Speaker 1: Do you stand in the oil oile wondering which is
Speaker 1: the best type of oil to cook with? Does coconut
Speaker 1: oil really have a safe smoke point? Then extra virgin
Speaker 1: olive oil or it's olive oil as good as extraversion
Speaker 1: olive oil. Today on the Nutrition Couch we review three
Speaker 1: popular types of oil and their health benefits. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Susie Burrow and I'm Lean Wood, and as two of
Speaker 1: Australia's leading dietitians who specialize in evidence based nutrition, we
Speaker 1: bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat
Speaker 1: on new products and old favorites you can find in
Speaker 1: the supermarket. So to get us started todayly Am, I
Speaker 1: wanted to know what your favorite type of oil is
Speaker 1: because if I'm honest with you, I don't cook with
Speaker 1: a huge amount of oil overall. I'm very lucky to
Speaker 1: often have a range of extra virgin olive oil from
Speaker 1: Cobbram and we've been very transparent that we do have
Speaker 1: a relationship with them as a great Australian brand who
Speaker 1: really supports dietitians in your TTRITIONNIS in general in Australia
Speaker 1: to make sure they have access to loads of really
Speaker 1: good quality Australia at extra virgin olive oil. But if
Speaker 1: I have got a beautiful fresh oil, I'll more likely
Speaker 1: use it to dress my salads. And I cook quite
Speaker 1: a lot on baking paper if I'm cooking fish or
Speaker 1: things like that, just also for ease. I don't like
Speaker 1: to have a lot of miss but definitely if I'm
Speaker 1: sort of sautaining something, I will absolutely just reach for
Speaker 1: an extra virgin olive oil. But I know because your background,
Speaker 1: and this is really important for our listeners, because of
Speaker 1: course people from different cultural backgrounds may be using different
Speaker 1: types of oil traditionally in their cultural cooking. Because of course,
Speaker 1: your mum is Malaysian, so I'm interested what oils did
Speaker 1: you grow up with at home? With your mum cooking.
Speaker 2: Absolutely extraversion olive oil. Mum was very healthy. She was
Speaker 2: like all over that, research all over the health properties
Speaker 2: of that. But she also does when she's doing a
Speaker 2: beautiful stir fright and her walk, she you know, gets
Speaker 2: a walk on the high heat over the flames, and
Speaker 2: she actually puts in She starts with her bass, she
Speaker 2: goes ginji car like onion, throws some fresh chili in
Speaker 2: there and some sesame oil is what she generally uses.
Speaker 2: In stir fries if she wants to add a little
Speaker 2: bit of taste in flavor. But I think generally she
Speaker 2: starts off with to sort of you know, brown up
Speaker 2: the onion and the garlic and the ginger. She uses
Speaker 2: the extra version olive oil, and then I actually think
Speaker 2: she adds in I'll have to check with Mum the
Speaker 2: sesame oil towards the end when she adds in the
Speaker 2: other little bit of like soy sauce or oyster sauce
Speaker 2: into a stir fry, So she uses more the sesame
Speaker 2: oil as just a bit of flavor. And also she's
Speaker 2: making like a nice quality, you know, chicken and corn soup,
Speaker 2: which is one of her specialties.
Speaker 1: SUSI.
Speaker 2: She always just make that woman sick. It was delicious.
Speaker 2: She'll sort of put a few drops of sesame oil
Speaker 2: at the end of it as she's serving it as
Speaker 2: almost like a little sort of looks nice. She'll put
Speaker 2: a few little sprigs of parsley on top with a
Speaker 2: few little drops of sesame oil as well. It's more
Speaker 2: of a flavor sort of thing, and that was how
Speaker 2: she served it. But I think the base of when
Speaker 2: she starts the meal was always, you know, that extra
Speaker 2: version olive oil.
