Real Food (23 page)

Unlike other vegetable oils, olive oil requires little processing— and for nutrition and flavor, the less the better.
¹⁸
Olive oil comes in three grades: plain, virgin, and extra-virgin. Virgin and extra-virgin oils are made in the traditional
way with minimal damage to the fruit, which are simply crushed between stones without heat or chemicals. Though labor-intensive,
handpicking and cold-pressing preserve delicate vitamin E and antioxidant polyphenols. According to the definition of the
International Olive Oil Council, extra-virgin oil comes from the first pressing of the fruit, has no defects in taste or smell,
and has acidity of 1 percent or less. Many producers have even higher standards for acidity. When olives are handpicked and
cold-pressed the same day, for example, acidity is lower. The best olive oil is unfiltered to retain all its nutrients and
flavor (it will be cloudy) and bottled in dark glass to shield it from oxidizing light.

Most commercial olive oil is the lowest grade— plain. It is usually labeled
olive oil,
or sometimes, confusingly,
pure
or
100
percent pure
olive oil. For this grade, the olives are picked by machine, which tends to bruise them. Bruised olives ferment and oxidize,
which raises acidity and produces inferior oil.
¹⁹
The olives are pressed repeatedly with heat and subjected to chemical extraction, which diminishes nutrients and flavor.
The base of plain olive oil is "lampante oil," so-called because it was once burned in lamps. Almost inedible in its crude
state, it is either rancid or too acidic and must be refined to make it fit to eat. Treatments include acid washing, degumming,
bleaching, and deodorization to remove foul odors.
²⁰
The refined lampante oil is blended with virgin oil to make plain olive oil palatable.

The more olive oil is refined, the less vitamin E and antioxidants it has, and you can measure the difference: extra-virgin
oil has significantly more polyphenols than lesser grades.
²¹
More polyphenols means better flavor and more health benefits. "High consumption of extra virgin olive oils, which are particularly
rich in these phenolic antioxidants . . . should afford considerable protection against cancer (colon, breast, skin), coronary
heart disease, and ageing by inhibiting oxidative stress," say antioxidant experts.
^22
,
Women who eat olive oil (and fruits and vegetables) significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer, while eating margarine
increases it.
²³

How, exactly, does olive oil fight heart disease and cancer? Oxidized LDL is a cause of heart disease. Polyphenols inhibit
oxidation of LDL, and the more the better.
²⁴
Polyphenols may also stimulate antioxidant enzymes and increase HDL. Another antioxidant in extra-virgin oil, squalene, fights
skin cancer. Still other antioxidants called lignans inhibit cell growth in cancers of the skin, breast, colon, and lung.

To reap all the flavor and health benefits of olive oil, buy the best oil you can afford, ideally extra-virgin, cold-pressed,
and organic. I use extra-virgin oil, even for cooking. When you heat extra-virgin oil, antioxidants counter the damage to
the delicate vitamin E and unsaturated fats. If that's too expensive, use virgin oil for frying and extra-virgin for cold
dressings. Beware of "light" olive oil. It's a marketing gimmick to make you think it has fewer calories. Refined to remove
color and scent, it lacks the flavor and antioxidants of extra-virgin oil. Store olive oil away from heat and light.

Most olive oils, including better-quality brands, are blends of different crops, to ensure consistent flavor and quality,
not unlike wine blended from different grape harvests. The very best olive oils, again like wines, are estate bottled, which
typically means the olives from one harvest were pressed and bottled where they were grown. Fancy estate oils are often seasonal
and usually quite delicious. But for me, at least, they're a rare treat. I use a lot of olive oil, so I watch my budget.

My Opinion of the Minor Vegetable Oils

WHAT OIL is BEST FOR SAUTEING? When I talk with people about fats, this is one of the most common questions they ask me. The
short answer: not polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as corn, safflower, sunflower, and soybean oil. Those fats are too delicate.
When heated, they oxidize and become rancid and carcinogenic. The best cooking fats are mostly saturated, such as butter,
beef, and coconut oil. Second best are the mostly monounsaturated fats, such as lard, macadamia nut oil, and olive oil.

These answers, unfortunately, don't satisfy most people. They might regard olive oil as too expensive for everyday cooking.
Often they're looking for a "neutral" flavor. The bland taste of lard makes it a great platform for flavors sweet and savory—
one reason it's perfect for pie crust. However, it seems that many people are not ready to start frying chicken in lard, even
though good cooks all over the world do just that. Olive oil, butter, and coconut oil do have pronounced flavors. I love the
scent, flavor, and feel of coconut oil, but usually I save it for certain dishes like Sri Lankan fish curry. Coconut oil does
not flatter asparagus or new potatoes.

