Episode 74- Cooking Oils and Fats: Their Health Benefits and Potential Drawbacks
Episode 74 Show Notes
In this episode, I dive into the topic of cooking oils and fats, sharing my expertise on their uses, health benefits, and potential drawbacks. I highlight the importance of selecting high-quality options like olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil while explaining the risks associated with seed oils. I also provide practical advice on how to incorporate these oils into daily cooking and emphasize the nutritional benefits of grass-fed products.
Takeaways:
I break down which oils are best for specific purposes, from cooking to finishing dishes, and highlight the advantages of healthier alternatives over seed oils to support overall well-being.
Chapters
00:00- Exploring Cooking Oils and Fats
07:03- The Benefits of Grass-Fed Products
12:10- Diverse Oils for Different Cooking Needs
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Tiffany Wickes (00:01.358)
Let's talk a little bit about the best cooking oils and fats. Okay. And we're going to discuss when to use them also. So the one most people know about is olive oil. In fact, Scout & Seller has the best olive oil I think ever made. I personally don't cook with it. I sprinkle it over salads. actually put it on my eggs this morning and shockingly, it was really good. It just created a more creamy
effect and since there was already flavor from the turkey and the eggs and the seasoning I put on it and there was spinach in there, it didn't change the flavor at all. Anyway, it's fantastic. All right, so a good quality olive oil A is going to come in a glass bottle. It's going to be single vineyard sourced and it is going to be organic ideally and you wouldn't use it necessarily for frying or
even sauteing, you use it as what's called a finishing oil. So if you use it under heat, it would just be a medium heat, but primarily like vinaigrette, salad dressing, marinades, stuff like that. Because it has a low smoke point, olive oil would not be recommended at very high temperatures, like if you're like roasting, baking or frying something. So the next helpful oil to have in your kitchen is going to be a coconut oil. Again, organic.
This is a high saturated fat content for coconut oil, which makes it really good and for frying, it's good for your cholesterol levels, it promotes heart health. It's also very easily absorbed medium chain fatty acid. has lots of anti-inflammatory properties to it. A lot of people, people meaning me, use it as a lubricant for sex because it's not damaging to the inside of your body at all. And if you've looked at the ingredients on lubricants,
And if you are over the age of 35 or you're breastfeeding, you're probably going to need to lube that thing up before you use it. Just saying. We, you know, we keep it real around here. So, beneficial for gut health, what have you. So get organic when you can, extra virgin if possible. So the smoke point on this one is 350. So it is good for roasting, for baking. you can put it in smoothies and shakes, even coffee. and you can substitute it.
Tiffany Wickes (02:23.448)
for oils or butters, butters using like a one-to-one ratio. So I would, so it's room temperature, at room temperature, it's a solid, right? So you're gonna have to melt it when you bake unless whatever you're putting it in is already warm. But just remember that it can impart this like mild coconut flavor to whatever food you put it in. So if you're using it in Thai cooking, that's probably gonna be awesome for you.
or if you're using it in your coffee or something, that could be good. But if you're putting it on meat, maybe not, unless it's like a Jamaican or like I said, some sort of Thai recipe. All right, the next helpful oil, which I have been consuming a fair amount of these days is MCT oil. So MCT stands for medium chain triglycerides and it's a form of saturated fat from coconut actually, and it's really easily digested.
So MCT oil is not typically used for cooking. could, because it's more expensive and super concentrated. You usually use that as a supplement. So you can put it on salads, again, in smoothies or shakes. I usually put it in my son's shakes in the morning before he goes to school. So like one, if you were to use it in place of coconut oil, it would be about a third less when used as baking. MCT oil kind of adds a greasy quality to recipes.
Like I said, I wouldn't recommend it for cooking. You could, but I have been using it in my coffee. So bringing back bulletproof coffee, or we like throwback from 10 years ago when everyone was all insane about, you know, being primal, paleo, doing the bulletproof coffee. Well, I'm bringing it back over here with my new ketogenic less style. so in the morning, here's what I've been doing. I have half a scoop of my chocolate, equip protein.
I will put the link in the show notes, use code Wickes you get 10 % off, 15, excuse me, 15 % off. And so I put half a scoop of chocolate protein powder in my coffee. And by the way, I've stopped eating dinner around 4.30 or 5. So that by the time I get up in the next morning, I've got a good 12 to 14 hour fast. And then I will break my fast with the coffee. So it's got the half a scoop of protein, it's got a tablespoon of grass-fed butter and a tablespoon of MCT oil, and then a splash of nut pods.
