The word "vegetable" can be deceiving when you're shopping for cooking oil. In some cases, vegetable oils and plant-based oils offer numerous health benefits. In other instances, they provide little more than saturated fat and additional calories to your meals. To further complicate matters, manufacturers often label products as "vegetable oil" when the oil comes from nuts, seeds, fruits or a combination of oils. If you know what to look for, you can choose healthy fats and limit your intake of other types of fat.
Types of Fat
Food labels contain information about saturated fat and trans fat. Some of them include how much fat comes from monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat, because these are considered the "healthy fats." Saturated and trans fats are the leading causes of high cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats have been shown to reverse high cholesterol and offer other health benefits, which is why they're called healthy or heart-healthy.
Health Debate
The American Heart Association recommends getting less than 30 percent of your daily total calories from fat as a way to control your weight and reduce your risk of heart disease. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, restricting fat intake does little to foster weight loss or improve health. Harvard points out that Americans eat less fat now than they did in the 1960s due to the low fat craze, yet the obesity rate climbed from 13 percent to 34 percent and instances of chronic diet-related disease have dramatically increased. Decreasing saturated fat and increasing heart-healthy fats like those found in some vegetable oils may be a better solution than eating a low-fat or fat-free diet.
What to Look For
Healthy vegetable oils remain liquid at room temperature. When you read the label, you'll be able to check for the types of fats and in what ratio they're present compared to saturated fats. Purchase canola, olive or peanut oil for healthy sources of monounsaturated fat. For polyunsaturated fat, look for flaxseed oil, walnut oil, canola oil and soybean oil. Avoid any vegetable oils containing hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. The hydrogenation process saturates fats. Vegetable oils that contain healthy fats usually contain saturated fat as well, which is why the American Heart Association recommends monitoring your healthy fat intake, too.
Health Benefits
Healthy fats lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. They also help fight certain kinds of cancer, like breast, colon and prostate cancers, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Healthy fats lubricate your joints and help reduce and control inflammation throughout your body. Increased healthy fat intake can help you lose weight when you eat calories from healthy fats in place of calories from processed sugars and carbohydrates. The American Heart Association recommends getting healthy fats from foods, such as vegetable oils, rather than from supplements.
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