Speaker 1: More interesting that you go to his way ahead of
Speaker 1: her time now when he became a T Titian. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: all right, well there's three. We're gonna look at three
Speaker 1: different oils today. Now, let's be honestly, and there's a billion.
Speaker 1: There's sunflower, there's saffour, there's rice brand, there's conal, like,
Speaker 1: there's just so many different ones, Like, it's no wonder
Speaker 1: consumers are confused. I'm often confused. You're not alone. But
Speaker 1: we've chosen three that we thought would resonate with our listeners.
Speaker 1: So we're going to look at the Cobram Australian extravasion
Speaker 1: olive oil. We're going to look at coconut oil because
Speaker 1: of course there is definitely a group of people who
Speaker 1: are using it frequently. They're big fans of it. They
Speaker 1: talk about why it's so good for our health. So
Speaker 1: we're going to look at that one closely. And we're
Speaker 1: going to also do canola oil because I think sometimes
Speaker 1: there's a real belief that canola oil is particularly healthy. Now,
Speaker 1: we could have chosen vegetable oil because that is generally
Speaker 1: a blended oil and has a heavy palm oil base.
Speaker 1: But we thought instead, we'd look at canola just because
Speaker 1: it's a one that we often think is quite healthy,
Speaker 1: and we're going to have a look at them in
Speaker 1: terms of how they're produced and how they're made, and
Speaker 1: as such, what is the impact on their antioxidant and
Speaker 1: polyphenol contents. We're going to look at them in terms
Speaker 1: of vitamin E content, because you can get quite a
Speaker 1: significant proportion of your vitamin E from a really good
Speaker 1: quality oil. We're going to compare them in terms of
Speaker 1: the fatty acids in them, so the mix of saturated,
Speaker 1: mono ensaturated and poly unsaturated fats, because any fat will
Speaker 1: be a blend of those different types, and then we
Speaker 1: will refer to it in terms of what's dominant. So,
Speaker 1: for example, extra virgin olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat,
Speaker 1: but also contains some polls and saturates. So it's the
Speaker 1: ratios that determine how healthy the oil is and also
Speaker 1: if there's any trans fats in that oil and how
Speaker 1: stable they are when heated. Now, the Aann's actually going
Speaker 1: to help us because it's the table we're looking at,
Speaker 1: and the research around it's really small, and I have
Speaker 1: said before, my eyes are really not so amazing on
Speaker 1: the computer. So she's going to help us with the numbers.
Speaker 1: So Lean, do you want to what do you want
Speaker 1: to start with? Why don't you start? Why don't you
Speaker 1: do coconut oil first? And then we'll work backwards and
Speaker 1: then go into canola and then extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 1: And I'll pipe in when I've got something extremely useful
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 2: All right, So our virgin coconut oil is what we're
Speaker 2: looking at. First, production method of virgin coconut oil. It
Speaker 2: is mechanically extracted and the oil is extracted from cofa
Speaker 2: or milk of the coconut using a wet processing method
Speaker 2: where a manual press is used to actually extract the
Speaker 2: oil at the end. So when we look at the
Speaker 2: polyfeenal content, it is less than ten parts per million,
Speaker 2: so that's actually a very low sort of amount of polyfenols.