Tiffany Wickes (04:47.022)
And that is a like macro friendly creamer that's non-dairy. So I put that all in a blender, blend it up. And then in the afternoon, I do something very similar. I am loving this you guys. All right, because matcha tea is really good for like anti-cancer properties. I mean, just green tea in general is just really good for your body. So I've been making like a latte with it. So again, same process, except half a teaspoon of organic matcha.
in about eight ounces of water, same thing with the butter, same thing with the MCT oil. And this time I use a half a scoop of Equip Protein's vanilla protein powder. So I'm getting the caffeine. There is a small amount of caffeine in green tea. It's not a ton, but there is a small amount. So blend all that up. And let me tell you, my mental focus has been on point and I'm still getting, you know, trickled amounts of protein throughout the day. So.
Loving that sort of went off on a tangent, but there you go. We can put all that in the show notes for you if you're like, what did she say she used and in what quantity? We'll put that in the show notes for you. Don't worry. I got you boo. I got you. All right. The next oil I think is amazing is avocado oil. So avocado oil has a very mild taste and it doesn't overpower dishes. And in fact, it's so super versatile and it has a super high smoke point. It's like 520 degrees. So you can fry with it if you're pan frying something.
It has a great nutritional value when it's been heated unlike other oils And it gets kind of a pleasant creamy quality to it So I love it and I use that mostly between coconut oil and avocado oil I use those mostly for like pan frying things and ghee, but I'll get to that in just a minute Alright, so there you go grilling roasting frying. You can use it on salads, but I would
say just use a different oil that isn't so pan frying friendly. And although it's very versatile, I mean you would want to avoid over using it because it really is kind of expensive. However, Costco has quality organic avocado oil for a bargain. Alright, so grass-fed butter.
Tiffany Wickes (07:03.32)
The reason you would want to use grass-fed butter over regular butter is because it has a really great omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, and it has some fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamins E and A, plus it also has trace minerals. So get real butter, raw, and definitely sourced from grass-fed organic cows. Smoke point on that's pretty low. have you ever burned some butter in a pan? Yeah, you've burned some butter before. So use it for like,
baking or cooking your eggs. do put that on eggs if you've got pancakes, all the things you would normally use butter for. But for me right now, it's going in my matcha tea and my coffee. All right. So don't cook it over high heat. Don't try and fry with it because you will burn it and then it will be brown and not so yummy. The next one is a close relative to grass-fed butter and that's grass-fed ghee. So ghee is a type of clarified butter and it
simmers it out to bring a natural nutty flavor and it pulls all of the dairy and lactose particles out of it. So it is technically lactose and casein free. So when you're shopping for that, like always look for organic and grass fed. I used to make this very regularly at home and it's so freaking simple. get, depending on your family size, right? We have a lot of people to feed. So I would typically use like four blocks.
which I want to say are eight ounce blocks of grass-fed butter, put it in my slow cooker under high and then let it go. Within five or six hours, the house has the most amazing aroma and you just skim the lactose and casein particles off at the top of it or pour it through a fine mesh sifting device, whether it's handheld or like a nut bag or something, either one will work.
and then sift that stuff out and then pour it in a jar. Done. I mean, it's so simple. I found, like I said, some great stuff at Costco, so I just bought it in the jar already completed, but you can totally do it at home. And it doesn't cost you whole lot, and it's ridiculously simple. And it smells amazing. You just want to lap it up. All right. So, ghee. There you go. Super versatile. You can use it in pretty much any situation. It can be a little bit more...
Tiffany Wickes (09:20.914)
can be a little bit harder to find and it is more expensive unless you get it bulk size at Costco but you can saute veggies in it, meats, you can bake with it, you can use it in place of any butter recipe because it's a one-to-one ratio with actual butter and people who are lactose free like ghee, ghee is going to be your jam. All right another one is grapeseed oil so this is a high in polyunsaturated fats which means it's
not good for high heat cooking, but it is a great source of vitamin E oil. So the smoke point on this one's 420, which is higher than most, but it's great for like salad dressings, dips and stuff. So grape seed oil, used to buy a lot when we were like primal paleo exclusively and not whole foods. However, that's not something I currently have on hand, but might be good to grab it. I mean, I have a lot of other oils. So don't fry with it, but you can roast with it, grill with it, salad with it, all that stuff.