The goal of a "neutral" flavor is tricky anyway— perhaps even futile. Fats, more than any other food, are aromatic. They not
only
have
flavor but also
carry
flavors on the palate. Having tasted many fats, I've concluded there is no such thing as a flavorless fat. Butter tastes like
cream, olive oil like olives, corn oil like corn. That's why many oils (including avocado, olive, corn, and coconut) are refined,
bleached, or deodorized— to strip them of scent and flavor. The result is a bland fat, to be sure, but with unhappy results,
in every case, for the nutrients in the natural version.

It may be best to forget the quest for a "neutral" flavor. Fats are assertive; for that reason they lend character to whole
cuisines. Middle Eastern dishes call for frying many foods in lamb fat. Most Americans would call that a very strong flavor;
lamb colors all the dishes, in the same way olive oil leaves its mark on the cuisine of Greece, where even desserts are made
with the herbaceous oil. We may regard olive oil as somehow more neutral tasting than lamb fat, so redolent of lanolin, but
that's merely a matter of taste and familiarity.

My advice is to treat fats as you would any other ingredient: choose the feel and the flavor to match the dish. As I've mentioned,
I mostly use butter and olive oil, or a combination, for sauteing and roasting. For certain dishes, like roasted red peppers,
I use only olive oil, and I simply don't worry about the few polyunsaturated fats it contains. But it is true that heating
any unsaturated oil is less than ideal. Sometimes I blanch or steam vegetables and add the olive oil after cooking, which
has the added virtue of showcasing the flavor of relatively expensive extra-virgin oil.

Even after I confess to heating olive oil and reveal my ( unoriginal) olive oil-and-butter blend secret, people still want
to know about neutral vegetable oils for sauteing, frying, and dressing salads. There are many culinary vegetable and nut
oils, from Brazil nut to grapeseed to pecan; you will have to find your favorites. (See the accompanying sidebar for a few
vegetable oils I might use— or wouldn't disapprove of, anyway— other than olive and coconut oil.)

A FEW OTHER VEGETABLE OILS

Acceptable for Cooking

• Macadamia nut oil is about 85 percent monounsaturated, which makes it suitable for cooking, though I prefer it cold. Buttery
and nutty, it has a lovely flavor, but it's not cheap.

• Peanut oil is 46 percent monounsaturated oleic acid, 31 percent polyunsaturated LA, and about 17 percent saturated. Because
it's about 60 percent monounsaturated and saturated, it's fine for cooking, if the flavor suits you. Don't buy hydrogenated
oil.

• Sesame oil is 43 percent polyunsaturated LA, 41 percent monounsaturated, and 15 percent saturated. It's suitable for cooking,
but the flavor is hardly neutral, especially toasted oil. Its unique antioxidants, including sesamin, are
not
destroyed by heat like most antioxidants; they protect the polyunsaturated fats. In Chinese cooking, sesame oil is typically
used cold in salads or added after cooking.

Best Used Cold

• Flaxseed oil comes from linseed. Ground flaxseed has been a traditional food and medicine in the Mediterranean region and
Africa for thousands of years. It's the best plant source of omega-3 ALA (60 percent), which the body uses to make DHA and
EPA. Flaxseed oil has a distinctive herbaceous, woody flavor. A blend of flaxseed and olive oil in vinaigrette is a good way
to slip omega-3 fats to vegetarians and people who don't eat enough fish. ALA is very sensitive to light and heat. Keep flaxseed
oil in the fridge.

• Grapeseed oil is about 70 percent polyunsaturated LA and rich in heat-sensitive vitamin E, which makes it a poor frying
fat. I don't use it, mostly because it's so rich in omega-6 fats, but people like it for its neutral flavor.

• Walnut oil is about 54 percent polyunsaturated LA. It also contains about 12 percent omega-3 ALA. Highly unsaturated, walnut
oil should be cold-pressed, kept cold, and used cold. It has a pronounced, tannic flavor I happen to love, and I use it often
in salad dressing, sometimes with roasted walnuts.