Speaker 2: If we look at the vitamin E content or the
Speaker 2: alpha TOKOFFERL content in virgin coconut oil, it's between zero
Speaker 2: to seventeen milligrams per kilos. That's actially a very low
Speaker 2: amount of our vitamin e in there as well. And
Speaker 2: then the breakdown of the fatty acid profile, SUSI virgin
Speaker 2: coconut oil is ninety one percent saturated fats, so it
Speaker 2: is predominantly a saturated fat, two percent poly and seven
Speaker 2: percent mono unsaturated fat. So although we might not you know,
Speaker 2: consider you know, saturated fats, we know from the research
Speaker 2: and they're not healthy from us. There is a little
Speaker 2: bit of conflicting research when we look at things like
Speaker 2: coconut oil and the saturated vat in dairy that it's
Speaker 2: not bad for us as such, but it's more what
Speaker 2: I would call a neutral fatsooz it's not something that
Speaker 2: actually offers positive anti inflammatory benefits like our unsaturated some
Speaker 2: of our unsaturated fats. I would say it's more of
Speaker 2: a neutral fat. So I think there's a lot of
Speaker 2: misconception online. A lot of you know, quote unquote wellness
Speaker 2: experts toting coconut oil for you know, doing everything, you know,
Speaker 2: basically saving the world put it that way. But it's
Speaker 2: not actually positive for our house. So I actually fail
Speaker 2: to see where a lot of these quote unquote wellness
Speaker 2: experts are getting their research from. Because there saturated fat
Speaker 2: that I see in virgin coconut oil. It doesn't add
Speaker 2: positive nutrition to us. It gives us some calories and
Speaker 2: some energy, but it doesn't have any sort of you know,
Speaker 2: anti inflammatory effects, antioxidant effects. It's really what I would
Speaker 2: just call a neutral type of fat which sort of
Speaker 2: provides maybe a little bit of quicker energy and calories,
Speaker 2: but that's pretty much it. So the fatty acid profile
Speaker 2: for me isn't superior to another type of oil when
Speaker 2: I look at virgin coconut oil.
Speaker 1: No, and all I'm looking at as well when i'm
Speaker 1: model diets is what I'm getting out of it, and
Speaker 1: it's just adding saturated fat. Now, in modeling Australian's diet,
Speaker 1: if they're having dairy and a meat eaters, they're getting
Speaker 1: more than enough saturated fat from that, let alone the
Speaker 1: effect of palm oil coming through in terms of processed foods,
Speaker 1: So I can't use it. I don't need more saturated
Speaker 1: fat than anyone's diet, you know, generally, I need far
Speaker 1: less of that and much more of the long chain
Speaker 1: polls and monolansaturates to get my ratios on track. And
Speaker 1: if you haven't listened already to our last episode on oils,
Speaker 1: that will give you some more background on how to
Speaker 1: get those positive fatty acid ratios to help reduce inflammation
Speaker 1: naturally in the body. So when we look at that
Speaker 1: antioxidant content, there's literally none in there. It's just what
Speaker 1: I call sort of sludge. You know, it's not really
Speaker 1: giving anything. And that's why I've never used it scientifically.
Speaker 1: It's nothing to do with whether I like it or
Speaker 1: the taste or anything. It's more that, you know, nutritionally,
Speaker 1: from a pure nutritional perspective, I can't do anything with
Speaker 1: it when I'm modeling diets. So you can see they're that,
Speaker 1: you know, literally none when it comes to polyphenal content,
Speaker 1: and very minimal amounts of vitamin e if any. So
Speaker 1: you know, if it's your choice of saturated fat, sure,
Speaker 1: but most of us are getting it more than enough
Speaker 1: from our meat and dairy and process food without needing
Speaker 1: to add in another type by choice.
Speaker 2: And I'll just make a note here where a lot
Speaker 2: of maybe some of our listeners a sort of saying, well,
Speaker 2: why is vitamin E important? So alphatoicofferral or what we
Speaker 2: know is vitamin E is quite a well known antioxidant
Speaker 2: which is really important for our body because vitamin E
Speaker 2: acts as a basically sort of its scavengers the free
Speaker 2: radicals out of our body. So when our bodies undergo
Speaker 2: periods of stress, whether that's sort of environmental stress like
Speaker 2: you know, perhaps smoking, or you know, excess sun exposure, pollutions,
Speaker 2: or you know, just high levels of stress in our
Speaker 2: day to day job, our bodies put out this what
Speaker 2: we call these free radicals, and antioxidants help to damp
Speaker 2: down or collect those free radicals and actually help to
Speaker 2: reduce that, you know, the harmful stress that our body
Speaker 2: is sort of producing or being exposed to. So that's
Speaker 2: basically why what vitame is and why it's important, and
Speaker 2: so when we're looking at different types of oils, it
Speaker 2: is a really important part of the antioxidant profile to
Speaker 2: actually have a little bit of vartami in the oils
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent, and that's one of the main dietary sources.
