(S7E2) Nutrition & Wellness with Alli, MS, CN - Vegetable Oil

Welcome to Relish. I'm Ali. I'm a nutritionist, and a yoga teacher, and an author, and I'm here to talk to you about nutrition topics every week. This week is all about vegetable oil. What the heck is it? What different types are there? What's the health information? And we're going to do a recipe for coconut oil fudge. Super excited about that. It's only three ingredients, and I think it's going to be really, really good. So please, if you have any questions or comments, I love talking during the show with everybody that's watching. So put some questions and comments in the chat. I love them. I love to hear from everybody. So vegetable oil, excuse me, vegetable oil, what the heck is it? So we're going to talk about that first. Then I'm going to go into how it's even made, how it's processed, and all the different types. There are so many different types of vegetable oil. And then we're going to do a recipe, and we're going to talk about the health information too. So let's get started. Welcome everybody to the show. Happy Monday. I'm going to fix my earring there, there we go. Happy Monday. Okay, so what is vegetable oil? Basically, it's a pretty generic term for oil that is made from a plant. So any part of a plant, the fruit, the seed, the grain, the nut, so anything that is a plant-based product or food that can be made into oil. So that covers a lot of different oils. So when you're looking at a recipe though, and it calls for vegetable oil, that's what we're going to talk about. What is that? What is it made of? Because we know that we can buy it, you know, you can buy the Crisco vegetable oil, there's Mozilla, we're going to talk about all those, lots of brands out there. So we're just going to really dive into the details of that. So the top four vegetable oils consumed in the United States are soybean oil, canola oil, palm oil, and corn oil. And a lot of times it's a combination of all of those two. So some of the other vegetable oils out there, oils that are considered vegetable oils are sunflower oil, safflower oil, olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, what else, cottonseed oil, coconut oil, so many oils, so many kinds of oil out there. So the benefit of using oil, vegetable oil, is it has a neutral flavor, so it's really great for cooking, baking, sautéing, when you don't want an extra flavor from oil. So like for, I always think of vegetable oil being used in things like banana bread, or pumpkin bread, or zucchini bread. So you typically use vegetable oil because it doesn't have a whole lot of flavor, but you need that fat. So it's also, most vegetable oils are low in saturated fat, there are a couple of exceptions, but mostly low in saturated fat, they're plant-based, you're not going to get any cholesterol from them. So those are some of the reasons people use vegetable oil, but the problem with a lot of vegetable oils is that they're very, many of them are very processed, so we don't really know what we're getting when we buy vegetable oil, unless you look for specific things. So one other thing, I'm going to go into detail about this a little bit later, but vegetable oils are typically high in polyunsaturated fat, in particular omega-6, which is similar to omega-3, but similar but different. So I'm going to go into that in detail too, but they're typically high in omega-6 fatty acids, which isn't necessarily a great thing, but I'll tell you why in a little bit. But omega-6 is very important for our bodies though, we do need to eat it. It helps with our brain function, it helps with our skin and hair growth, it helps with our metabolism and our bone health, so we definitely need omega-6s, just keep that in mind. Okay, and so, like I said, a lot of oils, a lot of vegetable oils are very, very processed, and I'm going to talk about what that process looks like. So health-conscious people, or people that are wanting to buy vegetable oils that aren't processed, you typically have to look for things like, listed as cold-pressed, or I'm going to talk about coconut oil in a little bit, organic, virgin, cold-pressed, unrefined, and those are all the big words that you're going to look for in an oil if you want to be sure it hasn't been super-duper processed, so we'll get into that. So how is vegetable oil made? I have two sources on how I found out how it's made, I'm going to tell you what they both said, they're basically the same thing. So how is vegetable oil made? And this is typically in reference to the vegetable oils like the soybean oil that we get when we buy Crisco vegetable oil, or any sort of oil that says vegetable oil. So I'm going to go through the process, but I just wanted to say that some don't go through this process, and they are cold-pressed, so that means, for example, olive oil, we talked about this in the episode all about olive oil, so check it out, it's on the YouTube channel, but you press the oil out of the olives, and it's basically then put in a centrifuge and they get the oils separated from the solids, and that's it. So it's not processed, no chemicals or anything added to it. Same for avocado oil, we talked about that last episode, so check out the avocado episode to find out how avocado oil is made, but also, same, no chemicals needed. So anyway, let's get back to the way vegetable oil is processed though. So basically, the vegetable, whatever it is, the seed, the grain, the nut, whatever it is, is crushed to