive oil for cooking but do use extra virgin (cold-pressed) for protein shakes/smoothies. Could you use extra virgin for cooking or is this a bad idea?

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I pick the olive oil on sale. The extra virgin will have a lower smoking point so keep that in mind.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,964 Member
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    neely47 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone. I will stick with Olive Oil. Which brand do all of you use? I use the Fillipo Berio brand, is this a "good" brand? I use regular olive oil for cooking but do use extra virgin (cold-pressed) for protein shakes/smoothies. Could you use extra virgin for cooking or is this a bad idea?

    I used to keep both "regular" (either virgin or "pure") and extra virgin on hand, because extra virgin tends to lose some of the flavor you're paying the "extra" money for when you heat it, so it seemed like a waste to use it for cooking. But I don't use it quickly enough any more for it to make sense to keep two varieties on hand and risk one of them starting to go rancid, so I just keep extra virgin on hand and cook with it. I figure paying for flavor that is lost to heat is better than having to throw out the last third of a bottle.

    If you cook at really high temps, you might want to consider avocado oil. But if your olive oil isn't smoking at the temps you like to cook at, you're fine.

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