Speaker 1: We'll get some from nuts and seeds. That as a
Speaker 1: nutrition nutrient, I should say, getting it from our daily
Speaker 1: choice of oil is a key way. So again that
Speaker 1: can go missing if we're not choosing a great quality oil,
Speaker 1: all right, then canola oil, because canola oil sort of
Speaker 1: you know, when we went through an anti saturated fat
Speaker 1: message through the nineties and everything was low fat canola
Speaker 1: oil got a really big run, you know, it was
Speaker 1: kind of deemed the healthiest oil, and we had a
Speaker 1: whole lot of spreads come out that were canola oil based.
Speaker 1: But when I'm looking how they make it leanne it's
Speaker 1: pretty processed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, So if we start with the production measure
Speaker 2: of canola oil SUSY, it is typically extracted through a
Speaker 2: screw process, solvent extraction, or a combination of both methods,
Speaker 2: and then of course it is refined, so we would
Speaker 2: call conol oil a refined oil. So we look at
Speaker 2: the polyphenol content again, it's less than ten parts per million,
Speaker 2: so it's the same as same as virgin coconut oil.
Speaker 2: It's a very very low low polyphenol content. The vitamin
Speaker 2: E content of canola oil is higher. It's between one
Speaker 2: hundred to three hundred and eighty milligrams per kilo, so
Speaker 2: it actually does have a good amount of vitamin E
Speaker 2: in there. But when you look at the fatty acid profile,
Speaker 2: sixty two percent mono, twenty five percent poly and seven
Speaker 2: percent saturated, so a lot less saturated fat and a
Speaker 2: lot more unsaturated fat than when we compare it to
Speaker 2: our virgin coconut oil. So probably a lot better profile
Speaker 2: than when we compare it to coconut oil.
Speaker 1: It does, and again very very low polyphenal content. It
Speaker 1: does have slightly more vitamin E than compared to the
Speaker 1: coconut oil when we look at the ratio, sixty two
Speaker 1: percent mono unsaturated fat, so not dissimilar to extravegin olive oil,
Speaker 1: which I think it's why it's tainted. Perhaps with that
Speaker 1: idea that it is one of the healthier oils seven
Speaker 1: percent saturated fat and twenty five percent polyunsaturated fat, so
Speaker 1: the ratios aren't too bad on it, but because of
Speaker 1: that processinglyan it does tend to have a bit of
Speaker 1: trans fat that seeps in. And I guess if we
Speaker 1: were summarizing white, it's definitely not our favorite. It's still refined,
Speaker 1: it's still processed, so it's perhaps better than I would
Speaker 1: say nutritionally better than yes, coconut oil, but still not
Speaker 1: offering the large range of health benefits that come from
Speaker 1: an oil with a really high antioxidant content, basically because
Speaker 1: it's really processed. And that's a bit like margarine, you know,
Speaker 1: adding good stuff back in doesn't make it healthy because
Speaker 1: it's really processed. And indeed canola oil is if I
Speaker 1: was summarizing, it's still heavily processed. And even if you.
Speaker 2: Look at the stability of the oil when heated susy.
Speaker 2: So canola oil isn't stable, I think because it is
Speaker 2: so highly refined. So when you look at the research,
Speaker 2: canola oil is much less heat stable than extraversion olive oil.
Speaker 2: It's actually been known canol oil to produce two point
Speaker 2: six y five times more polar compounds when heated to
Speaker 2: a high temperature than something like extraversion olive oil. So
Speaker 2: in terms of stability with oils, canol oil isn't something
Speaker 2: we want to be cooking with at high temperatures or
Speaker 2: on a wock or over the gorilla or anything like that,
Speaker 2: because it really isn't it really isn't that heat stable.