extract the oil, and then that crushed mixture is heated and mixed with hexane, which is a chemical. Hexane is used in a lot of this processing because it can help, it helps extract the oil from the plant, but it is a pretty strong chemical. So they use that, and then the solids are removed, and a lot of times used for other purposes like animal feed, and then you've got this oil left, and then they distilled the hexane out of the oil, so that's another process of getting that back out, and then the oil that's been extracted from the plant is then goes through a refining process to remove any impurities, or colors, or smells, or tastes, and then the refining process goes, that process is considered RBD, which means refining, bleaching, deodorizing. So in the refining process, it's treated with phosphoric acid, causing any more of the solids to separate from the oil that might still be there, then it's bleached, so the oil is heated, mixed with some sort of filtration aid like diatomaceous earth or clay, and then it's filtered out, the color comes out, the impurities come out, so it's gone through that process again, and then it's deodorized, which means it's heated under a vacuum that's about 480 degrees, pretty hot, pretty hot, and then steam bubbles go through the oil, getting out any extra impurities, so then the oil is ready to be used, so it goes through quite a big process. Canola oil goes through a similar process, I'm going to talk about where the word canola comes from, which is kind of fun, but the Canada Council, or the Canola Council of Canada, says that this is what they do to process canola oil, so the canola seeds are separated and cleaned for any impurities, then they're heated to about 95 degrees, then they're flaked, which means these rollers come in and break them up, even if any more, extracting any more oil, then the seed flakes are cooked by steam heated cookers, and then the cooked canola seeds are then pressed, which also removes about 50% more oil, and then the remaining seeds and flakes are then further broken down using hexane to pull out as much more oil as possible, and then the hexane is then stripped from the canola oil, it's heated a third time for steam exposure, kind of like what I said in the other process, and then the extracted oil is refined through the RBD process, the refining, bleaching, deodorizing, and then it's ready to go. So, canola oil is also processed pretty thoroughly. So, that's kind of the overview on how it's made, how it's processed, typically from like the typical vegetable oil that we see in the store. So, examples, Crisco vegetable oil is soybean oil, there's, I looked up, I was looking up all the different brands, there's an Amazon brand called Happy Belly, that's also soybean oil, Mazola vegetable oil is soybean and canola oil mixed, and then there are also other brands out there though that haven't been processed, and those are typically cold-pressed. There was one called Healthy Harvest non-GMO, and that's naturally processed through physical pressing, and using natural antioxidants and things like that. So, there's those. So, that's typically what I'm talking about when we're talking about vegetable oil. So, let's go into the whole omega-6 versus omega-3. So, all of the vegetable oils that are high in omega-6s are soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, rice bran oil. So, those are going to be high in the omega-6. So, omega-6 is good, but we are typically supposed to be having a one-to-one ratio of how much omega-6 we have versus omega-3. So, if you have a teaspoon of omega-6, you should have a teaspoon of omega-3. It should always be kind of balanced, but Americans typically have 15 times more omega-6 than they do of the omega-3. So, we should be focusing a little bit more on having oils with omega-3s or foods with omega-3s and not so much of the omega-6, but there's a lot of differing information about omega-6 versus omega-3. Some people, there was a report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition saying having vegetable oil is still better than having something with a lot of saturated fat, because you're going to still get the omega-6 and the omega-3s, and you're still going to get some monounsaturated fats, which are good. So, that one said it's still better to have the oil versus the high saturated fat foods, but some other studies say that eating too much omega-6 can cause inflammation and chronic diseases, like the areas that which can lead to chronic diseases, like heart disease. So, it's a tricky, tricky balance. It's a tricky, tricky balance. So, that's just kind of the information that's out there, that vegetable oils are typically high in omega-6s. Some people say that's not so great. Some people say it's okay. So, that's the conclusion. So, let's talk about the different kinds of oils. Soybean oil to start. Some say that soybean, the plant sterols in soybean oil may help lower cholesterol, which is good, and it's low in saturated fat, high in the omega-6. Some say that's good. Some say that's bad, but soybean oil is typically highly processed. There was a study done, you know how I love studies, there was a study done in UC Riverside Research that showed that soybean oil led to diabetes and obesity and contributed to anxiety, things like that. So, that's one study, but soybean oil is by far the most widely produced and consumed oil in the U.S. because that's, it's in everything. You know, any kind of processed food is going to