Cooking oil

Butter and oils

Any of numerous vegetable oils used in cooking.

Other names

Also called edible oil, or cooking oil, it is fat of plant, animal or microbial origin, which is liquid at room temperature and is suitable for food use.

Coconut oil

Types

Some of the many different kinds of edible vegetable oils include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil.

Cooking with healthier fats and oils

Many other kinds of vegetable oils are also used for cooking. The generic term "vegetable oil" when used to label a cooking oil product refers to a blend of a variety of oils often based on palm, corn, soybean or sunflower oils. Edible oil of animal origin is e.g. fish oil. Microbial oil are also encompassed.

Oils versus fats

Although the words "oils", "fats", and "lipids" are all used to refer to fats, "oils" is usually used to refer to fats that are liquids at normal room temperature, while "fats" is usually used to refer to lipids which are solids at normal room temperature. "Lipids" is used to refer to both liquid and solid fats, along with other related substances.

Olive oil

Hydrogenation or shortening

Shortening is a fat used in food preparation, especially baked goods, and is so called because it promotes a "short" or crumbly texture such as in shortbread. The term "shortening" can be used more broadly to apply to any fat that is used for baking and which is solid at room temperature, such as lard, but as used in recipes it refers to a hydrogenated vegetable oil that is solid at room temperature. Shortening generally has a higher smoke point than butter and margarine, and it may have 100% fat content, compared to about 80% for butter and margarine.

Fortified with vitamins

Vegetable oil is a processed food product that is fortified with vitamin A and vitamin D for food aid purposes.

Commercially available vegetable oils

It consists of refined, bleached, deodorized, filtered, and purified canola (rapeseed), corn, cottonseed, olive (refined), safflower, soybean, sesame, sunflower, or any other vegetable oil or combination of these oils.

Choosing the right cooking oil

When you do use fats and oils, choose those with less saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. Chose those oils that are higher in the healthier ois of monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids.

Cooking oils low in saturated fats

The following cooking oils are ranked based on low to high saturated fat content: canola oil, safflower oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, olive oil, soybean oil, margarine (tub), peanut oil, margarine (stick), cottonseed oil. The ones that are higher in saturated fat are: chicken fat, lard, beef tallow, bacon grease, palm oil, butter, coconut oil etc.

Avoid trans fatty acids

Trans fatty acid (TFA) intake has been convincingly associated with risk of heart disease based on epidemiologic and clinical studies

Sunflower seed oil

Glossary

• Babassu oil -  fatty oil from kernels of babassu nuts similar to coconut oil

• Coconut oil -  oil from coconuts

• Corn oil -  oil from the germs of corn grains

• Cottonseed oil -  edible oil pressed from cottonseeds

• Mustard oil -  oil obtained from mustard seeds and used in making soap

• Olive oil -  oil from olives

• cooking oil -  any of numerous vegetable oils used in cooking

• Peanut oil -  a oil from peanuts; used in cooking and making soap

• Safflower -  thistlelike Eurasian plant widely grown for its red or orange flower heads and seeds that yield a valuable oil

• Safflower oil -  oil from seeds of the safflower plant; oil from safflower seeds used as food as well as in medicines and paints

• Sesame oil -  oil obtained from sesame seeds

• Sunflower oil -  oil from sunflower seeds

• Walnut oil -  oil from walnuts

Also see

• Seed oils

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