Speaker 1: No, it's good to know because I think for consumers,
Speaker 1: I understand how people are so confused, like there's so
Speaker 1: many different types. But I guess in my way of
Speaker 1: trying to simplify it nutritionally, I just wipe it out
Speaker 1: as vegetable oil. It's processed, so I just try and
Speaker 1: simplify it. But certainly it does a little bit though
Speaker 1: when we're starting to look at all the different types,
Speaker 1: whether it's canola, whether it's sunflower, whether it's saflour. To me,
Speaker 1: they're all kind of pretty similar in the sense they're
Speaker 1: all pretty processed, and there's nothing really stand out with
Speaker 1: them other than in the case of perhaps a specific
Speaker 1: flavor you're looking for, whether it's peanut oil and cooking
Speaker 1: or sesame, I'd be using that for the flavor at times,
Speaker 1: as opposed to any of the health benefits. I sort
Speaker 1: of brush them all off with nothing huge to offer,
Speaker 1: and more that if it's a flavor you're looking for
Speaker 1: rather than a health benefit.
Speaker 2: That's the thing with coconut oil as well. It's not
Speaker 2: like I've never used coconut oil before. If I was
Speaker 2: making one of those raw desserts where it had to
Speaker 2: set at room temperature, I might use a little bit
Speaker 2: of coconut oil. If I was making a curry where
Speaker 2: I wanted that sort of coconut taste, use a little
Speaker 2: bit of coconut oil. But it's you know, maybe five
Speaker 2: percent of the time that I would use that type
Speaker 2: of oil compared to ninety five percent of the time
Speaker 2: where I'd use something like extravergin olive oil. So of
Speaker 2: course it's Okay to use these types of oils for
Speaker 2: the flavor or all that sort of thing, but it's
Speaker 2: not something we want to be doing on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: like adding it in as part of our salad dressings
Speaker 2: every day, or the oil we regularly cook with when
Speaker 2: we cook our protein or we cook our veggies in
Speaker 2: the pan. We definitely want the top quality oil when
Speaker 2: we're using it on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: And indeed that's what we're talking about it. So those
Speaker 1: go to and why it's really important to have a
Speaker 1: strong baseline oil going through the entire Famili's diet for
Speaker 1: these reasons, which brings us to our final look, which
Speaker 1: is specifically not just olive oil, but extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 1: And again, if you're interested in the difference, you can
Speaker 1: listen to our previous podcast which is all about oils,
Speaker 1: and that really summarizes the difference between olive oil and
Speaker 1: then extra virgin olive oil. But the reason that we
Speaker 1: as dieticians particularly like it is it's the highest grade
Speaker 1: of oil. Basically, it's produced a time of harvest, which
Speaker 1: means that the entire olive is used and it retains
Speaker 1: all of those amazing antioxidant contents, so you can't even
Speaker 1: compare in these three the amount of antioxidants in canola
Speaker 1: and cocone oil because basically extravagin olive oil in particular Australian,
Speaker 1: because we have such high standards of processing here, it's
Speaker 1: just through the roof in terms of polyphenal content and
Speaker 1: even vitamin E content, so two really important nutritional factors
Speaker 1: which make it really good quality oil. Even though the
Speaker 1: profile is similar to that of canola oil, if I'm
Speaker 1: having a look, it can range fifty three to eighty
Speaker 1: five percent mono and saturated fat, three to twenty three
Speaker 1: percent pollys and seven to twenty saturates, but it's got
Speaker 1: all those extra benefits of the vitamin E and the
Speaker 1: antioxidants that canola does not have. And the only transfats
Speaker 1: that are there are very very small amounts of naturally occurring,
Speaker 1: so none are produce secondary to processing, which when it
Speaker 1: comes to our health and potential negative health consequences, it's
Speaker 1: only those process transfats that form as a result of
Speaker 1: manufacturing we need to be really concerned about when it
Speaker 1: comes to our health. Try to popular opinion lyan it
Speaker 1: is very heat stable thanks to that protective effect of
Speaker 1: that high antioxidant content. So you would have to be
Speaker 1: cooking at industrial temperatures, which are impossible in a household
Speaker 1: kitchen to ever have issues with a good quality Australian
Speaker 1: extra virgin olive oil. It's just not a factor when
Speaker 1: it comes to cooking. Nothing you would cook at home
Speaker 1: would cause the oil to be damaged and have any
Speaker 1: of those things that people talk about in terms of
Speaker 1: you can't cook with extra virgin olive oil. So it's
Speaker 1: a complete myth as long as you invest in the
Speaker 1: good quality oil that you know has that very high
Speaker 1: antioxidant content.