have soybean oil. Deep fryers have soybean oil. Sometimes it's oil, sometimes it's partially hydrogenated oil. If you want to know more about that, check out my episode on fats. We talked a lot about that in that episode. So, that's kind of the thing about soybean oil. Canola oil. Now, this is very interesting. Canola oil was developed in Canada. So, that's why it's called canola. The can, the C-A-N is for Canada and ola is for oil. Kind of interesting. Scientists in Canada developed canola oil from the rapeseed and the nice thing about canola oil is that it can be heated to very high temperatures. So, that's good for any kind of cooking and it has a very neutral flavor. Some consider it to be a healthy oil because it has a good balance of the omega-6 versus omega-3 in it. But, the problem with canola oil, it is very processed. We talked about all those major processes that it goes through and it's not actually made from one plant. It's cross-bred and it's made from genetically modified plants, which has been fertilized with, you know, they use fertilizers and pesticides and things like that. So, it's not the most secure oil. But, it does have omega-3s, it has omega-6s, it has some monounsaturated fats. So, not terrible. So, if you are going to buy canola oil, try to find cold-pressed, unrefined versions of canola oil, which are kind of hard to find. But, if you can find them, great. Then, it does have a good healthy profile. Let's see, safflower oil, another one. I found out this is just an interesting piece of history. It used to be used as an orange dye and it was a cheaper substitute for saffron because it does that. The original oil has that color, or safflower has that color. But, safflower oil has, you know, some of the colors taken out. And, starting in the 1960s, safflower oil became one of the main sources of vegetable oil. So, you can buy it expeller-pressed, which is good, where it's naturally pressed. But, sometimes it is refined. So, just make sure, if you are interested in that, to just read the label and see. Does it say unrefined? Does it say cold-pressed? Any of that, then that's going to be better. It is also high in omega-6s. But, it does handle heat well, so it's good for cooking, good for baking, things like that. Then, sunflower oil, which I have here. I thought this was really interesting. There are four different kinds of sunflower oil and they all have differing levels of the omega-6 in them. So, omega-6 is also known as linoleic acid. So, excuse me. Okay. I was heating something earlier and I was just making sure it was off. Okay. So, there are four different kinds and it really depends, like, depending on what kind you buy, the profile of the fats is very, very different. So, there's high oleic acid, so that's going to have a lot of omega-6s. Then, there's high, oh, high linoleic acid is going to have a lot of omega-6s. If it says high oleic acid, it's going to be high in the monounsaturated fats, which is good. So, this one, high oleic expeller pressed sunflower oil. See how it says it right there? And I'll read you the label. Total fat per tablespoon, 14 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated, not so bad, 0.5 grams of poly, which that's the omega-6, and 12 grams of monounsaturated fat. Really good. So, Crisco vegetable oil, which is the soybean oil, has 14 grams of fat per tablespoon, 2 grams saturated, that's still good, 8 grams polyunsaturated, which is mostly the omega-6, and 3 grams of monounsaturated, so it's going to have less in the soybean. So, just interesting bits of information here. So, those soybean, canola, safflower, sunflower, those are kind of the most popular ones, like when you're at the grocery store and you're looking to buy vegetable oil, that's basically, it's going to be one of those four, probably. But there are alternatives if you would like to get more of the monounsaturated fats. Olive oil, avocado oil, those two for sure are the best. I did a whole episode on olive oil, so check it out. We know it has a lot of the good monounsaturated fats, so it's good for our heart, it has anti-inflammatory compounds in it, antioxidants, so good for the heart, good for the brain, olive oil is the way to go. Avocado oil also has a similar nutritional profile as olive oil. You see it a little bit less than olive oil, but avocado oil is great. I talked about it last week on how it's made, so check out the avocado episode if you want to find out how oil is made. It does have a high smoke point, so you can use it for sauteing and baking. It's high in the monounsaturated fats, so it's good for things like, oh and it has a nice flavor, so it's good for salad dressings, put it on your popcorn, drizzle it on vegetables or cheese, and it has antioxidants, so avocado oil is good as well. And then there's coconut oil, which we're going to be using today. Organic, virgin, cold-pressed, unrefined coconut oil, also great with those. So if you're buying some coconut oil, look for those words. And coconut oil is also made, all three of these, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, is made from pressing the oil out of the plant. Coconut oil is high in saturated fat. Let's see, one tablespoon has 12 grams of saturated fat, 14 total grams of fat, a little bit of poly, a little bit of mono, but it also has a rich fatty, it's rich in a fatty acid called lauric acid, which some say can improve your cholesterol by increasing your HDL, the good cholesterol, so that's kind of interesting. And