Butter or olive oil?

Dr. Bhuvaneshwari

Cooking mediums are of great significance. Though oil-free cooking is a possibility, people continue to use oil for seasoning for fear of “compromising” on taste. So, which cooking oil is best?

“While we need to make sure we consume enough healthy fats, what we need to watch out for is the type of fat in our diets. Oils (with the exception of coconut and palm oils) are much healthier than fats that come from animals (such as butter or ghee) in relation to heart and brain health. Fats that come from animals have a much higher amount of saturated fat which is associated with increased LDL or bad cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

All oils contain varying amounts of saturated fat, mono-unsaturated fat, and poly-unsaturated fat. Most of us are getting too many omega 6 fatty acids and not enough omega 3 fatty acids. We should increase our intake of mono-unsaturated fats by using olive oil and canola oil, while minimising our intake of corn, soyabean and safflower oils, which have a lot of omega 6 fats.”

Says Dr. Bhuvaneshwari, “A combination of two vegetable oils, such as sunflower oil with rice bran oil, has a good fatty acid profile. The good old practice of using gingelly oil is also fine, but the total oil consumed should not exceed four to five teaspoons per day per adult.”