All right, so palm oil is another friend to the coconut. So that's high in saturated fats and it's semi-solid at room temperature. So palm oil can be used as a substitute for frying because it has a relatively high smoke point. 450 is the smoke point in that. What we use it for is I use it as a Crisco supplement. or substitution rather, not a supplement. I don't have Crisco. Or do I? I think my daughter actually bought some, whatever, that's not important.
However, Crisco's trash, throw it away. But I think she bought it one day, not really understanding, not understanding it so well. So palm oil, I use that to like line my baking pans. That's why I use it. So there you go. They do sell it in smaller tubs like Crisco that you can put around your baking tins or your bread pan and it works awesome. All right, so tallow. I am new to tallow. I cannot stand the smell of tallow. However,
I am discovering that it really doesn't impart much of a flavor to it. right, so tallow is made from animal fat, usually beef. It is solid at room temperature. So some can see it as a hybrid of coconut oil and butter. So it's mostly saturated fat and it does contain some monosaturated fats. And it can be used at relatively high temps and it has a mild, like I said, it has a mild flavor. So I discovered, I thought it was going to be like horrendous based off the smell, but it wasn't. So smoke point on that one's 420.
Tiffany Wickes (11:45.454)
You use that for like pan frying, deep frying, roasting meats, etc. It would not be a good option for dressings or baking, especially when you're looking for something that's a light flavor, right? So just stick to like using it for meats. I put it on my veggies the other day and it was fine, but I would going forward, I'll just use it with steak or something.
All right, walnut oil is another one to have on hand. Most people don't. This is a good source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Plus, it has an appealing flavor. So really low smoke point. Again, not something you would use in cooking, per se, but if you add it to your baking with muffins or pancakes, or if you want to take a break from MCT oil and put it into coffee or a smoothie, vinaigrette, dressings, that would all be
amazing. Just keep it out of the heat because brother can't stand it in the kitchen. Alright, so sesame oil is another oil that I use pretty frequently in the kitchen when we're cooking Asian dishes exclusively. I don't use it outside of that because it really does give a particular flavor. And if you know, you're not looking for that flavor profile, and it really is more Asian inspired, then it probably wouldn't be most ideal to use in cooking. So
because we often do cook things like teriyaki and like, what is that? Like a peanut cashew chicken or something, then sesame oil ends up being fantastic for that. But there you go. There are some healthy fats to have on hand. One that I also didn't mention that I have on order is hemp oil. I am definitely learning a lot about hemp right now and the values.
of hemp oil, CBD, THC, just marijuana in general. It is certainly not the villain it has been made out to be. The book I'm listening to right now has been really eye-opening at just how much the government has made this plant into be such a villain that it absolutely, it did no crime. However, it's paying the time. And I think that's a tragedy because it could really help a lot of people.
Tiffany Wickes (13:57.806)
in a lot of capacities. And granted, I think the tides are turning, right? There are plenty of states that have dispensaries, but you've got to jump through an extra hoop of paying money to get a license for it, which is stupid. This is a plant that God created for us to use, but leave it up to government to regulate everything and try to get their cut from anything they possibly can. Same with the drug. Oh my gosh, cut out my brain fart, okay.
Metformin. Same with that drug. So the natural form of metformin is berberdein. Wait, natural form. Like they're all natural form, right? But the pharmaceutical company grabbed ahold of it, renamed it metformin, although it's the exact same plant as berberdein, and then charged three times the amount because they didn't, they were able to concentrate it so much more. Anyway, feel like I could do a whole episode on just FDA drugs and censorship and
All that, but I won't. That's not what this was about. This was about healthy oils to have in your kitchen. So let me know. I would love to hear from you. Do you have any of those oils? Are you confused about what to use with seed oils being a massive like canola oil, sunflower oil being a massive cause of what people like all cause mortality is due in great part to poor diets, nasty, oils in your diet and lack of weightlifting, right?
So I can put an article in here for you in the show notes so you can check out just surging rates of colon cancer due to what most people are starting to believe is over consumption of seed oils. And look, take the seed oil challenge, turn over the package of anything you buy at the store and look at the ingredients. I think you are going to be shocked at how many products you buy that you think are healthy that have organic on the front or green or nature.
that contain multiple different seed oils, you would be absolutely shocked. So take that challenge and you will find just naturally, like if you give a damn about this kind of thing, you're going to find that you will shift more naturally to a whole foods diet bet. All right, follow me on Instagram. If you want to know a whole lot more about fitness, nutrition, mindset, that's where I hang out as well as Facebook. And until next time, my friends, ciao, stay strong.