What about the common vegetable oils grown in the American heartland, including corn, safflower, sunflower, and soybean oil?
I don't use, or recommend, any of the modern vegetable oils. They're rich in polyunsaturated omega-6 LA (too delicate for
heat), and most Americans eat far too many omega-6 fats already. They also lower HDL. Fran McCullough has a sensible take
on high-oleic acid sunflower oil in
Good Fat:
"If you desperately need a flavorless oil that's not light [refined] olive oil, this is your best candidate, as long as it's
expeller-pressed (cold-pressed, without high heat), not hydrogenated, and stored carefully. Still, this is a fragile oil with
no particular health benefits beyond its high-oleic additive.
²⁵

Other vegetable oils mentioned here— sesame, peanut, and grapeseed— are also fairly rich in omega-6 LA. That's one reason
I seldom use them, but I also prefer other oils. If you don't eat corn, safflower, sunflower, or soybean oil, a little sesame
or peanut oil, if that's what you prefer for a broccoli stir-fry, won't do any harm.

Coconut Oil Is Good for You

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, coconut oil was common in baked goods, from cookies to crackers. A saturated fat like coconut oil
is ideal for baking because it's stable when heated, remains solid at room temperature (which makes things flaky), and has
a long shelf life. Cookie companies and home bakers alike used it. An 1896 ad for "pure and wholesome cocoanut butter" recommended
it in place of lard and butter and boasted endorsements from chefs and doctors.

By the middle of the twentieth century, coconut had all but disappeared from the American diet. What happened? It was a commercial
battle over what fat would be used in baked goods, and the competitors were domestic vegetable oils and imported tropical
oils, including palm and coconut oil. As the two industries fought for market share, nutrition experts threw the knockout
punch: the idea that saturated fats cause heart disease. Coconut oil imports never recovered.

Today, most commercial baked goods are made with another solid and shelf-stable fat: hydrogenated vegetable oil. That turned
out badly; now we know that trans fats cause heart disease. Meanwhile, coconut oil turns out to be innocent of the cholesterol
charges, with other virtues in the bargain.

The coconut palm tree grows in the tropics and subtropics, including Asia, India, Africa, and Latin America, where the milk,
flesh, and oil of the coconut fruit are used in a variety of dishes, from drinks to soups and sauces. Coconut flesh contains
fiber, fat, vitamins B, C, and E, and calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and potassium. Coconut oil is a folk remedy in many
cultures, from the Philippines to Sri Lanka. Polynesians, who eat coconut and coconut oil every day, call it the "Tree of
Life."

Like all saturated fats, coconut oil is solid at room temperature; it turns soft at about seventy-six degrees Fahrenheit.
The oil is rich (64 percent) in medium-chain saturated fatty acids, which have unusual properties. The main fat (49 percent)
is lauric acid, an antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral fatty acid all but unique to coconut oil and breast milk. Lauric
acid kills fat-coated viruses, including HIV, measles, herpes, influenza, leukemia, hepatitis C, Epstein-Barr, and bacteria,
such as
Listeria,
Helicobacter pylori,
and strep.
²⁶
Monolaurin, an agent the body makes from lauric acid, fights the herpes and cytomegalovirus viruses.
²⁷

The medium-chain fats in coconut oil don't need to be emulsified by bile acids before they are digested, as long-chain polyunsaturated
fats do. Thus the body burns coconut oil more quickly than long-chain polyunsaturated fats like soybean oil, which it tends
to store for later. For this reason, lauric acid is easy to digest, and for decades doctors have fed coconut oil to patients
unable to digest polyunsaturated fats.
²⁸

Medium-chain fats can also aid weight loss. Ultimately, of course, the most important thing is how much energy you consume
and spend, but metabolism is more subtle than that. For example, lean protein has a higher "thermic effect" than fat or carbohydrate;
that means it gives metabolism a boost. Lauric acid has a similar effect. A large number of studies in both animals and people
show that coconut oil, when compared with polyunsaturated fats, enhances weight loss.
²⁹

What about heart disease? In the 1960s, Dr. Ian Prior, director of epidemiology at Wellington Hospital in New Zealand, studied
all twenty-five hundred people on the South Pacific islands Pukapuka and Tokelau. Coconut was the bulk of the diet, appearing
at every meal as a drink, vegetable, dessert, or cooking oil. They ate pork, poultry, seafood, and produce, too, but the striking
thing about their diet is the large amount of fat and saturated fat. On Tokelau, 57 percent of calories came from fat, about
half of it saturated. On Pukapuka, they ate sixty-three grams of saturated fat daily and seven grams of unsaturated fat. Yet
all the islanders were lean and healthy, with no signs of unhealthy cholesterol, atherosclerosis, or heart disease.