>>>Have not checked new stuff, but my take on things was that refined sunflower oil was best for steaks, as it allows high temperature without adding too much of another taste.
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>Yep, that's the smoke point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point Some oils have a smoke point not far above 100C (around 230F) meaning they're denaturing and producing toxins during most cooking while others such as avocado oil have smoke points 270C-300C (530F) as well as other redeeming features such as Vitamin E. Various refined oils have smoke points over 200C but refinement has a question mark in nutrition circles as it usually involves chemicals and bleaches.
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>Interestingly, other oils that can be pressed rather than chemically extracted can have very high smoke points. E.g. good quality pressed olive oil has a smoke point well over 200C without chemicals or refinement processes. There's lots of "extra virgin" olive oil (meaning extracted by pressing only with no chemicals) out there, but it's worth finding and paying more for a boutique version if you can find it since some of those can have smoke points that match avocado.
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>Anyway, the new evidence is that most vegetable oils including the various refined varieties are releasing these aldehydes during cooking. Animal fats and pressed olive oil appears not to release as many aldehydes. In the tests, cooking with some vegetable oils released over 100 times as much aldehyde as the recommended upper limit. Butter, despite a relatively low smoke point, appears to have far lower levels.
Had equated high smoke point with heating being less dangerous with that product line, which seems not to be the case. But I wonder on the data cited in some of the articles since end of august: while analyzing residuals from "actual cooking" clearly is a way to find new risks, not veryfying the levels of aldehydes across MANY products, temperature and duration combinations is suspicious to me - such data should be easy to build and verify. There should be a combination of heat, duration, oil and dish to create finished dish with the least amount of aldehydes - why is there not a line of experiments trying to find the least toxic rumpsteak with 3 or 5 centimeter thickness?
upd: a step in the direction described: P.30 in
http://www.dgfett.de/material/welches_fett.pdf /upd
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>Another issue is Omega 6 vs Omega 3 fatty acids, with mutterings that the high Omega 6 level boasted by some oils is displacing Omega 3 to the detriment of health. Omega 3 tends to be higher in animal fats and Omega 6 higher in the likes of corn oil.
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The sometimes suspected link to Alzheimer would be most frightening to me, but experimental data will be hard to find before I forget the topic ;-)
>The other one to watch is the acrylamides that always seem to be released whenever starchy foods are fried or cooked at high temperature.
Acrylamide creation on frying starchy food was on my radar, but as that is not found on my plate (except for a handful of fried rice/noodle asian style meals, but no pommes frittes or german style baked potatoes, and Kropoek/Krupuk seldom enough as not think about the at least visual similarity to potato chips,which points at least to a similar surface/mass ratio) one area previously without worry.
But you mention cooking as well? Rice and noodles are cooked here at or near boiling point, potatoes even in a pressure cooker, so probably at 110-120 C. Any evidence I should work with them at sous-vide temperatures?
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>Sometimes it seems that everything you eat is a health risk! However, IMHO a rational response in this case is to use pressed avocado oil for frying or cooking at 200C or over and to keep using the good pressed olive oils for salads and dressings. If cost is an issue, butter also works for cooking and usually is cheaper though it pays to inspect the label to ensure it's not processed or mixed with water, oil or anything else. Lard is not the sort of thing you find in supermarkets these days. ;-) Oh, and don't forget the red wine. ;-)
Probably a bit late in game for me, but I will try out avocado (had not seen much data in the articles quick scanned on avocado - any special link I missed?) and coconut/palm oil in the future. Also did not find any data on using non-processed animal fat tissue directly from the butcher vs. those processed small packages made from animal fat. Did you? Any industrial process seems to add even more riscs with quick freezing single products like fish or vegetables as probable exception.
The distinction of oils for salad and frying already in place for a couple of years. Alcohol reduced to a very low level - more afraid of washing out more brain cells than of cardiac trouble ;-)
But I am waiting for the other shoe to drop: some research showing that vegetables done in wok style are actually bad for you, either steam them or stay with meat. There I am after the speed and ease of the process - even if I might throw in a sous-vide prepared slab of meat if working in a pan, as that does not register in the cooking/preparation part on my very personal effort scale.
Another topic to look at in this area might be the pan and hygienic measures used: last century some pans were never really washed, but the remaining fat was left in it for the next session. IMO the best way to create eggs sunny side up, but not really how I want cooking utensils. Teflon and similar coatings I skipped because I do not want to be careful - and that seems to have been a wise decision. But is wiping out a wok as seen in chinese quick food shops good enough to clean up Acrylamides from previous sessions? Always seemed better than the western habit of having a pot of oil to fry in around for 1 or 2 days. Might be an explantion of high toxic residuals when the pan was not cleaned after each session in some households.
upd:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/june/050600acrylamide.htmhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/06/09/when-you-heat-natural-plantbased-foods-you-can-get-acrylamide-and-cancer.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/31/trans-fat-saturated-fat.aspxhttp://www.foodrenegade.com/pressure-cooking-healthy/http://www.vegparadise.com/news37.htmlpoint at least in part to no problem when only cooking and also show it is wise to refrain from toasting (bread, not with wine...)
of course no idea on how trustworthy these sources are and how smart/diligent the authors.
/upd