then two other oils, I just want to, plant oils I wanted to mention, that have good amounts of the omega-3s, which we're looking for all the time. Flaxseed oil and walnut oil, these two oils need to just be consumed at room temperature, they don't heat, they're not very stable heated, so you want to eat them for salad dressings, drizzling on things. Flaxseed oil, some studies have shown it could help reduce blood pressure and decrease inflammation. Walnut oil also has been shown to help reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels, so pretty cool. Okay, well that's the information on vegetable oil, it's kind of a lot, it's kind of a lot to kind of think about and process. So let's do something fun, let's make coconut oil fudge, you can find this recipe on relish.com, I put it in the chat, hopefully you can see it, let me know if you can't and I will, I will post it in there again. Three ingredients, coconut oil, bananas, cocoa powder, that's it, super easy, super duper easy. And I wanted to show you a little trick that I learned, I used to work in a research kitchen and somebody that I worked with taught me this trick and I thought it was so great. So we need an 8 by 8 inch pan, got that, and we need a piece of parchment paper to line the pan. And sometimes you think, how the heck am I going to line it with parchment paper? Well this is the secret. Okay, so you cut the paper so that it is, you know, a little bit bigger than the pan itself. Then you cut each corner like this, so that when you put it in the pan, when you put it in the pan, those little slits that you cut kind of fold into each other, making it a lot easier for it to stay. I love that trick. I think about my research kitchen days every time I line a pan with parchment paper. Okay, so this recipe, I'm going to cut it in half because it sounds like a pretty big batch. So we need two bananas, okay, two bananas. We're going to put those in a food processor. The recipe calls for four bananas, but we're going to do two. Two bananas. It says that they should have brown spots, but ours were a little bit less ripe than that, but that's okay. Okay, two bananas, food processor. I'll put those peels over here, and then you have to heat three-fourths of a cup of coconut oil. I did half of that because we're halving the recipe, so it's melted. There we go. I don't know if you can even see it because it's clear. Okay, coconut oil drizzling in. You don't want it super hot, so heat it, let it cool for a little bit, and then a fourth of a cup of cocoa powder. There we go. I already measured it out. It's so easy, so easy. Okay, then we're going to process it. So we'll put the lid on. All right, there we go, and blend. It's looking good. Lots of chocolate. I'm going to scrape the sides down just so everything is totally smooth. It smells very delicious. Okay, very smooth, very, very smooth. Okay, then we're just going to pour it into the prepared pan with the parchment paper. Oh, boy. I'm very excited about this, everybody. Okay, I'm going to scooping it all in, and then let's see what it says. Okay, then we're just going to spread it out in here a little bit so it's even. Yum. That's really cool that it's sweetened with banana. And then you refrigerate it or freeze it. Pour into the pan, freeze for two to three hours, remove from the freezer, let thaw for about five minutes, and cut it into squares. Really excited about that. So I'm going to put it in the freezer, probably keep it in there for overnight, or sooner. Maybe we'll take it out tonight for dessert. That sounds delicious. And then I'll post it on my Instagram and my website. So I'm going to add that information here, just so you have it. My Instagram is at Allie Shirkcliffe. My website is www.allieshirkcliffewellness.com. So I've added it to the chat. Hopefully you can still see it. My website is up and running. I have all the episodes from Relish on there, and all the recipes that I do. So you can read about the recipes. You can get a link for them. There's a link for all the YouTube shows. Then there's also my smoothie book. I just wrote a smoothie book. You can buy it on my website. 100 recipes for smoothies on here. Super exciting. I do use coconut oil in some of them. Lots of really good things in there. So check out my website. You can see lots of Relish things on there as well. So that is kind of the information on vegetable oil. So much to think about. So much to think about. So the main vegetable oils you're going to find in the grocery store aisle when you're looking for vegetable oil or cooking oil, sometimes it's called, would be soybean oil, canola oil, palm oil, and corn oil. Those are the main ones. But vegetable oil really just means oil that has been extracted from a plant. So there are so many different kinds. The one that is named, there's also coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, so many different kinds of oil. And lots of ways to extract it, either through processing or through cold pressing. Lots of different things. You can always look for that cold pressed word or unrefined or organic or virgin, especially with coconut oil. Make sure you look that up. And that's it, everybody. Vegetable oil session closed. All right, everybody. Thank you all for joining. Check out my Instagram tomorrow. I will be posting pictures of the coconut oil fudge. I'm very excited to try it as well. Hope you have a great rest of your day. I'll see you next time. Have a good night, everybody.