Speaker 2: And when we talk about the high quality extraversion olive oil,
Speaker 2: I think the reason that it's not refined is because
Speaker 2: it's extracted mechanically straight from the fruit of the olive tree.
Speaker 2: So there's no you know, refining or chemicals used to
Speaker 2: do that. We literally take the olives of the tree
Speaker 2: and press them and that's how we get that top
Speaker 2: you know Australian extraversion olive oil, you know such as Cobra,
Speaker 2: which is a wonderful brand, and that's why it is
Speaker 2: so high in antioxidants. When we look at our comparison chart,
Speaker 2: SUSI the poly female content of extraversion olive oil is
Speaker 2: eighty to one thousand, two hundred parts per million compared
Speaker 2: with our canola and our virgin coconut oil was less
Speaker 2: than ten parts per million. So we're getting eight times
Speaker 2: plus higher amounts of polyphenols and antioxidants in this oil,
Speaker 2: and that's where all of the protective benefits come from
Speaker 2: and all of the wonderful health benefits associated with top
Speaker 2: quality extraversion olive oil. True.
Speaker 1: True, And so we hope that that has made it
Speaker 1: a little bit clearer when it comes to what we're
Speaker 1: looking at the oils in general, because indeed, when you
Speaker 1: go to the supermarket, it's really not that easy to
Speaker 1: see the labels. But as a very brief summary, what
Speaker 1: I would say is we group them according to what
Speaker 1: they're offering positively into the diet. Coconut oil in this
Speaker 1: instance doesn't have any of the antioxidants of the vitamin
Speaker 1: E and heavily saturated vegetable oils across the board, and
Speaker 1: things like canola oil, even though they may have a
Speaker 1: more favorable fatty acid profile, again, they don't offer the
Speaker 1: vitamin E and antioxidant content, and they are heavily processed,
Speaker 1: so they can have some secondary transfats that come and
Speaker 1: then if we're looking at olive oil, we want extra
Speaker 1: virgin olive oil because that's indicative of time of harvest
Speaker 1: and hence a higher antioxidant content which is highly protective
Speaker 1: against the oil. And then you can get all the
Speaker 1: marvelous health benefits that come with including a couple of
Speaker 1: serves of extra virgin olive oil in your diet every
Speaker 1: day for health promotion and natural anti inflammatory effect and
Speaker 1: disease prevention long term. Absolutely so that brings us to
Speaker 1: the end of the Nutrition Couch product review for another week.
Speaker 1: If you haven't already, please subscribe to have us delivered
Speaker 1: into your inbox every Wednesday morning when we look at
Speaker 1: a range of products. We have our social sites running.
Speaker 1: We love to hear from you. We would love your
Speaker 1: feedback on this episode and anything that you're not clear
Speaker 1: on or would like cover it in a future episode
Speaker 1: about oils and fats in our diet, And we will
Speaker 1: see you on Sunday morning for our regular weekly chat.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, catch you guys in the next episode.
Speaker 1: The Bystand